La nozione di ius gentium nelle fonti di età repubblicana

The idea of ius gentium, in the sources of the Republican period, is not restricted to a specific field of private or international law but is on the contrary quite general: it is an ancient idea, already formed in the II century BC and probably older, which conveys the Roman belief in the existence of rules in force among all peoples. These rules, when accepted in the law of the civitas, become immediately part of the ius civile, without any need of a statute and without any connections with the ius honorarium.