IUS NATURALE HOMINUM CAUSA CONSTITUTUM
IUS NATURALE HOMINUM CAUSA CONSTITUTUM

Summary/Abstract: Roman law, from its origins, shows a strong tendency toward universality. This is clearly manifested at the ‘foundation’ of the system, in the Constitutions with which Justinian accompanies the launching of the Corpus iuris civilis, but it undoubtedly goes back as far as the Romans’ identification of ius gentium, at the basis of which naturalis ratio is recognized. Statual-legalism has not been able to sever this umbilical cord with Roman law and the ‘natural reason’ underlying it. Roman law, in force even though no longer effective, is the driving force behind modern codifications, and must be cherished by modern jurists as a true common heritage of humanity. We can thus identifiy a kind of ius naturale of men, in a non-eschatological sense, but founded on the model constituted by concrete homines. The safeguarding of the values it represents, which revolve around the centrality of the human person (bona fides, aequitas, libertas, voluntas etc.) represents the challenge that all of us, as jurists, must be capable of taking up.

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