INFLUENȚA DREPTULUI ROMAN ASUPRA DREPTULUI POZITIV PRIVIND FORMA ȘI FORMALISMUL ACTULUI JURIDIC CIVIL (I)

Formalism in Roman law prevails in all its branches, starting with the court procedure and
ending in the interpersonal relations. Its role was to ensure the validity of consent and the
procurement of evidence. The legal act in the Roman law was practically non-existent. The Roman
legal documents received the proper form after the practice, according to the existing customs. It was
the custom that dictated the form which any instrument meant to produce concrete legal effects, but
also future legal effects, had to have. The legal report was formed through gestures and religious
formalities, which gave rise to principles that ensured the optimal functioning of the legal system
related to the context of that age. The updating of the formalism was required when there was an
obstacle in achieving the goals of public and private order. The need to change the private law
emphasized by the subjects of a legal relation and imposed by the economic evolution of trade has
transformed a formalism that had its origin in religion, into a formalism dictated by current practices.
In the current law, the civil legal act is born by the express manifestation of the will of the
subjects of law, a will that must take a certain form. The observance of the form is ensured by the
procedural formalism imposed by the legal norms in force.
The present study analyzes the formalism of the Roman law and its imprint in the formation of
the legal act from the positive law