Case based reasoning and formulary procedure: A guard against individual emotions.

Roman law achieved its greatness through a progressive improvement of tools designed to properly “set”, rather than “solving”, disputes. This aspiration is well displayed in the first of the two stages in which the proceedings were organized, when the parties had to channel their claims into a scheme: the “formula”. The formulas have been the best result that Roman legal reasoning could produce, and they can still give us precious methodological insights. With the help of some examples taken from the Digest and from contemporary judicial experience this paper will try to investigate the legal struggle between individual emotions and rationality.