There is that, true. And I guess some legal principles also derive from Roman times. But I meant more the trust/mistrust in government that they were measuring in the article.
Yeah. I went into hand-waving-territiry, because didn't have any concrete references at hand. In medieval history, there is a distinction to be made between roman and germanic law. The concept of roman law is that things are written down and a crime is interpreted in relation to the formal, written text. In germanic law, things are much more contextual. There weren't a lot of formal laws, instead you'll have collection of respected eldars pass judgement. So basically, roman law is pretty much what we have today.
Now, I still haven't directly answered your question of course, but the fact that the whole concept of law can be traced back to the romans is at least fairly close.
Some of that Roman vs. Germanic distinction still remains, right? The European continental system relies much more on the written laws, and the Anglo-Saxon system more on precedent.
Should also be noted that I wasn't really expecting an answer. A proper answer would probably require another study like the one referenced in this post :-)
