The reception of Roman law in the Romano-Germanic legal family rights: the case of French law

Abstract

The Romano-Germanic family of legal systems, also known as the family of civil law, comprehends the group of legal systems that traditionally trace their roots up to the Roman law and the Justinian codifications, and that identify themselves as heirs of several of its characteristics. This paper analyses the example of French law, in order to draw on the permanence of Roman law in the contemporary legal systems of the Romano-Germanic family of rights and to show that its reception in those legal systems takes place in two different levels, namely the reception of law and the reception of the legal science, which correspond respectively to the permanence of contents of Roman law and to the permanence of the logical categories and modes of articulation of Roman law. In order to illustrate the process through which that permanence takes place, we first show the plurality of interactions between Roman law and the law existing in the current French territory, and the evolution of that law. After, we draw on the reception of Roman law by contemporary legal systems and on the discussions regarding how that influence can be identified and over which elements of law it is particularly present. Based on that, we distinguish the reception of the legal science from the reception of law, and insist, that although specific contents of Roman law often cannot be identified in contemporary legal systems of the Romano-Germanic family, their structures and operatory modes are tributary to Roman law.