Roman law in the United States
Roman constitutional history had a practical impact on the American constitutional experience. Because the founders of the American republic were steeped in classical literature, Roman constitutional principles and values illuminated the decision of the framers who drafted the US Constitution of
1787, as did the common law tradition or Protestant theology.
The framing generation emphasized classical ideals of republican government, public honor, and civic responsibility. Both Federalists and Antifederalists often used ancient Roman history and Roman precedents to support their arguments. The ancient theory of the mixed constitution, extensively developed in the Roman experience, came to be manifested in the American structure of separation of powers. Bicameralism in Congress, the idea of checks and balances, and the provision of a vigorous presidency represent some of the US constitutional elements influenced by the Romans. Roman constitutional history is everywhere in the literature of the American Revolution.Roman law, both private and public, constituted a constant reference point, as well as a source of inspiration and systematization, for later distinguished American lawyers and thinkers (James Kent, Josef Story, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Roscoe Pound, among them), especially, although not exclusively, until the First World War (1914-18). The US Supreme Court, however, has used Roman law and Roman legal thought only occasionally, mostly for ornamental purposes and without really furnishing the basis of precedent. Since American law has remained steadily within the English common law tradition, Roman law has been mostly considered a foreign element in the American legal system without practical applications and value.
Originally, American law adopted some aspects of Roman law via English law. William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law of England, one of the most influential treatises in early American jurisprudence, derived its structure from Roman law. This treatise served as a bridge between Roman law and US law since it had prevailed as the principal source for colonial precedent. American law also adopted some aspects of the civil law tradition via Spanish law (Las Partidas) and French law (Napoleonic Code). The example of Louisiana, where state law is still based on civil law, is unique. The reason for this distinction is that Louisiana was a Spanish and French territory prior to its American purchase from France in 1803. In some of the southwestern states, traces of the civil law tradition also remain. California, for instance, has a civil code (first adopted in 1872) based on a civil code that David Dudley Field (1805-94) originally prepared for the state of New York, organized in accordance with the civil law tradition.
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- The supremacy of Union law over the laws of the member states
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- Williamson C.. The laws of the Roman people: public law in the expansion and decline of the Roman Republic. University of Michigan,2005. — 535 p., 2005
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