27 BCE – 476 CE: Roman Empire

Roman Empire develops the ideas of natural law and the rights of people. The Roman jurist
Cicero (10643 BCE) established the first concept of “natural law.” In his book De republica ,
he stated that: true law is right reason in agreement with nature…to curtail this law is impious,
to amend it illicit, to repeal it impossible…nor will it be one law at Rome and a different one
at Athens, but one and the same Law, eternal and unchangeable”.

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