Biographies of Roman lawyers

The history of political and legal teachings - the history of political and legal teachings in ancient Rome was the right to initially be the matter of the pontiffs, one of the colleges of the priests. Every year, one of the pontiffs told private individuals the position of college on legal issues. Near G., the beginning of secular jurisprudence, according to legend, is associated with the name of Gnei Flavius.

In the city at the beginning of the II century. In the middle of the II century. Moreover, lawyers formalized their opinion on the case in the form of a written appeal to judges or in the form of a protocol, which contained an oral consultation and was put under witnesses. Such a pre-considing and often right -izing interpretation of lawyers was motivated by the search for such a formulation of the order that a fair legislator himself would give in the changed conditions.

The verbal activity of lawyers ensured the relationship of various sources of Roman law and contributed to a combination of stability and flexibility in its further development and update. Already the first emperors sought to enlist the support of influential jurisprudence and, if possible, subordinate it to their interests. From the second half of the III century.

True, the provisions of lawyers of the classical period retained their authority in the new conditions. With the special law of Valentinian III, under the contradictions between their opinions, the dispute was decided by the majority, and if this was impossible, then Papinian's opinion was given preference. He led all this great codification work, including the preparation of Digest, an outstanding lawyer of the VI V.

Hence the well -known saying “Any definition is dangerous”, which is going to the position of a lawyer! At the same time, Ulpian noted that, in turn, "private law is divided into three parts, for it is compiled from natural requirements, from the requirements of peoples, or the requirements of civilians." Thus, the right of peoples among Ulpian appears as part of the natural law, and the difference between them is drawn not on the merits, not by their properties and qualities, but in the circle of subjects that fall under their action all living creatures or only people.

Hence, in particular, it is clear that in human society institutions such as marriage, raising children, etc. This is the case according to the views of lawyer Guy. In another sense, “law” is that which is useful to everyone or many in any state, what is civilian law. In accordance with this, he defined jurisprudence as "the knowledge of divine and human affairs, knowledge of fair and unfair." It is significant in this regard, in particular, the following position of Paul: “It is said that the praetor expresses the right, even if he decides unjustly: this word does not apply to what the praetor did, but to what he had to do.” The acts of the emperor are also in accordance with Ulpian.

Many of the lawyers were trusted advisers under the emperors and held high positions in the state.

A little earlier, in the city of Karakalla, having killed his brother Get, he demanded from the famous lawyer the justification of his actions. Roman lawyers paid the main attention to the development of private law problems, and above all, civil law. As a source of “addition and correction of civil law”, he characterizes Praetor law. Of particular care is their coverage of property relations from the standpoint of protecting the interests of the private owner.

Ulpian gives the same division, adding that it arose by the right of the peoples, since "by natural law, everyone is born free." The right of peoples contained a number of norms of international legal nature by the term “international law” among the Romans. According to the law of the peoples, the sea is "common to all." The enemy in the unnecessary war is “robbers or robbers”.

All transactions with enemies were prohibited. The enemy captured by the Romans lost his legal capacity and became a slave. The work of Roman lawyers had a great influence on the subsequent development of legal thought.