Roman Public Law in the Twelfth Century: Politics, Jurisprudence, and Reverence for Antiquity (original) (raw)
THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF ROMAN LAW AND SOCIETY
The Oxford Handbook of Roman Law and Society surveys the landscape of contemporary research and charts principal directions of future inquiry. More than a history of doctrine or an account of jurisprudence, the Handbook brings to bear upon Roman legal study the full range of intellectual resources of contemporary legal history, from comparison to popular constitutionalism, from international private law to law and society, thereby setting itself apart from other volumes as a unique contribution to scholarship on its subject. The Handbook brings the study of Roman law into closer alignment and dialogue with historical, sociological, and anthropological research into law in other periods. It will therefore be of value not only to ancient historians and legal historians already focused on the ancient world, but to historians of all periods interested in law and its complex and multifaceted relationship to society.
Messages from Antiquity. Roman Law and Current Legal Debates. Introduction
„Messages from Antiquity“, 2019
This book is a compilation of papers presented at the conference held in February 2016 at Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan) under the title "Messages from the Antiquity: How can Roman law contribute to current debates in law?" For the occasion, Prof. Mariko Igimi invited Roman law researchers from around the world to discuss the importance of Roman law with the students of the LL.M. in International Economic and Business Law. Tue aim was to identify and build links between Roman and modern law through such interaction. We came to understand that Roman law is significant on the one hand because it provides the historical basis of civil law in continental Europe and other civil law jurisdictions, induding Japan. On the other hand, the texts of Roman law also provide us with a space to reflect on "new" issues of legal politics. Therefore, they help to analyse legal problems and might provide support for the development of solutions. Tue unique experience of having such a diverse group of students from all over the world, induding common law jurisdictions such as UK and New Zealand participating in the discussion, served as the main inspiration to open a gateway for a larger group of readers to different ideas and questions on the persisting relevance of Roman law, in the hope that they will discover "new" elements in "ancient" law. Hence, this book is for students, legal practitioners and academics who wish to widen their horizons with a different perspective on Roman law. To the European reader, it might be interesting to find the ongoing importance of the Roman legacy in Japanese law, whereas the almost unbroken continuity of the European legal tradition might be of special interest to Asian readers. By any account, the diversity and scope of the different artides in this book will show once again that the study of Roman law from very different perspectives can be rewarding, valuable and informative. Tue approach we have chosen (also to be seen in the introduction) was an "experiment" that required courage and openness on the part of all who were involved. We would, therefore, like to thank all of the contributors, who were ready to partake in this unusual dialogue between modern legal problems and legal culture from the antiquity. Special thanks are given to the students and the staff of the International Programs in Law at Kyushu University, 2015-2016, who made the conference a great success as well as to all those who were instrumental in the editorial work for the articles gathered here, namely the assistants of the chair of Roman law, private and comparative law at the University of Zurich: Franca Eckstein, Ulrike Babusiaux, Zurich Tue still predominant view characterises the Roman legal order as an uncoordinated mass of legal sources accumulated in the historical development but without clear hierarchy among them. 1 From this point of view, the Roman legal reasoning seems to differ profoundly from modern legal reasoning. Indeed, at least in the civil law countries since the age of codifications, private law has been organised in codes and statutes, whose application and interpretation are said to follow a strict methodological framework. However, the emergence of an autonomous European legal order that influences and competes with the national private law of the Member States has brought a change to this overly idyllic picture of legal positivism. Tue old question in Roman law of how to coordinate different legal sources without abstract hierarchy has, therefore, become an important topic in modern legal methodology as well. With this in mind, it is interesting to reconsider the question of coordination of legal sources in the Roman Empire and in contemporary private law influenced by the European Union. Tue first part will try to explain the Roman legal order and the techniques known to the Roman jurists as to coordinate different legal sources (II), whereas the second part will give abrief introduction into the methodological implications of the European efforts oflegal harmonisation for the application of private law in its Member States (III), before it turns to a comparison of the problems that have occurred in both historical examples, which will serve to verbalise a "message from antiquity" (IV).
Law, Society, and Authority in Late Antiquity. Edited by Ralph W. Mathisen
The Heythrop Journal, 2007
The book under review is a collection of sixteen essays, originally presented at the second biannual 'Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity' conference, convened in 1997 at the University of South Carolina. The premise is simple and brilliant: Late Ancient legal documents can provide valuable insights into the transition from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages. There are of course limitations to the use that can be made of these sources. As Antti Arjava rightly notes in her outstanding contribution, 'It should not, of course, be presumed that imperial constitutions or juristic commentaries per se had a wide currency. Even today most people learn the individual legal rules in force in their society only when they get personally involved in a dispute. In this sense laws are probably never ''embraced'' by the populace at large' (p. 51). However, the evolution of law and legal commentary can and, in the hands of these scholars, does reveal a great deal about how post-classical societies were organized. So the papers presented in this volume are extremely useful for augmenting our knowledge of this fascinating period. The scope of the essays is wide-ranging.
Law and Legalism in the Roman Republic
This paper (with its attached handout) was delivered in 2005 as my Inaugural Lecture as Collegiate Professor of Classics and Roman Law at the University of Michigan. Its central subject is "legalism" (an attachment to the view that proper legal conduct involves no more than scrupulous adherence to promulgated rules) as it pertains to Livy's account of Roman conduct after the Samnite ambush at the Caudine Forks (321: Livy 9.1-19), and then a broader consideration of how such legalism fits into the emergence of Roman jurisprudence in the later Roman Republic.
The Laws of the Roman People. Public Law in the Expansion and Decline of the Roman Republic
~ FROM 350 TO 44, hundreds of public lawInKing assemblies-whether ing with issues urgently important or to modllll observers seemingly unimpor tant, commlll1itywide in scope or narrowly rocusdon an individual or group--were held in Rome on an apparently infrequent anJ irregular basis. Culminating a process that was at all times cumbersome andime-consuming, from our twen tieth-century perspective, that invariably demaJded from its participants knowl edge of the most intricate details of Roman pilcedures and customs, and that regularly involved participants from members lithe citizenry on all levels, publawmaking assemblies endured throughout de rapidly changing circumstances of the Roman Republic. Only the Romans fu~!< understood the circumstances that called for a political leader to convene the people in a public lawmaking assembly. That each generation had a different;ense of the appropriate circum stances attests to the resiliency and depth of the process in Roman society. The range of individuals with the authority to call ~blic lawmaking a'iSemblies, the range of groups involved in determining the Oulcome, and the number of occa sitms during the public lawmaking process in Rome on which participants had an opportunity to influence the outcome under~ore importance of lawmak ing in Roman society for hundreds of years.
Emory Law School, 2018
Course description: In the thousand years between the Law of the Twelve Tables (451 BCE) and Justinian's massive Corpus Iuris Civilis (530 CE), the Romans developed the most sophisticated and comprehensive secular legal system of antiquity. Roman law is still at the heart of the civil law tradition of the European Continent and some of its former colonies in the Americas, Asia, and Africa, and it was instrumental in the development of international law, the church's canon law, and the common law tradition. The Roman lawyers created new legal concepts, ideas, rules and mechanisms that are still applied in the most Western legal systems. Specifically designed for American law students without a civil law or canon law background, this course introduces the Roman legal system in its social, political, and economic context. The course will cover the fundamental topics of private law (persons, property and inheritance, and obligations); the revival of Roman law in the Middle Ages; and the current impact of Roman law in the era of globalization. No knowledge of Roman history or of Latin is required, and all materials will be in English translation. Learning Outcomes: On successful completion of the course on Roman law students will be able to: (i) demonstrate basic understanding of the foundations of Roman law from a comparative perspective; (ii) analyze and critically evaluate Roman legal concepts and rules covered in the course; (iii) present arguments based on Roman law sources in a well-structured manner (iv) exhibit a working knowledge of Property law, the law of succession, and the law of obligations (contracts and delicts); and (v) analyze the techniques of the Roman law of litigation. Final Examination: 1. The final examination for the course on Roman law will consist of an original research papers (i.e. expanded essay) or a written answer to any of the hypos we will discuss during the course. The title of the paper or the selection of the hypo must be approved by the instructor in advance. 2. The paper requires the writer to analyze a perspective or to argue a point. The paper should be about 4,000 words long. It should contain: an abstract, a main text, and some concluding reflections. The style should be similar to that of an op-ed for the New York Times. The answer to one of the hypos should be about 2,000 words long and should contain quotations related to the Corpus iuris or Roman legal sources.
Public Law and Republican Empire in Rome, 200 - 27 BCE
Edward Cavanagh, ed., Empire and Legal Thought: Ideas and Institutions from Antiquity to Modernity, 2020
The paper traces the emergent project of empire at Rome from the end of the Hannibalic War to the foundation of the Principate. It focuses on the role of law in this process, tracing the passage of Roman diplomacy from a period in which Rome sought to bind networks of parties in bilateral alliances to one in which Rome used grants of recognition to favored allies to extend the reach of its control over provincial landscapes.
On Some Questions of Roman Public Law
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