环境要素的罗马法处遇:森林与矿产

Protection of Environmental Elements in Roman Law:Forests and Minerals

罗马人虽然并不具有一般意义上的环境保护意识,但是面对环境要素的破坏所带来的直观感受,某些敏锐者仍然试图从法律上予以适当规制。通过裁判官与法学家的互动,罗马人构造了一系列保护空气和水的法律规则体系。但在森林和矿产的法律保护上,罗马人似乎没有展现出同样的智慧,对环境问题的某种模糊感知并未转化为立法者和法学家的相应制度建构。罗马人选择了为经济利益而舍弃其他,因此对这两种自然资源的过度开发在法律上没有进行有效的干预。无节制的森林砍伐以及因之带来的水土流失和利益诱导下的矿产过度开采,都在某种程度上造成了一些加速罗马帝国不断衰落的问题,成为罗马帝国走向衰亡的重要促因。

Although the Romans do not have a general sense of environmental protection,some sharp-eyed persons are still trying to regulate them legally in the face of intuitive feelings caused by the destruction of environmental elements.Through the interaction between the magistrate and the jurist,the Romans constructed a series of legal rules to protect the air and water.But in the legal protection of forests and minerals,the Romans did not seem to show the same wisdom.Their ambiguous perception of environmental problems did not translate into the corresponding institutional construction in the hands of legislators and jurists.The Romans chose to abandon others for economic benefits,so there has been no effective legal intervention on the over-exploitation of the forests and minerals.Ultimately,uncontrolled deforestation and consequent soil erosion and over-exploitation of minerals have,to some extent,caused some problems which contribute to the accelerating decline of the Roman Empire.