Fall 2007

#Legal History: Roman Law

Professor Donahue, Assistant Professor Lanni

Catalog Number: 42230A
3 credits (fall term).
M., T., 10:15–11:45.

This is an introduction to Roman law that attempts to combine a survey approach with one that focuses in some depth on topics in Roman law that raise important substantive, comparative, and methodological issues. The emphasis throughout the course is on the relationship between the Roman legal system and the social, economic, and political aspects of Roman life. The course is organized in four large blocks. The first surveys the history of Roman legal institutions, sources of law and procedure from the Twelve Tables (451–450 BC) to Justinian (527–565 AD). The second surveys the law of persons, property, succession, contracts, and delicts in the classical period (roughly, 100 BC to 240 AD). The third explores law and society in the archaic period (roughly, 500 BC to 250 BC). The fourth explores selected topics in the classical period that illustrate the work of the Roman jurists and their method. A short paper will be required and the final exam will be correspondingly shorter. 

Multilithed materials; Nicholas, An Introduction to Roman Law; and either W. Kunkel, An Introduction to Roman Legal and Constitutional History, or J.H. Wolff, Roman Law: An Historical Introduction.

[Syllabus] [Announcements] [Lectures]

Please send comments to Rosemary Spang

URL: http://courses.law.harvard.edu/faculty/cdonahue/courses/rlaw/index.html
last modified: 05/04/13

© 2007. The President and Fellows of Harvard College
© 2007. Charles Donahue, Jr. and Adriaan Lanni