Table Of ContentATreatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence
Volume 7
The Jurists’ Philosophy of Law from Rome to the Seventeenth Century
ATreatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence
Editor-in-Chief
Enrico Pattaro, CIRSFID and Law Faculty, University of Bologna, Italy
Advisory Board
Norberto Bobbio †
Ronald M. Dworkin, School of Law, New York University, USAand
Faculty of Law, University College London, UK
Lawrence M. Friedman, Stanford Law School, Stanford University, USA
Knud Haakonssen, Department of History, University of Sussex, UK
Associate Editors
Gerald J. Postema, Department of Philosophy, The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Peter G. Stein, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, UK
Assistant Editor
Antonino Rotolo, CIRSFID and Law Faculty, University of Bologna, Italy
ATreatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence
Volume 7
The Jurists’ Philosophy of Law from
Rome to the Seventeenth Century
edited by
Andrea Padovani
CIRSFID and Law Faculty, University of Bologna, Italy
and
Peter G. Stein
Law Faculty, University of Cambridge, UK
with contributions by
Andrea Errera, Andrea Padovani, Kenneth Pennington, and Peter G. Stein
AC.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
7 Volume Set:
ISBN-10 1-4020-4950-1 (HB)
ISBN-10 1-4020-4951-X (e-book)
ISBN-13 978-1-4020-4950-7 (HB)
ISBN-13 978-1-4020-4951-4 (e-book)
Published by Springer,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AADordrecht, The Netherlands.
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 2007 Springer
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording
or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception
of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered
and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
TABLTEAB LOE OFF CCOONTNENTTES NTS V
A Note on the Authors IX
Preface XI
Abbreviations XIX
Chapter 1 - The Roman Jurists’ Conception of Law
(by Peter G. Stein) 1
1.1. Introduction 1
1.2. Legal Procedure 2
1.3. The Rise of the Jurists 4
1.4. The Arrival of Legal Theory 5
1.5. Jurist-law 7
1.6. The Ius gentium 7
1.7. Equity from Ius honorarium to the Postclassical Age 8
1.8. The Proculians and the Sabinians 11
1.9. Unwritten Law 13
1.10. Elegance in Language and Law 16
1.11. The Aesthetics of Juristic Reasoning 19
1.12. The Institutional Scheme 22
1.13. The Digest Title, De diversis regulis iuris antiqui,
and the General Principles of Law 25
1.14. The Historical Formation of Regulae iuris 27
1.15. Conclusion 29
Chapter 2 - The Metaphysical Thought of Late Medieval
Jurisprudence
(by Andrea Padovani) 31
2.1. Foreword 31
2.1.1. Why Metaphysics? 31
2.2. The Objects of Jurisprudence 36
2.2.1. Being and Essence. The Concept of Substance 36
2.2.2. The Concept of Substance in Jurisprudence.
Acts of Ethical Relevance 40
2.2.3. The Different Substantiality of Human Acts
and Natural Things 44
VI TREATISE, 7 - FROM ROME TO THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
2.2.4. The “Iura” Are Incorporeal Things and Secondary
Substances 47
2.2.5. The “Iura” Are Products of the Imagination.
The Mathematical Paradigm 51
2.2.6. The Scientific Nature of Jurisprudence 53
2.2.7. Jurisprudence Is a Theoretical as well as a Practical
Science. The “Debate of the Arts” 56
2.2.8. The Knowledge of the Primary Principles and the
Hierarchy of the Sciences 58
2.3. Theology and Law 61
2.3.1. Greek Logos and Christian Logos 61
2.3.2. Equity and Justice, Names of God. The Influence of
St. Augustine 63
2.3.3. From Equity in General to the Juridical Norm.
The Influence of Iohannes Eriugena 65
2.3.4. The Abandonment of Meta-Juridical Analysis
after Accursius 66
2.3.5. The Doctrine of the Ideas of God. A Neo-Platonic
Residue Indispensable to Medieval Philosophy 67
2.3.6. The “Iura” Are Encompassed in the Divine Word 69
2.3.7. Reasons for the Criticism of Plato 70
2.3.8. The Archetypes of the “Iura” Are in God 72
2.3.9. Perpetuity of the “Iura”: The Impact of the Book
on Causes 73
2.3.10.Traces of Averroism? 75
2.3.11.Conclusion 77
Chapter 3 - The Role of Logic in the Legal Science of the
Glossators and Commentators. Distinction, Dialectical Syllogism,
and Apodictic Syllogism: An Investigation into the
Epistemological Roots of Legal Science in the Late Middle Ages
(by Andrea Errera) 79
3.1. The First Half of the 12th Century: The Logica vetus and
Recourse to the Distinctio 79
3.1.1. The Logic and School of the Glossators 79
3.1.2. The Dichotomous Technique 81
3.1.3. Knowledge of Distinctio in the Context of the Logica
vetus: Porphyry’s Isagoge 84
3.1.4. The Epistemological Relevance of Distinctio at the Time
of the Logica vetus 87
3.1.5. The Role of Distinctio in the Field of Legal Science 89
TABLE OF CONTENTS VII
3.1.6. The Highpoint of the Doctrinal Development of
Distinctio at the Glossators’ School: The “Tree” of
Subdistinctiones 92
3.1.7. The Eminent Role of Distinctio in the Formulation of
Doctrine in the Early Decades of the Glossators’ School:
The Quaestiones legitimae 93
3.2. The Advent of the Logica nova in the Second Half of the
12th Century and the Evolution of the Quaestio Works 97
3.2.1. The Rediscovery of Aristotle’s Works on Logic and the
Birth of the Logica nova 97
3.2.2. The Syllogistic Method 101
3.2.3. The Legal Application of Syllogism in the Glossators’
School and the Quaestio de facto 105
3.2.4. The Inferential Mechanism of the Quaestio de facto 107
3.2.5. The Role of the Loci loicales per leges probati 110
3.2.6. The Dialectical Nature of the Syllogism Contained
in the Quaestio de facto and the Merely Probable Value
of the Solutio 113
3.2.7. The Syllogistic Method as a Doctrinal Tool in the
Construction of a Juridical System Based on the
Hermeneutic Extension of the Ius commune 117
3.3. The Establishment in the 13th Century of an Aristotelian
Epistemology Based on Posterior Analytics and the Birth
of the Commentators’ School 119
3.3.1. Translations of Posterior Analytics in the Second Half
of the 12th Century 119
3.3.2. The Re-exhumation of Aristotelian Epistemology 122
3.3.3. The General Adoption of the New Epistemology
and the Identification of the Principia propria of the
Individual Sciences 127
3.3.4. The Birth of the Commentators’ School 136
3.3.5. The Establishment of the Commentators’ School in Italy 142
3.3.6. Legal Principia, Word Lists, Consilia, and the Evolution
of the Doctrine of the Ius commune in the School
at Bologna 149
3.3.7. The Crisis in Aristotelian Epistemology and in Legal
Science Based on Syllogism 151
Chapter 4 - Politics in Western Jurisprudence
(by Kenneth Pennington) 157
4.1. The Jurisprudence of Sovereignty in the Twelfth
and Thirteenth Centuries 158
VIII TREATISE, 7 - FROM ROME TO THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
4.2. The Importance of Feudal Law for Political Institutions
in Medieval Society 172
4.3. The Jurisprudence of Secular and Ecclesiastical Institutions 181
4.4. The Jurists’ Role in Shaping the Political Thought from
1250 to 1500 190
4.5. Law and Political Thought 1500–1700 204
Bibliography 213
Index of Subjects 241
Index of Names 251
A NOTAE NO OTEN ON T THHEE AU ATHUORTSHORS IX
ANDREA PADOVANI was born in Imola, Italy, in 1947. He graduated in
law at the University of Bologna under the supervision of the late Prof. Guido
Rossi. He was at La Sapienza University from 1974 to 1986, serving as re-
search assistant at the Law Faculty’s Institute for the History of Law, directed
by Profs. Bruno Paradisi and Vincenzo Piano Mortari. He studied with Prof.
Stephan Kuttner in 1978 and 1979, receiving a research grant for the Vatican
Project at the Robbins Collection, Boalt Hall, Berkeley, California. In 1980 he
was Mitarbeiter at the Max-Planck Institute für Europäische Rechtsgeschi-
chte, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, directed by Prof. Helmut Coing. He be-
came associate professor in 1985, and then full professor in 1986, at the Uni-
versity of Parma. In 1998 the University of Bologna awarded him the chair in
the history of Italian law. His major publications include eleven monographs;
among them, Perché chiedi il mio nome? Dio, natura e diritto nel secolo XII
(Turin, Giappichelli, 1997); L’archivio di Odofredo, vol. 1 (Spoleto, Centro Ita-
liano sull’Alto Medioevo, 1992); Scientia Iuris: Introduzione al pensiero giuri-
dico medievale, vol. 1 (Parma, Casanova, 1989); and Studi storici sulla dottrina
delle sostituzioni (Milan, Giuffrè, 1983).
PETER G. STEIN is Emeritus Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University
of Cambridge. He is the author of Regulae Iuris: From Juristic Rules to Legal
Maxims (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1966); (with John Shand)
Legal Values in Western Society (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press,
1974) (Italian ed. 1981, Chinese ed. 2004); Legal Evolution: The Story of an
Idea (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1980) (Japanese ed. 1987); Le-
gal Institutions: The Development of Dispute Settlement (London, Butterworth,
1984; Italian ed. 1987); The Character and Influence of the Roman Civil Law:
Historical Essays (London, Hambledon Press, 1988); (with F. de Zulueta) The
Teaching of Roman Law in England around 1200 (London, Selden Soc., 1990);
Roman Law in European History (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1999; German trans. 1996; Spanish ed. 2001; Italian ed. 2001; Japanese ed.
2003; Hungarian ed. 2005). He is an honorary Queen’s Counsel, a Fellow of
the British Academy, and a foreign Fellow of the Italian National Academy
(Lincei) and the Royal Belgian Academy and has received honorary doctorates
from the universities of Göttingen, Ferrara, Aberdeen, Perugia, and Paris II.
ANDREA ERRERA is Professor of History of Medieval and Modern Law at
Magna Graecia University in Catanzaro. Among his works are Arbor actio-
X TREATISE, 7 - FROM ROME TO THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
num: Genere letterario e forma di classificazione delle azioni nella dottrina dei
Glossatori (Bologna, Monduzzi Editore, 1995); Processus in causa Fidei: L’evo-
luzione dei manuali inquisitoriali nei secoli XVI–XVIII e il manuale inedito di
un inquisitore perugino (Bologna, Monduzzi Editore, 2000); and Il concetto di
scientia iuris dal XII al XIV secolo: Il ruolo della logica platonica e aristotelica
nelle scuole giuridiche medievali (Milan, Giuffrè, 2003). He is also Professor at
LUISS University and at Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas
(“Angelicum”) in Rome.
KENNETH PENNINGTON is the Kelly-Quinn Professor of Ecclesiastical
and Legal History at the Catholic University of America. He teaches and pub-
lishes in the areas of ancient, medieval, and early modern legal history; the
history of constitutional thought; political theory; church history; history of
the papacy; history of universities; and paleography. His publications include
Popes, Canonists, and Texts, 1150–1550 (Aldershot, Variorum, 1993) and The
Prince and the Law, 1200–1600: Sovereignty and Rights in the Western Legal
Tradition (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1993) as well as other
books and articles. He codirects the International School of the Ius Commune
every October in Erice, Sicily. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the Medieval
Academy of America. He also serves on the board of the Monumenta
Germaniae Historica, the Stephan Kuttner Institute of Medieval Canon Law
in Munich, and the Istituto per le Scienze Religiose, Bologna. He is the editor
of the Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law and serves on the editorial boards of
several journals, including the Rivista internazionale di diritto comune and Fo-
lia canonica.
