Jurisprudence





Jurisprudence (from latin: juris prudentia -- by the activity of prudentes;
advisors, experts), is the philosophy, science, study, and application of law.

Jurisprudence already had this meaning in ancient Rome, even if at its
origins the discipline was a monopoly of the college of the Pontiffs
(Pontifex), which detained an exclusive power of judgement on facts, being
the only experts (periti) in the jus of traditional law (mores maiorum, a
body of oral laws and customs verbally transmitted "by father to son").
Pontiffs indirectly created a body of laws by their pronunciations
(sententiae) on single concrete (judicial) cases.

Their sentences were supposed to be simple interpretations of the
traditional customs, but effectively it was an activity that, apart from
formally reconsidering for each case what precisely was traditionally in the
legal habits, soon turned also to a more equitative interpretation,
coherently adapting the law to the newer social instances. The law was then
implemented with new evolutive Institutiones (legal concepts), while
remaining in the traditional scheme. Pontiffs were replaced in 3rd century
BC by a laical body of prudentes. Admission to this body was conditional
upon proof of competence or experience.

Under the Roman republic, schools of law were created, and the activity
constantly became more academic. In the age from the early Roman Empire to
the 3rd century, a relevant literature was produced by some notable groups
including the Proculians and Sabinians. The degree of scientific depth of
the studies was unprecedented in ancient times and reached still unrivalled
peaks of skill. It is about this activity that it has been said that Romans
had developed an art out of the law.

After 3rd century, Juris prudentia became a more bureaucratic activity, with
few notable authors. It was during the Byzantine Empire (5th century) that
legal studies were once again undertaken in depth, and it is from this
cultural movement that Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis was born.

In modern studies Jurisprudence is both the branch of humanist sciences that
studies the law and the complex of legal principles that can be desumed by
the sentences. Sentences are in this sense authoritative interpretations of
the formal law that, starting from a concrete judicial case, usually contain
general reflections on the sense and the scopes of the law, and on its
potential extent.