Professor Riccardo Cardilli and Professor Roberta Marini from the University of Rome Tor Vergata were invited to deliver a lecture titled Obligations and Contracts: From Juristic Wisdom to Codification Practice to the students on Haidian Campus on the evening of 25 June.
The lecture was chaired by Professor Fei Anling, with Professor Liu Wenjie and Associate Professor Li Lin serving as commentators.
Cardilli led the audience through the Roman law tradition, tracing the concept of consensus as the core of contractual agreement back to the jus gentium. He noted that Article 1101 of the Napoleonic Code continued this tradition. From an etymological perspective, he explained that the term 'contract' conveys the idea of "drawing together", highlighting the creation of new legal realities by combining differing intentions. While ‘agreement’ reflects the convergence of multiple parties in a dynamic process, 'consensus' focuses on the shared mental judgment. Cardilli further observed that obligations arising from contracts—one of Roman law's key innovations—transform diverse positions into binding legal duties. Institutionally, Roman law balanced the rigidity of formal contracts with the principle of good faith under the jus gentium, developing a binary performance model in formulary procedures based on delivery and action. He explained that the term praestare already encapsulated modern concepts of warranty and liability for breach, exemplifying Roman law's legislative wisdom in marrying formal precision with substantive justice.
Marini then offered a detailed overview of the Roman law contract system, focusing on the sources of obligations and the unique classification of contractual forms. She explained that classical Roman contract law categorised obligations according to the form of agreement, distinguishing four types: real, verbal, written, and consensual contracts. Marini noted that Mucius developed a genus-species logic to define the creation and dissolution of contractual obligations, while Labeo restricted the notion of contracts to legal acts that generated bilateral obligations—a theory that had profound influence on later jurisprudence. She also highlighted the paradigm shifts and discontinuities in the Roman contractual tradition. Marini concluded by stressing that although modern private law continues to use Roman legal terminology, the substantive meanings have significantly changed. The current dogmatisation of the consensual theory diverges fundamentally from Roman legal design, reflecting a broader tension between legal tradition and modern societal demands.
The lecture concluded with commentary from Liu and Li, marking a successful end to the event.
