ABSTRACT
The history of the emergence of feudalism out of the decline of the Roman Empire is in itself a reflection of the power of the idea of contract. The hierarchical dimension of European feudalism had two aspects. One was the continuation of the hierarchical structure of the Roman Empire as adopted and adapted by the Catholic Church, which institutionalized it as its most fundamental constitutional principle, thereby continuing in at least a formal way the secular Imperium of Rome. The second aspect is related to feudalism, which reputedly originated in response to the period of anarchy following the invasions of the barbarians and the fall of Rome. Feudalism had its origins in post-Roman Italy, yet in no place were the city republics stronger than in the Italian peninsula, particularly in its north central and northern regions. The feudal synthesis embraced one dimension of contract law, namely, the Roman conception of quasi contract.
