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As a country extending in all directions, ancient Rome once occupied an important position in world history. Due to the development of the commodity economy, the social development level of ancient Rome was relatively prosperous and the level of civilization was relatively high.
It is precisely because the personal consciousness of the ancient Roman public is constantly awakening in the process of social progress, so people will think more about the future development of the country.
If we want to develop the country, we must cultivate new construction forces, and cultivating emerging talents is inseparable from education. In ancient Rome, when familism was prevalent, adults implemented a guardianship system for minors.
However, with the changes of the times, the guardianship system has gradually developed different meanings in different societies. How has this system changed? What are the social reasons behind it? Let’s find out together.
Familism, emphasizing rights
The level of economic development in ancient Rome was undoubtedly quite developed compared to other places at the same time. In an era of rapid development of the commodity economy, the social and economic elements of ancient Rome became more flexible, and the people's living standards gradually improved.
At that time, with the prevalence of familism, people paid more attention to their next generation in social life. How to regulate the behavior of minors in social life, how to restrict their development in the most appropriate way, and how to supervise their every move at every necessary moment are questions that adults will think about.
Under this social background, the guardianship system was gradually born.
The guardianship system of ancient Rome is different from what we call guardians and wards today. In essence, the two systems are different.
The guardian and ward we are talking about today is a social relationship derived from the parental authority relationship. Generally speaking, guardians are the direct relatives of the ward, and the two have direct blood connections. When the ward cannot bear legal responsibility on his own, the guardian will make up for the ward's mistakes when they make mistakes.
In other words, our guardianship system today is actually a kind of protection for minors.
But in ancient Rome, the guardianship system was not like this. The guardianship system of ancient Rome emphasized the rights of adults over minors. They would treat minors, that is, the wards, as their own property.
For example, in a family, the ward holds certain assets. However, under the guardianship system, he must hand over this asset to his guardian, who has full authority to handle it. Not only the assets, but also him as a person must comply with all the ways the guardian handles him.
Therefore, the guardianship system of ancient Rome actually emphasized the rights of the guardian. In a legal sense, this is a form of guardianship in a narrow sense. He does not emphasize the independent personality of the ward, but only focuses on the obligations and responsibilities of the ward.
Obviously, in the ancient Roman era when familism was prevalent, this guardianship system was very beneficial to the stable development of social order.
When social development is based on the family, the stability of the family means the stability of society. By weakening the rights of the ward and emphasizing the rights of the guardian, many conflicts arising from individual independent personality can be avoided.
This kind of family stability and social stability is based on the premise of the transfer of the interests of the ward. In the " Twelve Copper Tables Law ", the state also uses public power to explain the rationality of the guardianship system.
In the eyes of people at the time, this system was reasonable. But if we look at the guardianship system of ancient Rome from the perspective of future generations, we will find that this system actually fundamentally violates the principle of equality for all.
With the continuous awakening of people's self-awareness, people have gradually realized that familism is no longer fully applicable to the development of society at this stage. When familism gradually fades from the stage of history, the guardianship system derived from familism will also inevitably change.
- The emergence of the empire and the development of public rights
During the ancient Roman period, legal awareness did not penetrate into all aspects of social life. Therefore, even if there are various unreasonable situations in the guardianship system, no one will challenge the authority of this system.
But during the Roman Empire period, all social realities were very different from before.
The Roman Empire was the heyday of Rome development. During this period, social industry and commerce rose rapidly, domestic and overseas trade advanced hand in hand, and political reform events continued to occur in the country. The economy is developing, politics is developing, and social culture will also develop.
During this period, the status of the monarch of the Roman Empire should not be underestimated. When a ruler consciously safeguards his own rights, all old systems that are opposed to his fundamental interests will surely be destroyed by him. The familialism of ancient Rome was like this.
Familialism emphasizes the power of the family and the clan, which is something the emperor of the Roman Empire did not want to see. What he wants is to have all the power in his own hands. Therefore, in order to maintain his personal rule, he will definitely push the familialism of ancient Rome to withdraw from the stage of history.
Correspondingly, the guardianship system also changed during this period.
The previous guardianship system emphasized the role of parental authority in a family, and the guardian had rights over the ward.
But now during the Roman Empire, the guardianship system extended to new content. It incorporates certain aspects of state public power into the system, and it no longer represents the social relations within a family.
At this time, familyism changed to nationalism. What the guardianship system emphasizes is the supervision and restriction of other social rights by the state's public power.
In terms of authoritative rule of the country, the ruler enjoys the supreme status and rights. What he represents, or what the ruling class represents, is the guardian role in the guardianship system.
The people at the bottom of society, or other ordinary people, represent the role of wards in the guardianship system. When the guardianship system emphasizes unilateral rights and obligations, the ruling class also has unilateral rights over the ruled class.
With the development of the Roman Empire, social legal awareness was constantly being improved. As a social system stipulated by law, the guardianship system is also developing with the times.
The guardianship system in ancient Rome did not have clear legal provisions, nor was it given clear responsibilities and obligations by law. It can be applied to all aspects of social life, but in some cases there is no way to give a specific legal interpretation of and .
But in the Eastern Roman Empire , social laws gave more explanations to the guardianship system. The guardianship system actually provides a kind of protection to the ward, and the law also recognizes the ward's free person status. In other words, the subject personality of the ward is recognized.
When the king of Eastern Rome promulgated the "Civil Code", he also emphasized the importance of the guardianship system. He believes: "Guardianship refers to a right granted by civil law to protect free people who are unable to protect themselves due to age."
From this point, we can also see that the social consciousness of Roman citizens is constantly improving. From the guardianship system in ancient Rome, to the guardianship system in the Western Roman Empire , and then to the "Civil Code Encyclopedia" of the Eastern Roman Empire, the connotation and significance of the guardianship system are constantly being improved.
From the overall perspective of the development of ancient Roman society, this is a very beneficial phenomenon. After all, a comprehensive country cannot develop based on the personal wishes of its rulers. Necessary social laws can play a role in defining the borders in the process of national development.
So when we talk about ancient Roman civilization today, we will definitely talk about Roman law . Every legal practitioner must also have some understanding of Roman law. Today's modern social laws actually draw certain lessons from Roman law.
Roman law represents the highlight moment of ancient Roman civilization, and actually played a certain foundational role in the development of later generations of law.
- The influence of later generations cannot be ignored
From the improvement of the guardianship system, we can see that the people of ancient Rome had a firm sense of innovation in social laws. They would have completely different legal interpretations of the guardianship system during the development of ancient Rome and the development of the Roman Empire.
Society allows the guardianship system to continuously adapt to the development of the times, and this system will also be accepted by more people.
At the same time, the guardianship system also maintains the stability of the country's public power in a legal sense. Therefore, explaining the legality and rationality of the ruling class's rule from a legal perspective has become something that subsequent countries must do when constructing their own laws.
In general, Roman law had an important influence on the entire Western countries and even later Eastern countries. Whether it is traditional capitalist countries such as Britain and France, or the later rise of the United States, when they revise their national constitutions, they will look for the spirit of the law and the interpretation of the law from Roman law.
The existence of Roman law itself provides a certain blueprint for the legal system. The guardianship system was an important part of it, but it could not summarize all of Roman law.
When we have the opportunity to understand the real Roman law, we will definitely be amazed at the vastness of the legal world. The spirit of the law and the fairness and justice that the law emphasizes should be upheld in any era.
Conclusion:
The guardianship system in ancient Rome was more like a family relationship that stipulated the rights of guardians to wards.
During the Roman Empire, due to the different characteristics of the times, the guardianship system also derived more meanings and played a role in safeguarding the country's public power. In the subsequent development process, the guardianship system of ancient Rome was also copied by other countries.
Although each country has different expressions of the guardianship system, when looking at the spiritual core, we can all find the shadow of Roman law.
Reference materials:
1. "Law of the Twelve Tables of Bronze"
2. "Encyclopedia of Civil Law"
