Cambridge Companions to the Ancient World: The Cambridge Companion to Roman Law

This book reflects the wide range of current scholarship on Roman law. The essays, newly commissioned for this volume, cover the sources of evidence for classical Roman law, the elements of private law, as well as criminal and public law, and the second life of Roman law in Byzantium, in civil and canon law, and in political discourse from AD 1100 to the present. Roman law nowadays is studied in many different ways, which is reflected in the diversity of approaches in the essays. Some focus on how the law evolved in ancient Rome, others on its place in the daily life of the Roman citizen, still others on how Roman legal concepts and doctrines have been deployed through the ages. All of them are responses to one and the same thing: the sheer intellectual vitality of Roman law, which has secured its place as a central element in the intellectual tradition and history of the West.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Introduction David Johnston; 2. Roman law and its intellectual context Laurens Winkel; Part II. Lawmaking: 3. Sources of law from the Republic to the Dominate David Ibbetson; 4. Roman law in the provinces John Richardson; Part III. Roman Law: The Evidence: 5. Documents in Roman practice Joseph Georg Wolf; 6. Writing in Roman legal contexts Elizabeth A. Meyer; 7. Patristic sources Caroline Humfress; 8. Justinian and the Corpus Iuris Civilis Wolfgang Kaiser; Part IV. Private Law in Roman Society: 9. Slavery, family, and status Andrew Lewis; 10. Property Paul du Plessis; 11. Succession David Johnston; 12. Commerce Jean-Jacques Aubert; 13. Delicts A. J. B. Sirks; 14. Litigation Ernest Metzger; Part V. Criminal and Public Law: 15. Crime and punishment Andrew Lintott; 16. Public law A. J. B. Sirks; Part VI. Byzantium and Beyond: 17. The law of New Rome: Byzantine law B. H. Stolte; 18. The legacy of Roman law Laurent Mayali; 19. Canon law and Roman law R. H. Helmholz; 20. Political thought Magnus Ryan; 21. Roman law in the modern world Reinhard Zimmermann.