Formation of the continental system of European law by the example of the Old Athens and the Sparta
Authors: Matveyeva T. 
Published: August 2022

The creation and development of modern law is a long historical process spanning several centuries and began with the writing of barbaric Truths (Salichna Pravda, Ripuarska Pravda, Primorsky Salic Franks, etc.). This process was more smooth and evolutionary than the corresponding processes in the field of state formation, where they were often established in a revolutionary way.

The origin of modern law begins with the reception of Roman law and the law of ancient Greece .. Thus was born city law, international trade law, whose roots are quite deep and strong. But at the same time the legal systems of the Middle Ages were very imperfect, and many of their provisions hampered the development of political democracy and capitalist entrepreneurship in the era of feudalism. These features of medieval legal systems, characterized by the lack of internal unity, prevented progressive changes, both in the state and in law.

The reform of the old feudal law on a new bourgeois basis was carried out by revolutionary coups - the English Revolution of the 17th century and the French Revolution of the 18th century. These revolutions have largely led to the unjustified destruction of the legal structure created over the centuries, to the breakdown of traditional legal culture, to legal nihilism and voluntarism. Ultimately, they led to significant changes in the field of law, to the formation of a new legal order, which led to the formation and rapid development of capitalism.

Modern law in the West (primarily Anglo-Saxon and European continental law of France) was formed and developed as a logical continuation of the previously formed systems of medieval (eg, "common law") and even ancient Roman law. The new law could not be something significantly different from the previous law, because in its self-development it absorbed, preserved and used many of its constructive, socially useful elements.

Modern law of the 20th and 21st centuries is largely based on previous law, the same laws of France (customary law), Roman law; moreover, the pre-revolutionary systems of England and France and Germany did not disappear without a trace. Much of it has been updated in modern law, as medieval law functioned in a society that already knew both private property and market relations and a fairly high level of legal technique.

The formation of new law meant the formation of bourgeois capitalist law, broke guild corporations and feudal monopolies, creating the necessary space for the growth of production and trade, for personal initiative, for the full use of needs is developing rapidly. (1, 48-51)

Modern law, in contrast to pre-revolutionary law, which was characterized by disunity and particularism, was born everywhere in the form of integrated national legal systems. It was capitalism, breaking all kinds of castes, regional, customs and other barriers, led to the emergence of not only nation-states but also national legal systems. The legal system acquires a new way of its existence - the system of legislation and the system of law, which was practically present only in its infancy in ancient and medieval societies. The dominant principle in the legal systems of modern times is constitutional (state, public) law, on the basis of which the legal structure of any society was built.

Legislation had a special system-forming significance in the formation of the new law.