Method Bolognese: Key Features and Influence

The Outstanding Features of the Bolognese Method

Faithfulness to Justinian Texts

A common idea among commentators was that Justinian texts held an almost sacred origin. Legal work involved careful and humble interpretation by lawyers, aimed at clarifying the meaning of the words and making sense of them.

Analytical and Not Systematic Approach

Lawyers conducted independent analyses of each legal text through "readings" (such as interlinear or marginal glosses or more complete reviews).

The Gloss

The "gloss" (a brief explanation of a Corpus Juris Civilis paragraph) was the basic model of this school. It cultivated diverse literary types: interpretive glosses, briefs summarizing a title, formulations of doctrinal rules, discussions of controversial legal issues, lists of arguments used in legal discussions, and analyses of case studies.

Creation of Technical Legal Language

The commentators recreated technical legal language in Western Europe, establishing terminology, categories, and specific concepts of a new specialized knowledge: jurisprudence.

Theoretical and Dogmatic Goal

The commentators' goal was more theoretical and dogmatic (demonstrating the rationality of venerable legal texts) than pragmatic. This led to their alienation from the legal and legislative life of the time, as they focused exclusively on interpreting Roman texts.

Denial of the Need for Confirmation by Use

Civilists denied that written text needed confirmation by use. This, for example, led to the denial of the validity of customs contrary to written law. Their influence on the legal and political life of their time stemmed from the intellectual authority of their knowledge.

The School of the Commentators and the Rise of Commercial Law

Assessment of Local Rights

As urban and commercial momentum grew, it began to translate into a legal assessment of local rights, and university lawyers became willing to accept the consolidation of common law.

Integration of New Legal Principles

With the adaptation of this new economic and social life across larger regions and the establishment of trade links between cities and states, the principles of the new law (introduced by the jura propria in Italian cities) needed to be integrated into the ius commune. From a host of different rules of origin, an organic corpus emerged, dominated by principles articulated to respond to the ideal of organic intellectual discourse. This marked the full development of an integration process of new principles into ius commune.