Conflict Resolution by Consensus in Roman Law: Historical Approach to Mediation

Abstract

Mediation is currently considered the new paradigm in conflict management, transformation and resolution. It is, indeed, a modern legal institution, but perhaps the Roman experience that serves as its foundations has been forgotten. In Roman law the parties could agree to end a dispute or prevent it from starting through transactio, that is, through consensus. It was the magistrate with iurisdictio who was in charge of leading or facilitating the management of that conflict, a competence that is reminiscent of that of today’s mediator. Thus, the essential interest of this work is the analysis of Roman legal sources and the reinterpretation that glossators carry out in order to offer the historical-legal iter of mediation.