The Influence on Marcus Tullius Cicero on Modern Legal and Political Ideas

Abstract

Marcus Tullius Cicero is the father of modern law and politics. Cicero's influence was significant throughout subsequent European history, but never so much nor so directly as in the emergence of modernity and in the development of modern law and constitutional government. The early moderns became faithful apostles of Cicero's thought and ideals because their world and political circumstances were in many ways closer to those of Cicero than to those of any intervening centuries. The influence of Cicero's legal and political ideas on the modern world illustrates the decisive importance that the study of history can have on legal innovation and social change. The modern world would not have developed where it did, when it did, nor as it did were it not for the life and writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Keywords: Cicero,Modernity, Modern Law, Modern Politics, Constitutionalism, European Law, Legal Innovation, Roman Law, Roman Influence, Republicanism

JEL Classification: N43, N40, K10, K19, B10