scholarly journals Illogicality and Roman Law

1972 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Watson

It is a commonplace that Rome's greatest contribution to the modern world is its law. Whether this is strictly true or not, Roman law is certainly the basis of the law of Western Europe (with the exception of England and Scandinavia), of much of Africa including South Africa, Ethiopia and in general the former colonies of countries in continental Europe, of Quebec and Louisiana, of Japan and Ceylon and so on. Perhaps even more important for the future is that International law is very largely modelled, by analogy, on Roman law. Just think of the perfectly serious arguments of a few years ago as to whether outer space (including the moon and planets) were res nullius or res communes and whether they were, or were not, susceptible of acquisition by occupatio. This persistence of Roman law has had undesirable consequences. First, Roman law as an academic subject has got into the hands of lawyers whose love of technicalities has frightened off classical scholars who tend not to use the legal sources. Secondly, scholars of antiquity, since Roman law is left well alone, have also been reluctant to look at other ancient legal systems. So have lawyers since these other systems have no ‘practical” value. Thirdly, following upon these but worse still, the usefulness of Roman law for later ages, coupled with its enforced isolation from other systems of antiquity, has often led to an exaggerated respect for it, and to its being regarded as well-nigh perfect, immutable, fit for all people. Many in “the Age of Reason” were ready to regard Roman law as “the Law of Reason”.

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (20) ◽  
pp. 119-127
Author(s):  
Daria Bulgakova

As space tourism-related technology breakthrough, the outlook of mining activities having in space moves spacious to be a fact but it should develop in consent with international law, because the issue of space is a deal of international pointing, since space pointing as explorer zone by humanity. The significant guiding instruments in international space law in relating to the space tourism industry are Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, that entered into force on 10 October 1967; Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, entered into force on 11 July 1984. These international treaties mainly condition the states the freedom to explore and using space, but at the same time do not consider the national appropriation of it. The work also proposes European legislation that is applicable to space tourism. The main attention is given to the Treaty of Lisbon. But during the studying, the author proposed the opinion that it can’t be acceptable to space tourism, since it does not directly or even indirectly indicate it. Although it may be applied as such, due to the lack of appropriate specific acts in the field of space travel. However, this act is recommended as a fundamental basis for the further international development of the law on space tourism, as it directly deals with space activities, so it can serve as a guide. The study also doesn’t lose sight of US law, since space tourism increase by US entities through activities with travel destination for the mass. Research shows that US has national law instrument for US enforcement in the space sphere, besides grants property rights to companies to conduct actions on own risks in space with traveler issue as well and opening it to the mass. Thus interprets the freedom enshrined in the UN space acts at its own expense. However, Outer Space Treaty is not consistent in light of the freedom issue in exploration and it interprets liberty broadly, but the interdiction narrowly. Due to that, research reaches that current space-related legislation regime would let for a space journey to develop but not in the path the text of former domestic laws proposes. Attention is also drawn to the social meaning consideration for further law implementation. This research examines the emerging role of social data in the context of highlighting the law necessary to provide properly advanced international legal acts on flights to space with tourists on a spacecraft. Since space tourism may affect international law. The findings indicate that social awareness due to geographical indicators could improve the current situation in the legal regulation of space tourism at risk of international law gap. What is now needed is a cross-national international law study involving law researchers on the space tourism issue. An implication of these findings is that both social position and space flights with traveler purpose should be taken into account when the international lawmaker community able to implement legal acts about understanding issues on entitlement and | or restriction of space activity as space journey. The unborn looking enterprises concerned with mining outer space goods are working on protracted timelines on focus with society’s modern needs. The major point of this article is the explanation of the ban on national allocation, as only being a veto on state appropriation. Under the presumption that exegesis would be a violation of the sense society needs, not states as along. In folding on their own the arrangements to dominate objects beyond the competency of any single state, the US is obtaining a step back out of the international community. This will not be an advantage for the interests of nations though. But nevertheless, the author explains this by the fact that such a national privilege is associated with the direct growth of private activity, which required regulation because at the international level there is no adoption of any specific acts in this area. In order for space tourism to open-up effect, for commercial companies necessary the potential to gain reasonable benefits and a stable legal setting [1]. Substitute option to the unilateral implementation of a legal base, and one that would sustain law confidence both domestically and internationally, is the modernization of an international regime for the stewardship of space excavation functioning as transmitted in Article 11 of the Moon Agreement. International law does not aid the unilateral provision of rights to conduct over outer space by states in an individual way, or through a private corporation and should be accordingly to interpretations of the UN Space Acts disregard the common heritage of mankind. Such would have the prospect to ensure space tourism doesn’t fairly bring individual profits, but betters of humanity. Keywords: international law, space tourism, outer of space, commercialization of space, private space flights, International Treaty.


2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Raffaele Caterina

“A system of private ownership must provide for something more sophisticated than absolute ownership of the property by one person. A property owner needs to be able to do more than own it during his lifetime and pass it on to someone else on his death.”1 Those who own things with a long life quite naturally feel the urge to deal in segments of time. Most of the owner's ambitions in respect of time can be met by the law of contract. But contract does not offer a complete solution, since contracts create only personal rights. Certain of the owner's legitimate wishes can be achieved only if the law allows them to be given effect in rem—that is, as proprietary rights. Legal systems have responded differently to the need for proprietary rights limited in time. Roman law created usufruct and other iura in re aliena; English law created different legal estates. Every system has faced similar problems. One issue has been the extent to which the holder of a limited interest should be restricted in his or her use and enjoyment in order to protect the holders of other interests in the same thing. A common core of principles regulates the relationship between those who hold temporary interests and the reversioners. For instance, every system forbids holder of the possessory interest to damage the thing arbitrarily. But other rules are more controversial. This study focuses upon the rules which do not forbid, but compel, certain courses of action.


Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Razaana Denson

The article discusses and compares the dissolution of a marriage as well as the legal consequences thereof in Islamic law, South African law and English law. This is done in order to demonstrate that despite similarities, there are vast differences between the three legal systems. This impacts on how Muslim personal law (MPL) can be recognised and regulated in South Africa and in England and Wales as constitutional democracies. South Africa, England and Wales share a commitment to human rights and have adopted various approaches in respect of accommodating the application of Islamic law. Internal pluralism also exists within the Muslim communities in South Africa, England and Wales as the majority of Muslims in these countries have to varying degrees developed diverse strategies to ensure compliance with Islamic law, as well as with South African and English law. Notwithstanding the accommodation of MPL in terms of South African and English law, the differences between these legal systems have resulted in decisions that, while providing relief to the lived realities of Muslims, are in fact contrary to the teachings and principles of Islam and therefore problematic for Muslims.


Author(s):  
Paul J. du Plessis

The term European ius commune (in its historical sense) signifies that, from the fourteenth to the start of the sixteenth centuries, most of Europe shared a common legal tradition. Many local and regional variations on the law existed, but the terminology, concepts, and structure provided by elements of Roman law provided a common framework. This chapter traces how Justinian’s codification came to influence the modern world. The influence of Roman law in the modern world is immense: it constitutes the historical and conceptual basis of many legal systems throughout the world. Its impact has not been confined to those countries in Western Europe that historically formed part of the Roman Empire. Wherever Europeans went, they normally took their law (usually based to some extent on the principles of Roman law) with them.


2020 ◽  
pp. 002190962094634
Author(s):  
France Maphosa ◽  
Christopher Ntau

The concept of homo sacer originates from ancient Roman law under which an individual who committed a certain kind of crime was excluded from society and all his/her rights as a citizen were revoked. This paper uses a few selected cases reported in the media of Botswana and South Africa to demonstrate why undocumented migrants in the two countries fit Agamben’s description of homo sacer. While migrants in general, whether documented or undocumented, are targets of violence, exploitation and discrimination in these countries, undocumented migrants are particularly vulnerable because of their ‘illegal’ status. Although violence against undocumented migrants is not formally endorsed by the state, their description as a problem or a threat to society places them in a state of exception which is virtually outside the protection of the law.


1996 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhat Ziadeh

AbstractDifferent legal systems have employed a variety of measures to insure the appearance of the defendant in court. The earliest conception of an action in Rome and in pre-Islamic Arabia was the voluntary appearance of both parties before a recognized or prestigious authority. Thus, early Roman law could not pass judgment against a defendant who failed to appear, either voluntarily or involuntarily. The idea that the court could give a judgment in the plaintiff's absence—the so-called judgment by default—took a long time to materialize in the West. Classical Islamic law requires that the defendant or his legal representative (wakīl) be present for a judgment to be given. This requirement is predicated on the assumption that the primary function of the judge is conciliation of the parties and not necessarily the vindication of rights. The law describes various measures that may be employed to force the defendant to appear in court. Failing that, it provides for the appointment of a legal representative for the defendant. Judgment by default was introduced into Muslim countries only in modern times under the influence of Western codes of procedure.


1980 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 346-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Q. Christol

The exploration and use of the space environment, consisting of outer space per se, the moon, and celestial bodies, may result in harm to persons and to property. International law and municipal law have focused on rules allowing for the payment of money damages for harm caused by space objects and their component parts, including the “payload.” Both forms of law have accepted the basic proposition that money damages should compensate for harm. Principal attention will be given in this analysis to the kinds of harm caused by space objects that are considered to be compensable under international law at the present time.


1909 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse S. Reeves

The political philosophers of the eighteenth century might have been surprised if told that their favorite doctrine of natural rights was the intellectual successor of certain theories of the Roman law and of the scholasticism of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Yet the “ state of nature,” which filled so large a place in the discussion of natural rights, has been called “ an exaggerated perversion of what, in traditional system, was quite a subordinant point” From Locke to Hooker, and back through the scholastic philosophy, the germ of natural rights has been traced to the jus naturœ and the jus gentium of the Roman law. Grotius and his successors preserved the tradition in another and more direct line. The continuity of Grotius with the doctrine of the Roman law was complete. “ The law of nature,” said Holland, “ is the foundation, or rather the scaffolding, upon which the modern science of International Law was built up by Gentilis and Grotius. The change in the meaning of jus gentium made by Grotius and his successors, and the influence which the jus naturœ had in forming the new conception of the law of nations can only be referred to here.


Author(s):  
Steven Freeland

The 1957 launch of Sputnik I challenged humankind’s perceptions of what was possible in space, and necessitated the development of a legal framework for the exploration and use of outer space. However, these rules emerged at a time when the development of space-related technology was principally directed towards military objectives. As the possibility of a military confrontation in space increases, uncertainty coalesces with other risks, particularly with respect to the dangers posed by space debris, revealing lacunae in the law, the further evolution of which has largely stalled due to geopolitical factors. Emerging ‘soft’ law principles are neither entirely clear nor sufficiently comprehensive to meet the increasing complexity associated with attempting to regulate outer space. This chapter assesses the uncertainties arising from the existing international legal framework and their correlation to significant risks pertaining to the exploration and use of outer space.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document