Roman Law Origin Of The Concept Of Sovereignty

This thesis focuses on the question of impact of the Roman law on the concept of sovereign conceptualized by Jean Bodin. Such impact comes not only from the Roman law texts but also from the studies and comments by the medieval jurists. All new theories are based on the former studies and traditions, of which Bodin is a good example. This thesis takes a deep analysis of the defense by the medieval jurists, including the Glossators and Humanists, of their own political ideas and the actual political situation using the ideas and concepts of the Roman law. It is in these studies and comments and interaction of them with each other that bring out the core concept of the modern politics and state, which is the concept of sovereign.The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one introduces the intention, related studies and methods of this thesis. Chapter two further introduces the whole structure and main points of the thesis. Chapter three and four centers on the studies of Glossators and Humanists on related concepts of Roman law, respectively, which deepens the study and understanding of Roman law and also provides materials for the innovation of Bodin. At the beginning of Chapter three, I put out the question of the dispute between Lothair and Azo on the interpretation of merum impereium, which opens the gate of interpretation of relevant jurists in the following four centuries. Although it seems to be a technical question of interpretation, it involves the essence of the public power, which is the possession and distribution of the highest forms of authority. In the opinion of the Glossators, especially the Post Glossators represented by the Bartolus, the merum imperium can be divided and shared by officials of different levels. Such interpretation suits the feudal system of the time very well and remains the commonly accepted opinion in a long time in Europe. In the mean time, it is thought by theorists to be the classical interpretation of the medieval constitutionalism. With the strengthening of the power of prince, the much more centralized modern state system comes to be the main form of the organization of public power. Following this process, the interpretation of the jurists varied and changed accordingly, which is the situation before the France Humanists. Such question has been carried forward by Dumoulin and accepted and developed by Bodin, of which the final result is the formation of the concept of sovereign.This thesis uses the conceptual analysis and historical analysis methods, but emphasize on the former method and only refers to the historical and societal background in a few places. Differing from the historical and political theory and approach towards the issue, this thesis adopts the law-politic approach and intends to reveal the formation power of the law towards the politics in the process of analysis of the comments of Roman law jurists.