jus civile
Meaning. The civil law of ancient Rome, applicable only to Roman citizens.
In Roman law, jus civile was the law peculiar to the city of Rome and binding only on its citizens: formal, rigid and rooted in the Twelve Tables and later legislation. As Rome traded and expanded, a more flexible body of rules, the jus gentium, developed for dealings with and between foreigners, and the praetors’ edicts gradually softened the civil law.
In modern usage “civil law” also refers to the codified legal systems of continental Europe descended from Roman law, as distinct from the common law of England. Do not confuse either meaning with “civil” as opposed to “criminal”.
Example
The rigid formalism of the jus civile led the Roman praetor to develop rules of jus gentium for foreign traders.
See also
jus gentium · natural law · jurisprudence
Read more in the study notes
- The natural law school (Jurisprudence)
- Natural law from the Greeks to Kant (Legal Theory)
- Rome, the Church and St. Thomas Aquinas (Political Science - Theory and Thoughts)