Legal History Quiz

Legal History: Study of the Evolution and Development of Law

• Legal history is the study of how law has evolved and changed, and it is closely linked to the development of civilizations and social history.
• Legal history has been seen as the technical explanation of the evolution of laws and the origin of legal concepts, while others consider it a branch of intellectual history.
• Twentieth-century historians viewed legal history in a contextualized manner, analyzing legal institutions as complex systems of rules, players, and symbols that interact with society to change, adapt, resist, or promote certain aspects of civil society.
• Ancient Egyptian law, dating back to 3000 BC, was based on the concept of Ma'at, characterized by tradition, rhetorical speech, social equality, and impartiality.
• The Code of Hammurabi, developed by King Hammurabi of Babylon, was the first extant law code and was inscribed in stone and placed throughout the kingdom for the public to see.
• Ancient Greek law had no single word for "law" as an abstract concept, retaining instead the distinction between divine law, human decree, and custom.
• The Arthashastra and the Manusmriti were influential treatises in India, texts that were considered authoritative legal guidance.
• Japan was the first country to begin modernizing its legal system along western lines, while traditional Chinese law gave way to westernization in the form of six private law codes based mainly on the Japanese model of German law.
• The legal history of the Catholic Church is the history of Catholic canon law, the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West.
• Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek teachings and forms the bridge to the modern legal world, over the centuries between the rise and decline of the Roman Empire.
• During the Byzantine Empire, the Justinian Code was expanded and remained in force until the Empire fell, while in former Roman countries, the ruling classes relied on the Theodosian Code to govern natives and Germanic customary law for the Germanic incomers, which blended together.
• The English legal system developed primarily out of the English common law system, while Louisiana continued to follow the French civilian system after being admitted to statehood.