WHEN IN ROME ……………… !

The broad concept of medical negligence existed during the time of the Roman Empire.¹

Standards of care were recognized as a measure of duty owed by one contractual party to another. Classical lawyers appear to have distinguished three degrees of liability, one of which was culpa (fault or negligence). As an abstract and generalized concept of law, culpa was a failure to conform to vague objective standards of good faith and care shown by the bonus paterfamilias (reasonable man). 

Culpa also distinguished fault by degree, with culpa lata (gross fault) implying “not to understand what everyone else understands”, suggesting carelessness and bad faith. 

This is not to suggest that there was any significant body of medical negligence law in Roman times – there certainly was not.  However, the above concepts, having been most often applied to commercial contracts, were the foundation for the evolution of negligence law, which includes medical malpractice.

[1] Barry Nicholas, An Introduction to Roman Law, Oxford University Press, 1962.