EXPERIMENTATION OF TEACHING FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ROMAN LAW IN CONTEMPORARY LAW EDUCATION

Elvan Sütken, Anadolu University, TURKEY;      Abstract: Roman law, which is the most influencial law of ancient times, has great importance also today in law education for the perfection of law formation. In Roman law lessons, evolution of Roman law institutions are described by giving information about the cultural, and political circumstances of that time.  In our time, law makers still intellectualize and try to solve many legal cases according to Roman way of thinking. Many jurists transfer the skills of Roman jurists for solving legal disputes especially in the field of law of contracts. Therefore, it is obvious that fundamental concepts and principles of Roman law are also effectual today which makes it a well accepted discipline for ages in law education in many law faculties of Turkey and Europe. While teaching Roman law, it is emphasized that, especially in private law, the contracts belonging to Roman law of obligations had been the basis of many contracts in contemporary law. Some of the fundamental concepts that are both studied in Roman law and also in contemporary law are; “ownership (dominium )”, “possession ( possessio )”, “obligation ( obligatio )”, “ creditor ( creditor ) ”, “debtor ( debitor )” , “contract ( contractus) ”, “to give ( dare )”, “to do ( facere )”, “not to do ( non facere )”, “real contracts ( re contrahitur )”, “verbal contracts ( verbis contrahitur )”, “written contracts ( litteris contrahitur )”, “consensual contracts (consensu contrahitur)”, “contract of sale ( emptio venditio )”, “contract of partnership ( societas )”, “custodian contract ( depositum )”, “contract of pledge ( pignus )”, “contract of loan for use ( commodatum )”, verbal contract ( stipulatio ), “contract of loan for money ( mutuum )”, “locatio conductio”, “contract of agency ( mandatum )”, “personal action (actio in personam)”, “the subject of obligations ( praestare )” and “ torts ( delictum )”. During Roman Law lessons, as to lay emphasis on the usage of those fundamental concepts and for the contribution of law formation; students are also obliged to learn their correspondings in Latin.

Keywords: Law, Roman Law, contemporary law, fundamental concepts of law, law systems, teaching law, basis of law, formation of law.