Theory of Mentality and Study of Roman Law

Abstract

The article highlights the problematic issues of modern native Romance, namely methodological aspects of Roman law study. Modern development of legal science aims to study law in the context of different approaches that complement each other allow to get deep and diverse knowledge of the complex and multifaceted phenomenon, which the Law is. Having a specific philosophical, historical and cultural significance Roman law played a primary role in the formation of the modern European legal systems. It was found out that a considerable number of features of the common legal tradition, the considerable percentage of legal institutions and legal categories of modern European legal systems originate directly from Roman law, continue to exist in directly borrowed or nationally altered way. This is one of the reasons for interest of modern European humanities in antiquity that is an attempt to find the original source of its own historical and cultural identity. In contrast to the achievements of Greek culture, which has been accepted by both European and Arab culture, only Europe received the Latin inheritance. Roman law had been studied in Latin in the Christian East for a rather long time before it ceded to legal traditions of «barbaric nations» and later revived in the XI century, especially in Bologna and remained coexisting in modern European culture. «Vitality» of Roman law can be explained by the fact that it was a universal and at the same time simple product of human genius created to resolve relations between the individuals. The author maintains the position of wide application of the theory of mentality as fundamental ground for understanding the phenomenon of Roman law, emphasizing the stages of formation of this theory in Western humanities. Application of the theory of mentality to Roman law promotes understanding of Roman law as a specific cultural phenomenon, which occurred in the Roman culture and is the quintessential of Roman mentality. The main methodological refrain of the article is the thesis «like people, like law». The article investigates the state of the domestic law at the current stage of development and analyzes the reasons of «rootedness» of the positivist methodological orientations in the study of Roman law: interrupted scientific tradition of the civil and Roman orientation; ignorance of Latin by scholars; commitment to authorities.