i know that roman law is supposed to be the basis of western law, but i still don't know; what they added, to what their predecessors did, that is still around today. so caesar44, if i am understanding you correctly, you are saying that the right of 'appeal to the people' over a magistrate is a roman invention. but in a modern day court in france let's say, if a man is convicted of murder, he can't appeal to the t.v. audience to get a different verdict. i hope this helps to clarify what i am asking. what exactly did they create that we still use today? and i don't mean legal terms unless they were the first to create the terms. so the word 'client' wouldn't count even though it is a roman legal term, unless the romans were the ones to introduce the concept of a 'client.'