THE DEBATE ON THE METHOD OF ROMAN JURISPRUDENCE AND ITS FOUNDER: A SHORT HISTORICAL ESSAY

Abstract

Introduction: the article analyzes a discussion on legal method of Roman law, including the question about the period of time when the method was developed. Purpose: to assess the views presented in the literature on external cultural factors that could influence the development of legal method. The main divergences between the approaches to understanding the Roman legal method are identified and attempts to reconcile them are analyzed. Based on the analysis of ancient juridical and non-juridical sources, the author attempts to determine the historical period when the Roman legal method may have appeared. Results: the analysis of different views showed that rhetoric, logic and intuitive cognition are regarded as the main factors that shaped the legal method of Roman law. However, the study of ancient sources does not give the understanding of a certain time period when it appeared. Conclusions: the different views presented in the literature not so much contradict as supplement each other. Thus, it is be more fruitful to analyze Roman law sources taking into account different approaches. It is not possible to determine a certain historical period when the legal method appeared. Due to the lack of sufficient information in the sources, it is also hardly possible to attribute the emergence of the method to a certain Roman jurist whose treatises would demonstrate a methodology of legal studies developed at that time. It appears to be more reasonable to reconstruct the external circumstances, the cultural environment for each individual period in the history of Roman jurisprudence.