The two Roman constitutions: from the ancient constitution to the one that arose around the imperial power

Abstract

These reflections were born in the context of the debate on the constitutional change that we have recently experienced in our country. The national contingency led us to reflect on the possible contribution of the Roman experience to this question. In approaching the topic, we realized that it was impossible to move forward without recognizing some prior questions that allowed us to situate the basic argument: first, it was necessary to resolve the question of the existence or not of a normative system or legal system in Roman law; second, it referred to the question of public and private, in the sense of whether Roman law recognized the existence of two legal spheres, each with its own principles and rules. Once these two issues had been clarified, we were able to proceed with the proposal that constitutes the core of this article, which is to determine whether a Roman constitution existed and in what terms it could have been conceived. Then, in the second part of the paper, we propose the idea that it did exist, but that it was superseded by a political event of the greatest importance: the emergence of the Empire. With the passing of the years and the concentration of power in the hands of the emperor, this first Roman constitution acquired other bases and principles; this is the reason why we speak of a real constitutional change: a second Roman constitution.