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Western law comprises thelegal traditions ofWestern culture, with roots inRoman law andcanon law. As Western culture shares aGraeco-RomanClassical andRenaissance cultural influence, so do its legal systems.
The rediscovery of theJustinian Code in the early 10th century rekindled a passion for the discipline of law, initially shared across many of the re-forming boundaries between East and West.[1] Eventually, it was only in theCatholic orFrankish west thatRoman law became the foundation of all legal concepts and systems. Its influence can be traced to this day in all Western legal systems, although differing in kind and degree between thecommon (Anglo-American) and thecivil (continental European) legal traditions.
The study ofcanon law, the legal system of theCatholic Church,[2][3] fused with that of Roman law to form the basis for the refounding of Western legal scholarship. It was the first modern Westernlegal system[4] and is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West.[5][6] Its principles ofcivil rights,equality before thelaw,equality of women,procedural justice, anddemocracy as the ideal form ofsociety formed the basis of modernWestern culture.[citation needed]
Western culture, sometimes equated withWestern civilization, Western lifestyle orEuropean civilization, is a term used very broadly to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe.
Westernlegal culture is unified in the systematic reliance on legal constructs. Such constructs includecorporations,contracts,estates, rights and powers to name a few. These concepts are not only nonexistent in primitive or traditional legal systems but they can also bepredominantly incapable of expression in those language systems[clarify][neutrality isdisputed] which form the basis of such legal cultures.[7]
As a general proposition, the concept of legal culture depends onlanguage andsymbols and any attempt to analyse non western legal systems in terms of categories of modern western law can result in distortion attributable to differences in language.[7] So while legal constructs are unique to classical Roman, modern civil and common law cultures, legal concepts or primitive and archaic law get their meaning from sensed experience based on facts as opposed to theory or abstract. Legal culture therefore in the former group is influenced by academics, learned members of the profession and historically, philosophers. The latter group's culture is harnessed by beliefs, values and religion at a foundation level.
