Roman law persists after the fall of Rome, not only governing private/business-relations, but also as the basis for the Western European legal order. When it comes down to the law the Roman Empire lived on as a virtual empire (of the imagination) more than a millennium after the actual fall of the physical empire in the West. Roman law was studied, codified and used as if the Empire was still there.

In Chapter 5 the definition of political institutions drives us to a discussion of the main ‘institutes’ that constitute them. Individual and atomistic political norms and rules are so many over space and time that a detailed discussion is impossible. While norms/rules identify micro political institutions, with the term ‘political institute’ I identify those clusters of norms-rules that preside over the solution to a functional political problem, namely: norms and rules of selection, responsibility, inclusion, representation, decision, competence, accountability, devolution and redress. In my view, these nine institutes cover and exhaust the field of political normativity. Each of them is discussed analytically and historically in the chapter.

The fourth chapter considers an area where the intuitive mind would guess that Calvin would eschew tradition. This is the area of his work to create vernacular language resources for believers. Calvin was part of the efforts to make doctrine more readily available for those who could not read Latin, the language of the universities, scholars, and the church. In planning to translate a series of sermons by John Chrysostom, a fourth- and fifth-century Greek writer, into French for the edification of laypeople, Calvin designed an entire project to put the early exegetical tradition before his flock. While Calvin never finished this project, he did take on another, that bore more significant fruit. Calvin translated his Institutes of the Christian Religion into French several times. It would seem that this would have provided Calvin the excuse to cleanse his work of allusions to the tradition. Certainly, his French-reading audience would not know that a certain text from Peter Lombard was a regular feature of an argument on grace. But instead of doing so, Calvin kept a large number of references and discussions of the orthodox tradition in his work, even for his vernacular readers.

In De jure belli ac pacis, Grotius constructs international law with the vocabulary of private law. For this purpose, he uses distinctions from the Institutes of Justinian and the Digest, but redefines key concepts of Roman law, such as natural law or law of nations (jus gentium). In doing so, he uses a method that is typical for humanist jurisprudence. On the one hand, he describes history, on the other hand, he renews the traditional system of law and adapts the law to the needs of his own day and age.

What is the legacy of Grotius’ doctrinal efforts, and how did they impact on current structures of international law? Was he providing a natural law foundation for the global order, or rather an instrument of power for sovereigns to assert their political and commercial dominion over the world?

In 1756, George Harris, a civilian, member of the Doctors’ Commons and holder of numerous ecclesiastical offices, published the very first full English translation of Justinian’s Institutes. In every possible way, the publication was unique. First of all, Harris was not involved in academia. After graduation, he devoted himself to the practice of law. Second, the full translation of the Institutes was unprecedented in English history. Finally, Harris’s project reached much further than just to translate the ancient legal textbook into English. The main goal of Harris was to encourage young people to study their own, national legal system. How was it possible? Harris equipped his translation with numerous “notes” – short commentaries where he was explaining, interpreting and comparing Roman and English law. The main aim of the presented chapter is to evaluate the content of Harris’s translation as well as to appraise his scholarship and knowledge regarding Roman and English legal literature.