Jurists and Legal Science in the History of Roman Law

This book provides a new approach to the study of the History of Roman Law. It collects the first results of the European Research Council Project, Scriptores iuris Romani - dedicated to a new collection of the texts of Roman jurisprudence, highlighting important methodological issues, together with innovative reconstructions of the profiles of some ancient jurists and works. Jurists were great protagonists of the history of Rome, both as producers and interpreters of law, since the Republican Age and as collaborators of the principes during the Empire. Nevertheless, their role has been underestimated by modern historians and legal experts for reasons connected to the developments of Modern Law in England and in Continental Europe. This book aims to address this imbalance. It presents an advanced paradigm in considering the most important aspects of Roman law: the Justinian Digesta, and other juridical late antique anthologies. The work offers an historiographic model which overturns current perspectives and makes way for a different path for legal and historical studies. Unlike existing literature, the focus is not on the Justinian Codification, but on the individualities of ancient Roman Jurists. As such, it presents the actual legal thought of its experts and authors: the ancient iuris prudentes. The book will be of interest to researchers and academics in Classics, Ancient History, History of Law, and contemporary legal studies.

Aldo Schiavone is head of the European Research Council funded project: Scriptores iuris Romani. Texts and Thought, which takes place at the University of Rome `La Sapienza'. He has published extensively on Ancient Rome both in Italian and English. Fara Nasti is Professor of Roman Law, University of Calabria, Senior Staff of the Project.

----- - --1. Singularity and Impersonality in the Thought of Roman Jurists 2. Stories of Legal Dogmas, Stories of Roman Jurists: An Uncompleted Transition3. 'Kunstgeschichte' and 'Künstlergeschichte'. The Problem of Literary Genres in the Roman Legal Literature 4. Historicity of Law and Ius Controversum in Italian Historiography of the Twentieth Century. The Work of Riccardo Orestano and Luigi Raggi 5. Roman Law and Roman Jurists in American Legal Culture 6. Law and Literature. The Case of Roman Jurisprudence in Latin Literary Works 7. Greek Thought and Roman Jurists: A Preliminary Survey on Pomponius's Enchiridion 8. Concerning Paul. 29 Ad Ed., D. 13.6.17.3: Officium, Beneficium, Commodare. (With an Appendix on the Alterity between Morality and Law) 9. Roman Jurists and the Empire: History and Interpretation 10. Aspects of the Critical Edition of Roman Juristic Works. The Example of Ulpian's De Officio Proconsulis 11. The Code System. Reorganizing Roman Law and Legal Literaturein the Late Antique Period