Citation law

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The so-called citation law ( Latin lex citationum ) is a from the Western Roman emperor Valentinian III. or his mother, Galla Placidia Augusta , who ruled for him , enacted law of November 7, 426, addressed to the Senate and the people of Rome, in which the courts were instructed to comply with the legal opinions of the five classical lawyers Gaius (around 150), Papinian (around 150–212), Ulpian (around 170–223), Iulius Paulus (late 2nd century / early 3rd century) and Herennius Modestinus (mid 3rd century) to follow. The edict was inserted by the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II in a prominent place (in the first book) of his legal compilation from 438 and was generally binding at the latest by this time.

The creation of citation laws can be seen as the beginning of what is called communis opinio in medieval church law as well as in modern civil law , the so-called ruling opinion . It goes hand in hand with the institutionalization of authorities, whose social recognition is given decisive weighting. The principle was tested for the first time under Emperor Constantine , who passed two laws to remove written legal criticism against Papinian from circulation and to make his collections of expert opinions legally proof.

Gaius worked in the high classical phase, Papinian in the transition period from the high to the late classical period and Paulus, Ulpian and Modestinus were late classics. The “Institutions” written by Gaius laid the foundation for the late antique work Institutiones Iustiniani . Like its role model, it was a work aimed at beginners in teaching. It is contained in the later so-called Corpus iuris civilis .

The citation law was important for court hearings. So it was arranged that in decisions the majority principle should apply among the five lawyers, in the event of a tie, Papinian's view should be decisive. The five lawyers obtained the status of citation lawyers due to the law . The ancient historian Otto Seeck lamented in his story of the fall of the ancient world from 1920 that the law combines "the lack of legal understanding of women with an almost barbaric schematism", and in fact the edict was often used as evidence of the decline of legal culture used in late antiquity. But the law also shows the attempt to increase decision-making itself and the comprehensibility of decisions in court practice. This is supported by the fact that at the end of the Constitution the validity of the Pauline Entities was confirmed, which was probably widespread as a handy legal collection in the 5th century.

The citation law was part of a far more detailed oratio to the Senate of Rome, and to that extent also a comprehensive legal reform. The parts of the codices (Theodosianus and Iustinianus) that are scattered around have, among other things, the priority of law, the binding nature of the legal effect of rescripts and family law regulations in the event of inheritance.

literature

  • Jan Dirk Harke : Roman law. From the classical period to the modern codifications . Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57405-4 ( floor plans of the law ), § 1 no. 17 (p. 13).
  • Detlef Liebs : Court lawyers from the Roman emperors to Justinian. Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, Munich 2010, CH Beck, ISBN 978-3-7696-1654-5 , Papinian .
  • Guido Pfeifer : Structure of the lecture Introduction to Legal History: Roman Law III - The Justinian Legislative Work - The so-called Citation Law of 426 (PDF) .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Kunkel , Martin Schermaier , Römische Rechtsgeschichte (Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 14th revised edition 2005), pp. 201–202; Stewart Irvin Oost, Galla Placidia Augusta. A Biographical Essay (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968), esp. 217-218.
  2. ↑ CTh 1,4,3;
    Theodor Mommsen , Paulus Meyer: Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes . Berlin 1905 (reprint 1954, 1970), online
  3. ^ Fritz Schulz : History of Roman Law , Weimar 1961, pp. 335-420
  4. ↑ Uwe Wesel : History of the law. From the early forms to the present . 3rd revised and expanded edition. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-47543-4 . Marg. 156.
  5. ↑ Detlef Liebs : The jurisprudence in late antique Italy (260-640 AD) (= Freiburg legal-historical treatises. New series, volume 8). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, p. 173.
  6. ↑ Otto Seeck : History of the Fall of the Ancient World , Vol. VI, Berlin 1920, 170, online , quoted here. after Oost 1968, 217 note 35 with further references.
  7. ↑ Kunkel / Schermaier 2005, p. 202; on the Paulussentenzen see Detlef Liebs , The role of the Paulussentenzen in the determination of Roman law, Martin Avenarius (Ed.): Hermeneutik der Quellentexte des Römischen Rechts. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2008, pp. 157–175, (Re) publication: Freiburg “Freidok”: online
  8. ↑ CTh 4.1.1; 5,1,18; 8,13,6; 8.18.9; 8,18,10; 8.19.1; CJ 1,14,1-3; 1.19.7; 1.22.5; 6,30,18; Tony Honoré , Law in the Crisis of Empire 379-455 AD: the Theodosian dynasty and its quaestors: with a palingenesia of laws of the dynasty , Oxford 1998, 249-257; Hagith Sivan, Galla Placidia. The Last Roman Empress, Oxford 2011, 125-126.