UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC LAW

History of Roman and Roman Dutch Law LB 104

Lecturer: Munyaradzi Gwisai:

Topic: Reception of Roman Law
Lecture notes [2011, updated 2016]

Reference Materials

1. K Makamure, “The Historical Fate of Roman Law in Western Europe”, (Unpublished, 1999)
2. P Spiller, A Manual of Roman Law (Butterworths, Durban, 1986) Cap 8, p 245
3. WJ Hosten et al, Introduction to South African Law and Legal Theory 2nd ed (Butterworths,
Durban, 1995) pp 283 – 336

Introduction
1. The Roman Empire came to an end in the 6th century AD with the collapse of the Eastern Empire.
The Western Empire had already collapsed after AD 476 when Rome was ransacked by the barbarian
tribes of the Ostrogoths. Before its collapse the empire had experienced a major revival at least in
the East. Especially under the reign of Justinian from 527AD to 565AD.
2. By the time of its collapse, the Roman state had been in existence for over 1 300 years, including 244
years of the Monarchy, 478 years of the Republic and about 600 years of the Empire. During this
period Roman legal science developed from primitive customary law to a highly developed and
systematised body of law of great scientific merit. It had evolved from being a legal system that
regulated the relations of a small agricultural central Italian community to become the law of “the
largest commercially-based, multiracial empire known before the peak of that of Britain, declined;
and then had e quintessence of its achievement summarised and condensed by a Byzantine Emperor
of the sixth century A.D. who sought, successfully but ephemerally, to restore the glories of a half-
millennium or so earlier.” And from the 12 th century AD became the “guiding spirit and inspiration of
the law and legal systems of the countries of nascent and renascent Europe so as to become a virtual
ius commune, common law, of, anyhow, occidental Europe.” [Thomas, 1976, p 3]. No wonder why it
has been commented “Thrice did Rome conquer the world; by her Arms, by her Church and by her
Law,” evoking Justinian’s declaration that the Empire is made glorious not only by her arms but by
her law as well.1

3. The key behind the undying durability of Roman law must lie with the summarisation and
codification of Roman Law by Justinian and his chief legal advisor, Tribonian, namely the Corpus Iuris
Civilis. By the time of Augustine’s rule, the state of the Roman legal system cd be described as
follows: “In the space of ten centuries, the infinite variety of laws and legal opinions had filled many
thousand volumes which no fortune could purchase and no capacity cd digest. Books cd nt easily b
1
Hahlo, p 517
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 found; and judges, poor in the midst of riches, were reduced to e exercise of their illiterate
discretion.”2
a. “Justinian resolved the problem of the accumulated and diverse mass of Roman Law
and its sources by composing a comprehensive codification of the Roman laws and
legal literature. He employed a legal scholar, Tribonian, to organise the codification
of Roman law. In its final form the codification consisted of four parts, together
known as the Corpus Iuris Civilis. The four parts are:
i. The Codex: a collection of imperial legislation known as the Constitutiones
529AD...
ii. The Digests or Pandectae: contains the fragments or extracts from writings
of Roman jurists. It was divided into tiltels, eg Marriage, Sale. Extracts or
fragments from the works of various writers are grouped under appropriate
headings so as to give a complete picture of the law on that particular topic.
Justinian ordered changes to be made tot he jurists’ text where necessary so
as to reflect the law of his time. The changes are called interpolations...
Digest promulgated in 533AD...
iii. The Institutiones: promulgated in 533AD. Was an introductory Textbook for
students. The compilation of this work was based on the Institutiones of
Gaius.
iv. The Novellae (Novels): this is a collection of new laws made after
codification...
b. The significance of Justinian’s codification lies in that it offered and offers a complete
survey of Roman Law which was particularly useful when Roman law was received
into Western Europe from the 12th Century onwards. The codification has been
criticised on the basis that it was hastily compiled and is a vast and unshapely
compilation of Roman private law. However, this body of legal compilation has
historically had an impact on the development of modern legal thought. It can be
said that the history of Roman Law, ins o far as it was the law of Rome, had run its
course with Justinian’s codification; but this codification enabled Roman law and
legal science to become an independent intellectual heritage of mankind ius
communes – an intellectual force which was no longer the law of one nation or even
one empire.” [Makamure 1999]

4. The Corpus Iuris Civilis became the bedrock on which Roman law was to survive and ultimately
conquer Europe through it the world. Before we look at how this process occurred important to
analyse how one legal system influences or is received into another.

RELATIONSHIPS OF LEGAL SYSTEMS TO ONE ANOTHER

[Makamure – 1999]
5. “...the mere existence of a well developed legal system does not mean that it will be
received or incorporated into another legal system merely by virtue of its work. Historical
experience demonstrates otherwise and indicates that there are certain basic laws
governing the adoption of the principles of one legal system by another. Various forms may

2
Mckenzie, Studies in Roman Law, p23 as quoted in Makamure K [1999]
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 be observable historically, namely: Imposition; Assimilation; Infiltration; Reception and
Transplantation.

6. Imposition:
This is whereby a legal system is imposed by a conqueror over a vanquished people or
nation. Thus Roman Dutch law was imposed on this country after its conquest by the British
imperialists based in South Africa. Napoleon imposed his Napoleonic Code on the European
countries conquered by France including Holland. Under this form the foreign legal system is
imposed by the conqueror without any regard to its merits or even desirability.

7. Assimilation
Here the methods or rules of a foreign legal system are, as it were, freely borrowed by
another legal system in order to supplement gaps in the development of its own legal
techniques and methods. This is, for example when a rule or a legal technique in French or
American law is assimilated into Swedish or Italian law. Assimilation normally does not lead
to a qualitative change in the nature of the legal system and structure of the assimilating
system. It normally occurs where the two legal systemsin question share a common
ideological affinnity / same material base in relation to level of development of productive
forces and relations of production.

8. Infiltration
This is similar to assimilation but a lower scale of incorporation characterised by ad hoc,
haphazard and isolated incorporation of the principles, rules and techniques of a foreign law
system by another. The incorporation here does not result in qualitative transformation of
the receiving legal system to create a new and higher legal system.

9. Legal transplantation
This is the phenomenon whereby the statute of one country is copied and adopted from one
country to another. This occurs in two situations, namely:
a. Where two legal systems based on the same ideological system update their laws by
copying each other’s statutes in the deficient areas.
b. Where there exists a neo-colonial relationship between two countries and the neo-
colony copies the laws of its former colonial masters because it has no independent
thought or initiative, eg former colonies coping British or French laws.

10. Reception
In the narrow sense this is used to describe the unique phenomenon in Europe during the
13th, 14th and 15th centuries AD when the law of Rome was resurrected and applied as living
law, by the feudal states of Europe. Like assimilation, reception is characterised by the
voluntary incorporation of rules and principles on a fairly large scale basis from one legal
system to another. During this Reception phenomenon in Europe the methods, the
principles and in some cases the rules of Roman law were utilised to develop existing pre-
scientific European customary legal systems. Unlike general assimilation, Reception leads to
a qualitatively new legal system as compared to the pre-existing system.

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 Material pre-conditions for adoption / imposition
11. There are certain material pre-conditions that must exist in order for a legal system to be
imposed, assimilated or received.
a. In relation to imposition there obviously must be conquest or national surbodination
of one people by another or of one country by another. The dominating people or
state simply impose their law on the vanquished. The merits or demerits of the
imposed legal system are not in issue.
b. For assimilation and reception the following conditions are necessary:
[Here You have followed the Makamure formulation here --- bt in lecture don’t give
elaborations from Roman reception--- reserve these for the summary lecture after
students have already discussed Pre-Reception; Early Reception and Reception
proper]
i. There must be knowledge about the system being received or assimilated.
ii. There must be corcumstential and material necessity to receive or assimilate
the foreign legal system. The semi-prinitive tribal states of Europeof the
Dark Ages had little matrial incentives and necessity to adopt a Roman law
system based on large sacle trade of an empire. But by contrast, the
modernising monarchs and emergent bourgeoisie of Europe towars the end
of the Middle Ages desired and adopted Roman legal institutions because
these were best suited for the practical and economic revolutions that were
going on in Europe at this time.
iii. There must be in existence institutions which are capable of receiving or
assimilating the foreign law. There were no such institutions during the
tribal state formations of the Europe of the Dark Ages. However, after the
establishment of feudalism the state organism became better developed
with a king at the head who was supported by not only a council of feudal
barons, bt often an educated staff of advisors. The Church was also very
merged together with the state as almost all the feudal states of Europe
during this period were theocratic states with no distinction btw the Church
and the state. The Church therefore brought intot he state system its
learned culture and the king’s chancellors of that time were invariably
appointed from the leading Church dignitaries such as Archbishops. The
Church brought about literate culture into the state system and assisted the
growth of written and recorded laws. Thus the developed feudal tate had a
civil and judicial service wc increasingly needed a system of written and well
organised and structured law.

RECEPTION OF ROMAN LAW INTO EUROPE

The Reception may be conviently divided into three phases: the pre-Reception era; Early
Reception and Reception strictu sensu.

Pre-Reception period – “The Dark Ages”

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12. After the collapse of the Roman empire by the various semi-barbarian tribes, the economic
and political life of western Europe sank to semi-barbarian levels, in the period btw the 5 th
century AD and 12th century AD, sometimes called “the Dark Ages.” The Roman empire was
replaced by various European barbarian kingdoms including that of the Visigoths in Southern
Gaul; the Burgundian kingdom and various Germanic kingdoms in North West Europe.
13. These small semi-primitive kingdoms based on subsistent agriculture had no need for the
vast sophisticated legal system of a commercially empire that Rome had become. In this
period therefore and without an appropriate supporting state frame-work Roman law
underwent massive decline and non-usage, with the barbarian customary laws and
personality principle of law taking dominance. However, Roman law did not completely
disappear, but survived in one or another due to the following factors:
a. The personality principle of law applied in many of the barbarian kingdoms. This is
opposed to the territorial principle of law, where laws apply to all inhabitants of a
territory, whereas under the former, the application of laws is determined by
subjective factors of the subjects to wc it applies, eg customary law applying to black
Africans or Islamic law applying to Moslems. Roman law continued to apply in many
barbarian kingdoms like the Gothic, the Lombard and the Carlovingian, to those who
by birth and choice submitted to it, even if under barbarian occupation.
b. Infiltration: The Roman colonii system became the basis of the emerging feudal
barbarian states whilst the Romans taught the illiterate barbarians a literate culture
and a scholarly religion based on momotheism, Christianity – Although barbarian
customary laws pre-dominated there was haphazard borrowings from elements of
Roman laws in a number of the kingdoms. Some of them initiated and fashioned
codes of law on the Roman pattern. For instance the Edict of Theodoric at Rome in
500AD for the kingdom of the Ostrogoths; the Lex Romana Visigothorum of 506AD
for the Visigoths; and the Lex Romana Burgundorum for the Burgundiasns.
c. The Church – Canonical law
i. The Roman religion, the Catholic Church outlived the Roman state. It was
adopted by many of the European barbarian kingdoms in substitution of
their various gods --- a more developed advanced religion based on
monoethism. Romans taught the barbarians a literate culture [very much
like the Shonas to the Ndebeles] In particular after AD // 476 AD and in
particular in the 9th century AD in the reign of Chale Magne, the Church
received protection from a powerful barbarian kingdom in what was
formerly Roman Gaul, the Frankish kingdom, which allowed it to flourish and
stabilise. The Church influenced the survival of Roman law in two ways.
- Firstly instruction and study of Roman law continued in monasteries
and Cathedral schools, which led to the preservation of Roman
culture and law
- The Church in its internal organisation and judicial activities
continued to use Roman law princviples and techniques, which
eventually had considerable and growing influence on the barbarian
kingdoms, and through this infiltrated Roman traditions and laws
into their Germanic customary laws.

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 14. Thus Roman law did not disappear or go into oblivion during the Dark Ages but survived
infiltrating into the barbarian customary laws, which were predominant. But it degenerated
and declined --- we call this process the barbarisation of Roman law.
a. It was inevitable that Roman law so degenerated. There was no developed state
and institutions and trained scholars with a knowledge of Roman law to allow its
widespread assimilation in the Dark Ages. The economis of these small kingdoms
were largely subsistent with huge decline in trade and manufacturing which had
been the material basis on which Roman law had developed.

EARLY RECEPTION and FEUDALISM

15. From the 12th century AD there was a qualitative transformation of the receiving of Roman
law in western Europe in wc Roma law came to be assimilated at a large scale in many
western European states, compared to the infiltration of the Dark Ages. This was based on
scientific and extensive study of Roman law based around the Corpus Iuris Civilis. Several
factors account for this:

a. Feudalism and the advancement of productive forces and relations of production

i. By the end of the 11th century AD bigger and stronger states were emerging
in Europe based on the feudal mode of production that had emrged from
the womb of Roman slavery, that is the colonii system. By the 12 th – 14th
century AD century feudal relations of production were fully established and
consolidated. There was growth in craftsmanship, manufacturing and
international trade revived. This led to the restablishment of towns and
cities and revival of general urban life. Propseprous and powerful cities were
established in Northern Italy and [parts of Gaul. As a result of the new
commercial environment and the ensuing novel legal relationships created
by sophisticated trade patterns, existing law proved inadequate to meet the
demands of the situation, or the new relations of production emerging in
the towns. The law as superstructure had to be developed in line with the
developing economy, whose needs cd not be satisfied by the new needs.
The new towns therefore became a big driver of change in the law. Such
conditions laid the basis for the reception of Roman law, whose rules and
methods easily met the new conditions of life in Europe

b. Knowledge of Roman law and Trained intellectual basis

ii. The development in productive forces and relations of production under
feudalism spurred the growth of literate culture and the rise of the scholarly
intellegensia in Europe --- the Renaissance of Literature --- a intellectual revolution
that was upported by the Church and the merchant feudal kings – this period called
the “Renaissance of the Twelfth Century.” Under these conditions former Church
schools, stadiums were transformed into universities, ie. Coroporations of teachers
and students who received charters of academic freedom and personality from
kings: some under guilds of students others under guilds of teachers. Some of the
earliest ones were called Ravena, Pavia and Bologna in Italy and later Oxford and
Cambridge in England and Orleans in France. In these new universities there
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 emerged the dedicated and systematic study and teaching of Roman law and Church
law, centred on the Corpus Iuris Civilis, which had been discovered at the end of the
11th century AD???. These universities had thousands of students drawn from all
over Europe. In the feudal period, the intellectual study of Roman law went
through two stages distinguished mainly by their works and methodology. The first
stage was dominated by e Glossators and the second stage by Commentators.
- Sumarise these from Makamure

The Glossators
i. These are named after their use of e Gloss Method of studying e IurisCivilis wc involved:
a. Writing of short comments on e texts, passage by passage, in marginal glosses
b. Extraction of legal principles underlying the decisions on wc they commented by interpreting each
of e several passages by collecting parallel passages from or parts of e Corpus Iuris and by seeking to
harmonise wat appeared as contradictory statements. On e basis of e explanations reachd they thn
proceeded to do e SUMMAE, i.e a more comprehensive statement of e system or parts of it, and this
was done to e titles of e Digest or e Code. They also made “Distinctiones” where there were
explanations of legal concepts attained by analysing a general concept into its sub-categories and
then proceding to evermore subtle definitions until al e implications of e concept had been
developed.
ii. The Glossators did not treat e Corpus Iuris Civilis from a historical perspective and studied e law of
Justinian as if it was e real law of their time. Yet the real and actual law in force at the time was a
mixture of often degenerated Roman and Lombard institutions. There was also e Cannon Law, i.e.
the law of e Catholic Church wc was essentially Roman. There was also a rich new layer of statutory
law growing in many Italian cities.
iii.Despite their weaknesses, a century and a half of Glossatorial work enabled the achievement for e
first time in Western Europe of a thorough familiarity with the whole of Justnian’s codification
achievements. Their work laid e ground for a theoretical understanding of e Corpus Iuris Civilis and
for e practical assimilation of e legal ideas.

The Commentators
ii. Glossatorism or e school of Glossators lost its leading position by e middle of
e 13th century after e main achievements of e school had been stated in an
encyclopaedic compilation of e glosses by one scholar, Accursus, titled e
Gloss Ordinarie.
iii. Anor practice – oriented school took over e work of e Glossators and raised
e study of Roman law to a new level. The school of Post-Glossators or
Commentators, relied on e methods and achievements of e Glossators bt
approached their task from a more practical point of view.
iv. Their method was to write treatises or commentaries on specific topics,
using not only the Corpus Iuris Civilis bt also sources from e Classical periods.
In doing so they combined or assimilated Roman with e Law Merchant of
Italian cities; with Canon Law; feudal or Seigneurial Law – that is the rules
regulating the relationships between feudal lords and peasants and also

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 incorporated win it e old customary laws; and Royal legislation – that is the
King’s laws made by e modernising monarchs of Europe at this time.
v. Through e above they managed to adapt principles of Roman law to e actual
needs of their time. They gave e contemporary law a scientific basis through
e use of theoretical concepts derived from Roman law. For example, they
are credited w having founded e science of commercial law

16. The above two conditions provided for the assimilation of Roman law into western Europe
from the 13th century AD onwards. The reception was made possible by the advanced nature
of e Roman legal system compared w e customary law. Its rules and methods easily met e
needs of e new conditions of life in Europe. The assimilation may be divided into two phases
--- Early reception, where there was a broad reception / assimilation of Roman laws and
techniques and is associated with the works of the Glossators and Reception in complex...
the wholesome assimilation of Roman law with Germanic customary laws and others to
create new legal systems, such as that resulting in the formation of Roman Dutch law.

17. Early reception. This is associated with e period of e Glossators [and Commentators???].
When foreign students from the glossatorial schools like Bologna, Pavia and Ravenna had
qualified as Doctors or Masters, they carried back to their home countries all over Europe
the new legal gospel and spread it either as judicial and administrative functionaries in the
public services of the kingdoms or in the new universities wc rapidly sprang into being in
most European nation states.

i. This form of reception, thru university training, was a more scientifically

based form of receiving Roman law. Thus over this period e Roman legal
system was utilised as a model in e creation of a more systematised form of
nationl laws, France and England provide two excellent examples of this
process, where Roman legal techniques were used to develop their
customary law.

18. Reception in complexu --- wholesome assimilation

i. The final phase of reception was e reception of Roman Law as a system of
actual law. This meant that e Roman Law system w certain excerptions was
receivd into a country’s legal system as a body of subsidiary common law.
Also received were Roman legal techniques, methods, concepts and
doctrines. A major example where this process occurred was wat became e
Netherlands and resulted in a new qualitative phenomena, Roman-Dutch
law. We look at how this process occurred in greater detail below.

Emergence of Roman Dutch Law

19. One of e key areas of reception of Roman law was in e Dutch Republic, the United Provinces
of Holland. Here by e 16th century AD there was a major reception of Roman legal maxims,
rules and concepts especially in property, contract and delict leading to the emergence of a

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 hybrid legal system – a mixture of Roman law and Dutch customary laws and others to
create what became known as Roman-Dutch law.
20. By Roman Dutch law is therefore meant the synthesis of Roman law, Germanic customary
law, feudal law, Canon law and others that developed in the [Spanish???] province of
Holland from e 14th century AD. It is e law resulting from e free incorporation of Roman
materials into e ancient customary law of Holland with modifications introduced by
subsequent acts of legislation from time to time. The phrase “Roman – Dutch” was invented
by Simon van Leeuwen in 1652. The system of law described as “Roman Dutch” was e law of
Holland from e mid-15th century to e early years of e 19th century AD, when e United
Provinces of Holland were conquered by Napoleon and Roman-Dutch ousted and
substituted by e Code Napoleon in 1811. The Dutch Republic in its short history became one
of e most powerful and prosperous trading European nation states until it was superceded
by England.
21. Reception in Holland maybe divided into early Reception and later advanced Reception.
Early reception started from the mid-13 th century AD in e Low Countries. The early reception
was done by two layers of legal professionals, namely the officiales and the legistae. The
former were ecclesiastical judges trained at Bologna and Orleans who were concerned with
the administrative matters of the Church and had judicial functions. Legistae on e other hand
were jurists trained at Bologna and Orleans who were employed at e feudal lords’ court or
were employed as administrators in the flourishing towns. Subsequent training occured at
the University of Louvain established in 1425.
22. In their work, the above legal officials, especially the first two recorded customary law and
generally in their work heavily relied on Roman Law as glossed by Glossators and modified
by the Commentators in recording customary law and filling gaps in the law.
23. The assimilation of Roman law in this period was hindered by the feudal de-centralisation of
state power into fiefdoms, bishoprics and chartered towns with a multiplicity of privileges
and immunities. However from e late 15 th century a process of greater political
centralisation started in the area, especially under the Burgundian Kingdom, including e
establishment of a High Court in 1462– Horf von Holland Zeeland en West Friesland. This
was modelled on the French High Court and comprised of trained lawyers, mainly from the
University of Louvain. It was a court of first instance as well as a court of appeal for three
provinces, Holland, Friesland and Utrecht. Judges at e High Court used Roman law
extensively and their decisions were of persuasive authority on the provincial courts,
although these resisted Roman law being more familiar with customary laws.
24. In the 16th and 17th centuries AD there were several other factors behind the acceleration of
receiving of Roman laws, including political, economic and social factors, detailed below:

a. codification of law
25. There were instructions by the Burgundian dukes for use of “written laws” i.e. Roman law
and Canon Law in some areas of the law and in areas not covered by Royal Statutes. Further
there was an order for the homologation of customary laws, i.e. an instruction that all provincial
customary laws be reduced into writing and for confirmation of this [by High Court???].
ii. The above led to two processes. Firstly the strengthening of some customary laws. Especially
in areas of intestate succession and the law of persons, where the established Germanic customs

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were not easily set aside; secondly entrenchment of Roman law principles, especially in areas
like contract law, delict and property. This led to the hybrid legal system.

a. economic factors
25. From the early 16th century AD there was an acceleration of the new mode of production
that was becoming prevalent in the various Dutch provinces, merchantile capitalism. This
rapid economic growth was centred around the growing towns and international trade. This
increasingly led to a national as opposed to a localised economy: “An agrarian economy had
given way to a rapidly developing commercial one” leading to a national economy rather
than a series of local ones, with trade playing a central role.
26. Growth of national and international trade brought “new and complex legal situations to the
fore.” Local laws were no systematic or uniform or developed enough to cope with the
situation. In Germany this led to the bringing in of lawyers to deal with the problem an din
turn these relied on written law (i.e. Roman Law as glossed by the Glossators and modied
and adapted by the Commnetators) to fill in the gaps or lacunae in the laws governing trade
relationships in both the various kingdoms in Germany and the Netherlands. Thus Roman
law was assimilated at a much larger scale than in the period of the early reception.

b. Cultural and intellectual factors

27. By this period there was a significant layer of intellectual and professionals strata with both
knowledge and skills of Roman law to facilitate its widespread assimilation in the
Netherlands. By the end of the 15 th century AD, the University of Louvain, established in
1425 had become the leading centre of law and legal theory in Europe attracting the best
legal minds on the continent as it paid the highest wages, supported by a prosperous
bourgeoisie and Church. It became known as the “Belgian Athens.” Its former students
staffed the High Court and Provincial courts as well as the state burecracy.

c. Political
28. A growing national economy was reflected in the growth of a national political authority or
state by the end of the 16th century AD into the 17th century AD which greatly facilitated the
emergence of the new legal system. In 1579 was the formation of the Republic of the United
Provinces or the Dutch Republic by the seven Netherland provinces which had seceded from
the Spanish empire following an 80 years war with peace confirmed in the Peace of
Westphalia (1648).
29. Under the new Republic each province sent representatives to the States General, wc
became the highest political authority over the whole of the Republic with Holland the most
powerful or important of the provinces.
30. The new Republic was in fact one of the first, if not first fully bourgeois nation state to
emerge in Europe in which the bourgeoise had overthrown the feudal kingdoms and
assumed ful and unrivaled political, social and economic power to become the new ruling
class. Under such enabling environment, the new hybrid legal system greatly expanded and
grew under the eye of many great jurists including: Hugo Grotius; Jon Voet etc. In the 17 th
century AD this Dutch Republic fully based on the new capitalist mode of production
emerged to become the most prosperous and powerful state in Europe and the world... not
only economically but in law .. RD, art Vincent van Gogh etc
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 31. In its far flung colonies across the world, including the Cape of Good Hope in what is now
known as South Africa, it imposed its new legal system....

Tutorial Guidelines
1. Describe the fate of Roman law after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the period prior to
the 12th Century AD.
a. In your answer identify and discuss the major factors that led to its survival as well
as degeneration
2. Outline the factors that led to the Early Reception of Roman Law in Europe including the role
played by the Glossators.
3. Outline the factors that facilitated the Reception of Roman law in Europe from the 13 th
Century AD onwards including the role played by Commentators.
a. In your answer distinguish, compare and contrast the roles played by the
Glossators, Commentators and Humanists.
4. Discuss the various modes through which Roman Dutch law came to be the common law of
South Africa and Zimbabwe.
a. Discuss the extent of influence, if any, of Roman law in modern Zimbabwean law,
including the various methods used by the courts adopting Roman law.

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