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Edinburgh Studies in Law

Beyond DogmaticsLaw and Society in the Roman World

Edited by John W. Cairns and Paul J. du Plessis

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Published 31 October 2026

About this book

An important contribution to the raging debate about the relationship between law and society in the Roman world

What was the relationship between law and society in the Roman world? This debate, 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 a balanced assessment of the different points of view battling against each other in this ongoing argument. It contains an introductory chapter by Alan Watson, whose views on the relationship between law and society have caused some controversy. In the following chapters, a distinguished group of international scholars get stuck in to the debate by focusing on studies of law and empire, codes and codification, death and economics, commerce and procedure. By looking at these specific areas, Beyond Dogmatics contributes to the larger debate about Roman private law in Roman society.

Table of contents

Preface

Part I: Debates and Contexts

Introduction: Themes and LiteratureJ. Cairns and P. J. du Plessis

1. Law and SocietyA. Watson

Part II: Law and Empire

2. Legal Pluralism and the Roman EmpiresK. Tuori

3. Diplomatics, Law and Romanization in the Documents from the Judaean DesertE. A. Meyer

Part III: Law Codes and Codification

4. Roman Law Codes and the Roman Legal TraditionJ. Harries

5. Diocletian and the Efficacy of Public LawR. Rees

Part IV: Death, Economics and Succession

6. The Dutiful Legatee: Pliny, Letters V.1A. D. E. Lewis

7. The Hereditability of Locatio ConductioP. J. du Plessis

Part V: Commerce and Law

8. Dealing with the Abyss: the Nature and Purpose of the Rhodian Sea-Law on Jettison (Lex Rhodia de Iactu, D. 14.2) and the Making of Justinian's DigestJ-J Aubert

9. Suing the Paterfamilias: Theory and PracticeD. Johnston

Part VI: Procedure

10. Lawsuits in ContextE. Metzger

11. The Role of DelatorsO. F. Robinson

Index

About the contributors

John W. Cairns

John W. Cairns is Professor of Civil Law at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include law and the Enlightenment, the history of Scots law, codification in Louisiana, and law and slavery. He has published two collections of essays in the Edinburgh Studies in Law series: Law, Lawyers, and Humanism: Selected Essays on the History of Scots Law, Volume 1 and Enlightenment, Legal Education, and Critique: Selected Essays on the History of Scots Law, Volume 2 (Edinburgh University Press, 2015). He is the co-editor, with Paul J. du Plessis, of The Creation of the Ius Commune: From Casus to Regula (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) and Beyond Dogmatics: Law and Society in the Roman World (Edinburgh University Press, 2007).

Paul J. du Plessis

Paul J. du Plessis is Professor of Roman Law at the University of Edinburgh

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