The legal humanists were a group of scholars of Roman law, which arose in Italy during the Renaissance with the works of Lorenzo Valla and Andrea Alciato as a reaction against the Commentators.
Since the Renaissance humanists were primarily concerned with a return to classical society, they were not solely interested in the law, but instead in the historical context.
Some humanists placed little emphasis on the law except in respect to what it revealed about the Roman society, for example, Alicus.
Court advocates and notaries remained faithful to the commentaries because the work of the commentators had been better circulated.
Since they already knew the works of the commentators, they had a vested interest in ensuring that they remained the basis of the court system.
They were thus the natural mediator in Italy when there was no emperor (and they had Imperial authority), they created a comprehensive system of law.
When in French the church and crown were opposed, the humanists were able to help the king gain control with their use of logic.
The humanists and commentators had reached the point where they acknowledged a large number of ways that agreement could be “clothed” in order to give rise to legal action, however, they still maintained that these were exceptions to the general rule that an agreement could not give rise to an action on its own.
Thus, we might expect that the humanists would have brought the change that Gordley credits to the Spanish NeoScholastics.