Matrimonium (Marriage) in Roman Law. The Impact of the Provisions of 'Jus Romanum' on International and National Matrimonial Law

摘要

From the pages of our paper, the reader will first of all get acquainted with the norms and doctrine of Roman law regarding the institution of marriage, the impact of which can be noticed even today in international and national matrimonial law. As for the marriage legislation of some States in the South-Eastern European area - including Romania - we have set out to demonstrate that the impact of Roman law on their marriage legislation was made especially through "Jus romanum novum", i.e. the Byzantine law, whose Collections of mixed legislations (state and ecclesiastical), which circulated in the form of Code of Laws (Nomocanons), are in fact part of the patrimony of the European judicial culture. Furthermore, from the pages of our paper, the reader will be able to see that these Collections of legislations, of Byzantine origin, actually form the substratum of modern legislation, hence the need to return "ad fontes" (back to the sources), because the jurist of today can no longer limit himself/herself to the knowledge or the hermeneutic analysis of the laws in force if he/she really wants a holistic approach and presentation of the institution of marriage.