NATURE AND LAW IN THE <em>INSTITUTAS</em> OF GAIO

Abstract

In a very famous passage of his Institutes, the ancient jurist Gaius had divided the Roman Private Law in two parts: the Civil Law and the Law of People. The former is the Law created by the Roman people, whereas the latter is the Law followed by every nation.

Despite its classical origin, there is some disagreement among specialists about the right way to interpret this distinction. By the beginning of the 20^th century, historians like Michel Villey had seen in this distinction the influence of Greek philosophy (Stoic but even Aristotelian) among the Roman jurists. But Levy and more recently Kelly have challenged this view and proposed that, in the roman period, philosophers and jurists had completely distinct notions of nature and natural law. The aim of this paper is not to prove the exact influence of Greek philosophy among jurists, but only to suggest that it is not possible to give an interpretation of the classical texts without ascribing to them a theoretical notion of the natural law.