A Roman Introduction to Private Law

This subject is an introduction to the legal concepts and legal thought of Roman private law, which inspired and influenced our modern private law. The course therefore shows where many of the ideas which we take for granted have come from. The course is based on primary materials, the set texts from Gaius (second century AD) and Justinian (sixth century AD). The texts are studied in translation. No Latin is needed, nor is Latin an advantage. Contact with primary materials is one of the great merits of the study of law. It allows the mind to form its own judgments, freed from second-hand opinions.

The course has five sections: I. Sources of Law and the Scheme of the Institutes; II. Property; III. Obligations (A) Contract, (B) Delict (Tort); IV. Influence of Roman Law.