Beyond Dogmatics: Law and Society in the Roman World
John W. Cairns and Paul J. du Plessis
Abstract
This book contributes to the debate about the relationship between law and society in the Roman world. This debate, which was initiated by the work of John Crook in the 1960s, has had a profound impact upon the study of law and history and has created sharply divided opinions on the extent to which law may be said to be a product of the society that created it. This work is an attempt to provide a balanced assessment of the various points of view. The chapters within the book have been specifically arranged to represent the debate. The chapters address this debate by focusing on studies of law ... More
This book contributes to the debate about the relationship between law and society in the Roman world. This debate, which was initiated by the work of John Crook in the 1960s, has had a profound impact upon the study of law and history and has created sharply divided opinions on the extent to which law may be said to be a product of the society that created it. This work is an attempt to provide a balanced assessment of the various points of view. The chapters within the book have been specifically arranged to represent the debate. The chapters address this debate by focusing on studies of law and empire, codes and codification, death and economics, commerce and procedure. This book does not purport to provide a complete survey of Roman private law in light of Roman society. Its primary aim is to address specific areas of the law with a view to contributing to the larger debate.
Keywords:
John Crook,
Alan Watson,
Roman codes,
Roman codification,
Roman death,
Roman economics,
Roman commerce,
Roman procedure
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780748627936 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: March 2012 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748627936.001.0001 |
