In the communist countries Roman law was perceived as the law of a slavery-based society and as the basis of the capitalist legal systems. It was treated as incompatible with the principles of socialist law and therefore its teaching was either limited or eliminated from the university syllabi.

The demise of communism system had a new impact on the studies of Roman law. Roman law was again commonly accomplished as the basis of the European legal culture. Roman law influenced formation of the modern legal systems, it enables the lawyers of different countries to communicate and to understand the essence of various legal systems, their similarities and differences. The knowledge of the principles of Roman law can play a major role in the process of unification of European law.

Teaching and studying of Roman law meet particular obstacles in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Although well developed studies on ancient Roman history existed there, Roman law was lectured in most general manner, which did not allow students to understand the importance of Roman law for the modern legal culture. This subject was (and often still is) lectured not by a specialist, but by professors of legal history, legal theory and civil law. Presently, in these countries there is a substantial need for the redevelopment of the studies on Roman law, and thus for specialised teachers of the subject.

This need was particularly visible at the Moscow conference organised by the Centre of Roman Law Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Law Faculty of Lomonosow University in November 1997, as also during 7th Conference of Romanists from Central and Eastern Europe and Italy held by Centro per gli studi su Diritto Romano e Sistemi giuridici del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (presided by prof. Catalano of University Roma I) in December 1998. Numerous lecturers from universities and law colleges in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Khabarovsk, Ekaterynburg, Elistie, Erevan, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Odessa, Saratov, Syktyvkar, Vladivostock, Voronez, Tbilisi  met there representatives of the romanists from Romania, Hungary, Poland and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. 

The participants of the meeting unanimously backed the motion of W. Wołodkiewicz to create in the Warsaw University "Scuola di formazione nel diritto Romano" for the young lecturers of Roman law from the said countries. 
The School shall enable contacts between romanists from the former USSR  and their colleagues from the other post-socialist and other countries, especially from Italy. This goal shall be achieved by:

• seminars and lectures organised in different university centres aimed at preparing of the young scholars for their scientific and didactic work. The Polish universities with their experienced romanists and established contacts with the other Roman law centres (especially Italian ones) could provide staffing of such meetings. Apart form them the researchers from Italy and other centres could lecture at the seminars;
• post-graduate training at the universities with established tradition of Roman law teaching and good libraries;
• helping the best students of the School to achieve scholarships in Italy;
• promoting teaching of Italian as essential language for the research on Roman law.

Prof. Witold Wołodkiewicz
- Head of the International School of Roman Law (MSPR)
- Chairmen of the Committee for Ancient Culture of the Polish Academy of Science
- Deputy Head of  the Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition in Poland and East-Central Europe (OBTA) University of Warsaw