"Negari tamen non potest Venetos Ius Civile Romanorum colere et venerari": Venetian Law and ius commune between the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

In the mid-Seventeenth century, Arthur Duck noted that the Venetians lived according to their own customs and laws, without adopting the Ius Civile Romanorum. The author, however, remarked that in modern Venice those same Roman laws were renowned and to some extent followed. The present contribution investigates this issue through an analysis of judicial practice in both criminal and civil matters. As we will see, the authority of ius commune in criminal matters was often evident and sometimes explicit, whereas in civil matters Roman laws were applied only insofar as they reflected natural justice and equity.