Roman, French and United Kingdom Law

ROMAN LAW
I. 12 Tables
The code of the Roman Law. It was written between 451 and 450 B.C., and took as a source the oral existing
Law in that moment. The authors were 10 justices called decenviros, and they registered on tables of bronze
or wood that was placed in the principal Roman forum. It seems to be that the Law of Twelve Tables was
established to appease the claims of the plebeian ones, which were supporting that his freedoms were not
protected from suitable form by the Statute law, at least such and since the patrician judges were applying it.
In the first original version, there were made ten tables, two were added more to the following year. Some and
others were destroyed during the plunder of Rome by the Gauls in 390, but the posterior Latin literature has
allowed that we should know some of these laws. Twelve Tables were including the different disciplines of
the Law, with incorporation of the punishments foreseen for some infractions. This law suffered numerous
reforms, but it managed to have a force closely of 1000 years.
The real importance of the laws or Law of the Tables XII resides in that this codification constitutes the
conclusion of the process of consolidation of the civil Roman State, of the civitas. For work it divides, up to
the draft of this legal code, the right in Rome had had a sacred character in reason of his own customary
character and for had been tied to the monarchy and to the college of the Pontiffs, principally. According to
the tradition, the king Numa Pompilio would have been the first monarch in providing to the incipient Roman
State of a series of juridical dispositions, the calls leges regiae. Later, after the fall of the monarchy, the
application of this common law passed to be a patrimony of a small patrician sector, fundamentally of the
College of the Pontiffs who were controlling the juridical dispositions written in the pontifical books, maybe
not thereby so arbitrary as some historians support, but with the disadvantage of not being known by the
plebeian ones. The initial resistance of a great number of patrician becomes detached so much of the events
that the ancient sources us transmit like of the own content of the laws. Titus Livio says to us that still in the
year 390 B.C. the pontiffs were opposed to this code and after the fire of Rome caused by the Gauls − in
which 12 plates of laws would have been destroyed − the pontiffs did everything possible in order that some
of these laws were not written again.
The laws of the Tables XII are extremely hard with the insolvent debtors. There are besides, some procedure
that regulates the economic life, fundamentally relative to the commercial agreements, and others that regulate
situations of diverse character as the prohibition of burying the dead men inside the city, the inheritance of the
goods of the pater families or of the intestate freedman, the application of fines before cases of damages or
defamation, etc. As a whole, the laws of the Tables XII present a few features of the Roman society of this
epoch. First, the social stratification demonstrated in the difference of the estates patrician and plebeian.
Certainly, the promulgation of these laws did not solve the tensions and clashes between patrician and
plebeian, but the existence of a written, accessible and valid legislation for all, favored undoubtedly the
collaboration between both orders and helped to reinforce definitively the structures of the city been.
II. Corpus Juris Civilis
It is the set of the legislative reforms of Justiniano in his last state. It dates back of the VIth century of the age
christens. Understands four fundamental parts: a) the code; b) the digest; c) the institutions, which it is an
elementary agreement of right, and D) the novels, The Corpus juris civilis can be considered from two points
of view: as source of the straight of Justiniano and as summary of juridical materials, in his classic epoch.
FRENCH LAW
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I. Napolenic Code
The Napoleonic Code was implanted in all the States created by this Emperor, it continues being the base of
the French legislation and of other states, and both the administrative system and the judicial one are
essentially the same ones that were restored during his mandate; equally there is kept the educational system
regulated by the State. The feudalism and the servitude were abolished and there was established the freedom
of worship (except in Spain). A constitution was granted to every State: that was granting the universal
masculine suffrage and a bill of rights and the creation of a parliament; there was restored the administrative
and judicial French system; the schools remained subordinated to a centralized administration and there was
extended the educational free system so that any citizen could accede to the secondary education without his
social class or religion was born in mind. Every State was having an academy or institute destined for the
promotion of the arts and the sciences, at the time that the work of the investigators was financed, principally
that of the scientists. The creation of constitutional governments continued being only a promise, but the
progress and efficiency of the management real achievement. Regarding his content, the Civil Code was an
eclectic text that was assembling beginning of the Revolution − spirit of equality and freedom of the citizens,
abolition of the feudal regime, free access to the property and application of the individualism as base of the
right−, rules of the Roman law and procedure of the former regime.
Bonaparte took part actively in 36 of 84 discussions that were kept between1800 and 1804 to realize it. When
his definitive compendium appeared, he exclaimed: " I Have closed the chasm of the anarchy, I have arranged
the chaos; I have purified the Revolution ". For the first time the right passed to be founded exclusively on lay
and rational and not religious bases. For his effort collector, Napoleon's Code was adopted by his enemies.
UNITED KINGDOM LAW
I. Common Law
The common right is the result of a process of historical − political evolution, related directly to the
development of the British society. The common right managed to develop as a group of procedure based on
previous cases, previous decisions, not by means of the development of written procedure approved by means
of a legislative state process, since it is typical in the systems of Roman tradition. Tthe birth of the common
right with the invasion of the England villages by the normands in the year 1066 A.C due to the introduction
of important changes in the juridical field.
Before the Norman invasion, the legal processes were loaded with formalisms and divine aspects. There
existed three ways of solving conflicts that turn out to be interesting of mentioning.
• Compurgation: This procedure was consisting of the formal interrogation of several witnesses who had to
repeat their testimony of a perfect way and in front of the judge, if the witnesses were wrong, a verdict of
guilt was dictated. This process was turning out to be completely formalist, in which the facts were not
analyzed. The operator of the process only was verifying the fulfillment of the rules of the procedure.
• God's Judgment: This one was a public process. Again the operator of the process only was verifying the
fulfillment of the rules of the process. The final result of the process would depend on the form in which the
defendant or defendant was answering to a torture of the judge. The foundation was taking root in that the
wounds would be cured by God if the defendant was turning out to be innocent.
• Judgment in Battle: In this case, the process was limiting itself to a battle with horses and axes, the God's
will be expressed by means of the force given for in the field of battle. By this way it would be achieved to
determine the innocence of the subject.
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