A brief overview on the historical beginnings of Health law in the broader context of Private law

Abstract

Health law and its issues could seem to be just a contemporary problem, with a history going back no more than a century. However, the history of law and especially the history of private law can give us new insights into how traditional institutions such as torts, contracts, liability, consent, the status of persons and property have been drafted in and recomposed in this framework, together with borrowings from public law, to achieve this contemporary eclectic discipline.

Because the contemporary Romanian private law is tributary to the mid-19^th century transplant from the French Civil Code of 1804, we will use the historical method to examine how the traces of modern-day health law can be found in much older private law institutions. We will examine this evolution in a Western European context because, ever since the Roman times and up until the 19^thcentury civil codes, this area has been the cradle of private law and its relevance overcomes the geographical boundaries and spreads to all the countries that have ever adopted a Western European-inspired civil code.