Legal History Commons^™

Law Reform In The Ancient World: Did The Emperor Augustus Succeed Or Fail In His Morals Legislation?, Charles J. Reid Jr.

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This is an Article with a dual purpose. First, it is concerned with the process of law reform: how do we judge a given reform’s success or failure? Do we adopt strictly linear metrics? Or do we look at nonlinear impacts? For example, in the campaign against tobacco, do we judge it a success because it has reduced cigarette smoking? Or because it reduced the political power of the tobacco companies?

Secondly, in this Article, I apply this complex means of analyzing law reform to the Emperor Augustus’s morals legislation. Legal historians have typically regarded Augustus’s morals legislation as having …

Wilhelm Kroll's Preface To Justinian's Novels: An English Translation, Timothy G. Kearley, David J.D. Miller

Timothy G. Kearley

Justice Frederick H. Blume, attorney and long-time Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court, single-handedly translated Justinian's Code and Novels in the early twentieth century. His is the only English translation of the Code to have been made from the Latin version accepted as most authoritative. Using Blume's papers, this article describes, among other things: how Blume created the extensive Roman law library needed for his translation; his approach to translation; and his collaboration with Clyde Pharr on Pharr's "Corpus Juris Romani" series. The article also describes the author's editing and digitization of Justice Blume's translation.

The Creation And Transmission Of Justinian's Novels, Timothy G. Kearley

Timothy G. Kearley

Remarks On David Daube’S Lectures On Sale, With Special Attention To The Liber Homo And Res Extra Commercium, Ernest Metzger

Ernest Metzger

This article discusses a collection of lecture notes on the Roman law of sale prepared by David Daube for an advanced course conducted at the University of Aberdeen from 1954 to 1955. The article considers in detail Daube’s lecture on the sale of the liber homo and res extra commercium in Roman law. An excerpt from that lecture is attached as an Appendix. His treatment of the subject is unfinished (and unpublished), though it is possible to see how his views might have developed. The final section offers an opinion on Daube’s approach to interpreting texts and its value to …

"The Urban Praetor's Tribunal" In Spaces Of Justice In The Roman World, Eric Kondratieff

History Faculty Publications

"Book abstract: Despite the crucial role played by both law and architecture in Roman culture, the Romans never developed a type of building that was specifically and exclusively reserved for the administration of justice: courthouses did not exist in Roman antiquity. The present volume addresses this paradox by investigating the spatial settings of Roman judicial practices from a variety of perspectives. Scholars of law, topography, architecture, political history, and literature concur in putting Roman judicature back into its concrete physical context, exploring how the exercise of law interacted with the environment in which it took place, and how the spaces …

Justice Fred Blume And The Translation Of Justinian's Code, Timothy G. Kearley

Timothy G. Kearley

The Buyer Who Wants To Pay More, Ernest Metzger

Ernest Metzger

In Roman law, a valid contract of sale required the parties to agree on a certain price. Some modern works nevertheless accept that the law ignored a certain species of error: the buyer is willing to pay more than the seller expects to receive, and a valid contract of sale is formed on the lower price. This supposed exception is based, not any text on sale, but on a single text on contracts of hire, Digest 19.2.52. This text suggests that, in some cases, a contract of hire might arise where the tenant believes he is paying a higher rent …

Acquisition Of Living Things By Specification, Ernest Metzger

Ernest Metzger

Ownership of the product of living things, such as human tissue or cultures developed from human cells, is difficult for the law to determine. Civilian jurisdictions, with their legal heritage grounded in Roman law, offer one solution. Civilian jurisdictions would resolve such cases under the rules of specification. A recent case from the Outer House of the Scottish Court of Session (Kinloch Damph Ltd v Nordvik Salmon Farms Ltd) addresses the problem. The case was properly decided, though the grounds of the decision could be improved. Specifically, on civil law principles, civilian courts ought to award ownership of a living …