On 3 June 2008 the National Family Policy Concept was adopted by Seimas that states the goals and principles of the state family policy and several times refers to historical and scientific experience. The present article aims to reveal the historical and legal experience of the ancient Rome that laid foundations of contemporary private law and to compare the goals of the National Family Policy Concept and the state policy of the ancient Rome regarding family issues. The concept of family (...) framed by the National Family Policy Concept is based on matrimony. This is why the authors of the article focus on Roman matrimony. Having discussed the ancient Roman concept of marriage and Roman state policy regarding issues of matrimony and family and comparing it with the aims of the National Family Policy concept it might be stated that policy of encouraging family and promoting family relations based on matrimony that is provided by the Lithuanian state is not a new invention but may also refer to legal resolutions of the ancient Rome. (shrink)

Right to life is an essential natural right protected and defended by law. The aim of this publication is to discuss the main issues regarding human right to life and its protection in the Roman law. Article deals with the problems of beginning and end of the human life and legal capacity in Rome, elements of legal protection of slaves and family members subject to pater familias life as well as the principle crimes attempting to human life. First of all, (...) the right to life as well as the right to liberty were held to be the institutes of natural law (ius naturale) meanwhile institutes that provided possibility to withdraw those rights (e. g. patria potestas that in the most ancient époque included right to decide on subject person’s right to life) are derived from the branches of positive law—civil (ius civile) and law of nations (ius gentium). Such attitude of the Roman jurisprudence had a solid impact on recognizing right of life to be an inherent law of every person, deriving immediately from the human nature and not conferred by the society and the state. (shrink)

In Roman civil procedure legal representatives (cognitores, procuratores) functioned together with their different assistants (advocati, patroni, oratores) who had the right to participate in the procedure together with the party and not instead of it. This article aims to show the peculiarities of the legal status of advocates, patrons, rhetoricians and other assistants of the litigants in civil procedure, the concept of a bar, as a professional corporation, presumption of its origin and mission in ancient Rome, origins of state guaranteed (...) legal aid and the institute of obligatory participation of the advocate in the procedure, the conditions of the agreement between the advocate and the client (mandatum), the peculiarities of the advocate’s fees for legal services, the responsibility of the advocate for improper execution of duties and other issues. (shrink)