Why did the roman empire need two systems of law?
During the period of the republic, the administration of justice was in the hands of the consul, pretors, and inferior magistrates. It was during the epoch of the republic that most of the fundamental rules for the regulation of private rights and peaceful pursuits were introduced into Roman law. The law was gradually developed by the peculiar modes of administering justice. In the later days of the republic the praetor urbanus was the magistrate chiefly concerned in the administration of justice. But neither he nor any other Roman judicial magistrate ever decided directly the matter brought before him. He only allowed the action upon a statement made by the plaintiff, and regulated the proceedings to a point in which the matter in dispute was reduced to a proper form for investigation and decision. The case thus prepared was then referred by him, with directions, to a judex, chosen by the parties themselves from amongst their fellow-citizens, whose function it was to investigate the f
