University of Malta Martina Ebejer LL. B. (Hons) First Year

The Jurist during the Roman Empire:

An important role, that was very essential during the Principate and for the development of Roman Law, was that of the Jurist. The term ‘jurist’ refers to any person who “is skilled in the civil law, or law of nations”¹³, therefore considered as a legal scholar, since they were sought out for their vast knowledge about law. Although the jurists are indulged with knowledge of law, they do not tend to concern themselves as much on legal theories, but this cannot be mistaken as a lack of intelligence on legal aspects. The jurists became well-known during the classical period, which began in the late Republic era and as well as the Principate. Within the classical period, one could note how the jurist had been given various roles and activities to perform, which were very vital when it came to the development of the Roman law.

One of the roles was that the jurist had to “aid in drafting documents”¹⁴ or in Latin ‘cavere’, which in due time decrease in its importance but never ceased to exist during this period. This role came about for the jurist because of the reformation of the Roman economy that was based on agriculture and changed to one that is based on mercantile. Consequently, there was a need for the creations of “new types of transactions”¹⁵, that could have only been provided by a jurist. In addition to this, to this was another role known as the advising “in procedural matters”¹⁶ or in Latin the ‘agere’, in which the jurists seemed to be very active in. The jurists were constantly changing the procedure in order to satisfy each and every demand stemming from the legal aspect. The ‘agere’ together with the ‘respondere’ - that is “responding to the questions of law”¹⁷ - create one of the most important roles played out by a jurist, which is adapting old laws drafted by the jurist’s predecessor, in order to create and draft a new law of his own.

If there had to be any legal controversies, as a result, the jurist can reintroduce an existing law that may be either a “benefit of litigant, praetor or iudex”¹⁸, but this was not always the case. When it came to new situations and cases during the classical era, there was a need for the creation of alternative and novel laws that were brought by the jurists, which in return helped change their society.