The Creation of the Ius Commune - (Edinburgh Studies in Law) by John W Cairns & Paul J Du Plessis (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book surveys the traditional classifications of private law to establish the cognitive techniques used by medieval Italian and French jurists to transform Roman law into the ius commune of Western Europe.

Book Synopsis

This book discusses in detail how medieval scholars reacted to the casuistic discussions in the inherited Roman texts, particularly the Digest of Justinian. It shows how they developed medieval Roman law into a system of rules that formed a universal common law for Western Europe. Because there has been little research published in English beyond grand narratives on the history of law in Europe, this book fills an important gap in the literature.
With a focus on how the medieval Roman lawyers systematised the Roman sources through detailed discussions of specific areas of law, it considers: the sources of medieval law and how to access them; the development from cases to rules; medieval lawyers' strategies for citing each other and their significance; and growth of a conceptual approach to the study of law.

From the Back Cover

This book is concerned with the transformation of Roman legal rules into the 'common law' of Western Europe in the period 1100-1400. In the space of three centuries these rules, collected in the sixth-century compilation produced by order of the Emperor Justinian, were comprehensively analysed and transformed by successive generations of medieval Italian and French jurists into the bedrock of Western European law. Through a series of chapters, a number of distinguished scholars survey the traditional classifications of private law to establish the cognitive techniques used by these jurists to transform Roman law into the ius commune of Western Europe. John W. Cairns is Professor of Legal History, Edinburgh University. Paul J. du Plessis is Lecturer in Law, Edinburgh University.

About the Author

John W. Cairns is Professor of Legal History at the University of Edinburgh Paul J. du Plessis is Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh