Epilogue

Abstract

The dossier of Clio@Themis on ius commune reflects how current historiography on ius commune has moved on since the late-twentieth century tendency of identifying the pre-codification civil law tradition as a blueprint for a possibly codified system of private law in the European Union. Civil law studies initiated in the medieval universities were intended to provide a science of the art of good government. Graduates from the law faculties were expected to have an expertise for counselling public governance, to ensure that it was perceived to be a just and legitimate exercise of political power. To achieve that purpose, public governance was supposed to remain within the rule of law, but that essential vocation of medieval jurisprudence was increasingly weakened from the early modern times onwards.

Keywords

• jurisprudence
• legal methods
• good government
• rule of law
• legal science