4. THE ROLE OF JURISPRUDENCE
The decisive factor causing this rhythm of legal development in Europe was, we can say, nothing but the legal science born by jurists. In the history of Roman law, the early jus strictum era was developed to the later jus aequum era by the jurists who employed the concepts of jus naturale and jus gentium.
The former Roman law, which had contained some characteristics of primitive law, was developed step by step into the classical Roman law which formed a more advanced, mature legal system suitable to the great Roman Empire. This was possible solely because the efforts of the jurists led to the birth of a systematized jurisprudence, bequeathed later to the world as a great cultural heritage. After the introduction of Greek moral concepts such as humanitas and bona fide into the Roman law, Roman law was developed to a rational, flexible legal system consistent with the sense of social morality of the era. At the same time, however, jurists and legal science began to search for further details and certainty of the law. The inclination went so far as to finally cause the legal system to become rigid, thus returning to the era of jus strieturn.A similar role of jurists and legal science could be found in later eras, as clearly observed in the Common Law System, where the legal profession acted as the agent of change in a similar way. The English legal profession at the Bar developed common law, making it an advanced and mature legal system suitable for the Empire under diverse circumstances. Then, through their search for further details and certainty of the law, the English legal profession led the common law into the era of jus strictum; common law became inflexible and unresponsive to the need of the society. As a result, equity had to be invented, through the Court of Chancery, to cure the rigidity and unresponsiveness of the common law. The invention of equity in England was also one of the great works of the legal profession.
To sum up, it cannot be denied that the important driving force of legal development was the jurist whose intellectual ability devised the glorious academic discipline called jurisprudence. Any analysis of the historical development of law that disregards the vital role of jurisprudence would never be able to give an adequate account of the subject under consideration. The analysis of legal reception which makes the same mistake would be sure to fall into the same failure.