Download This PaperRepublican Legal Systems
Published in modified form in THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, Harriet I. Flower, ed., Cambridge, 2004
University of Baltimore School of Law Legal Studies Research
11 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2008 Last revised: 3 Sep 2008
Date Written: 2003
Abstract
Republican legal systems are systems of law and government that embrace the basic tenets of republican legal theory, as developed by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Polybius and their contemporaries, and by their various heirs and imitators in Italy, England, France, and the United States of America. Republicans argue that serving the public good constitutes the only sound basis for a just legal order, and conclude that all laws in all jurisdictions deserve public deference only to the extent they do so. The fundamental republican test of a legal systems legitimacy is whether its laws actually advance the res publica or common good of the people . Cicero observed that all republics must belong to separate peoples , by which he meant to large numbers of persons associated together to create a common sense of justice and shared public good. This remains the basis of republican legal theory today. Republican legal systems are whichever systems of law and justice serve the common good of the people the best.
Keywords: republicanism, history, american history, legal theory
JEL Classification: K1, K4
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation