Cicero's Law: Rethinking Roman Law of the Late Republic - Paperback

by Paul J. Du Plessis (Editor)

This volume brings together an international team of scholars to debate Cicero's role in the narrative of Roman law in the late Republic: a role that has been minimised or overlooked in previous scholarship. This reflects current research that opens a larger and more complex debate about the nature of law and of the legal profession in the last century of the Roman Republic.

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A fundamental assessment of the place of Cicero in the narratives concerning Roman law of the late Republic This volume brings together an international team of scholars to debate the issue of Cicero as 'an outsider' and investigates whether, in light of more recent research, this view of Cicero requires revision. In his 1995 book The Spirit of Roman Law, Alan Watson included a chapter provocatively titled 'Cicero the Outsider'. Watson's argument, following the then dominant Romanist view, was that Cicero's outlook was significantly different from that of the Roman jurists. While Watson's cautious observation has merit in this argument, its subtext is more problematic. It is the purpose of this volume to critique the pervasive view in Roman-law literature that minimises the significance of Cicero in the narrative of Roman law of the late Republic. This reappraisal of the significance of Cicero reflects current thinking in Roman Law that leans towards a larger and more complex debate concerning the nature of law and of the legal profession in the last century of the Roman Republic. Paul J. du Plessis is a legal historian and senior lecturer in Civil Law and Legal History at the University of Edinburgh. He is the editor (with John W. Cairns) of Beyond Dogmatics: Law and Society in the Roman World (2007); The Making of the ius commune: from Casus to Regula (2010) and Reassessing Legal Humanism and Its Claims: Petere Fontes? (2015). He is the sole editor of the critically acclaimed New Frontiers: Law and Society in the Roman World (2013) (all Edinburgh University Press). Cover image: Cesare Maccari, Cicero Denounces Catiline, 1880 (c) akg-images / Album / Oronoz Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com ISBN 978-1-4744-0882-0 Barcode

Author Biography

Paul J. du Plessis is Professor of Roman Law at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses predominantly on the multifaceted and complex set of relationships between law and society in a historical context. Paul is an experienced editor and author. He is co-editor of the following publications: The Making of the Ius Commune: From Casus to Regula (EUP, 2010), Beyond Dogmatics: Law and Society in the Roman World (EUP, 2007), Reassessing Legal Humanism and Its Claims (EUP, 2015) and The Oxford Handbook of Roman Law and Society (OUP, 2016). He is also editor of New Frontiers: Law and Society in the Roman World (EUP, 2013), Cicero's Law: Rethinking Roman Law of the Late Republic (EUP, 2016) and Borkowski's Textbook on Roman Law (OUP, 2015).