| Roman' s Contribution to human civilization is its unique law culture, of which Cicero' s thoughts of law are one of the important component. Nurtured by Hellenistic culture, assimilating the essence of Roman law simultaneously, Cicero speculated upon the law as well as the way of governance with both rational mind as a thinker and pragmatically acute perception as a statesman. Based on long period of legal and political practice, he gradually constructed a law thoughts system aiming at the reality of Roman society and politics which in return prompted the development of Roman law and accelerated the current of western law-governing ism. This article will dissertate upon Cicero' s thoughts of law from four parts as follows.In the first part a brief account will be given of Cicero' s life, by which Cicero' s legal and political career will be outlined, and this will render the reader a general impression on Cicero' s whole life.In the second part the background from which Cicero' s thoughts of law was brewed will be analyzed. In this part, the author will anatomize following respects as Cicero' s family origin, early education, social relations, reality of Roman society and politics of that time, the status of progress of Roman law, etc. try to illustrate the function and influence of these background factors in the formation of Cicero' s thoughts of law.The third part is the main body in which the author will discourse every component of Ciceo' s thoughts of law respectively which are including the thought of natural law, theory of constitution, thought of religious law, thoughtof property law, thought of warring law, thought of voting law. Through these discourses, the author tries to disclose the truth and real purpose of Cicero' s thoughts of law, and give comments on their progressiveness and limitations.In the fourth part, the influence will be disguessed of Cicero* s thoughts of law on the Roman law as well as subsequent evolution of western thoughts of law from historical perspective, and evaluation will be given on historical status of Cicero' s thoughts of law in the stream of western law-governing ism. |
