Studio sulle proposizioni relative e condizionali nel linguaggio legislativo romano. Parte I: Le basi della ricerca, linee di tendenza, prime testimonianze

This Paper is the first part of an investigation of the language of the ancient Roman legislation with particular focus on the conditional and the relative clauses. The conditional clause is a typical feature of the normative language and the relative clause has a peculiar important role in the Roman legislation. This paper tries to create the first basis of the investigation. It begins with a general introduction in the normative language with attention to the types of norms expressed in it and with the discussion of the relationships between language and law from the perspective of the Roman culture. It continues with a brief description of the historical development of the normative proposition into both elements of relative and conditional clauses. The necessary references to the ancient Near Eastern Laws, as well to the ancient Greek and Italic legislation are also presented. Finally the Paper tries to give a key of interpretation of the later evolution with an analysis of the first examples of the older Roman normative language