Beyond Dogmatics: Law and Society in the Roman World

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.