Home >
New Releases >
Law >
The Rule of Law in Ancient Rome

The Rule of Law in Ancient Rome

Author: Eleanor Cowan; Kit Morrell; Andrew Pettinger; Michael Sevel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198959328
Published In: November 2025
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

List Price: HKD 1,287.00

HKD 1,248.39 Save HKD 38.61 (3%)

Download Order Form

Add to Wishlist
| Add to Compare

Description
Contents

Details

The ideal of the rule of law - that the law should protect all citizens from arbitrary exercises of power - can be traced from ancient Greece to the present day. The Roman contribution to the rule of law tradition has been largely overlooked, however, both in rule-of-law scholarship and recent considerations of Roman law.

This volume - the first of its kind - brings together the study of the rule of law and the study of ancient Rome. Its chapters apply insights and approaches drawn from modern legal theory in order to understand the ways in which Romans thought about law and the place of law in their community, the ways in which Roman institutions and political norms protected citizens against the arbitrary exercise of power, and how these ideas and practices changed with Rome's transition from republic to empire. Together, the contributors turn a new spotlight on the community of the Romans by asking whether and to what extent Rome may be said to have invested in the idea and practice of 'the rule of law', and how the rule of law intersected with other values including justice, popular sovereignty, and the personal authority of the emperor. At the same time, the volume seeks to enrich current thinking on the rule of law by providing an evidence-rich case-study of ancient Rome during the republic and empire.

Recent years have witnessed increasing attacks on the rule of law, including attacks arising within liberal democracies and their institutions. It is a crucial time to be thinking about the rule of law. Deepening our historical understanding through close study of the rule of law in Rome is both timely and necessary.

Introduction

Framing Questions

1:The Rule of Law: A Thought Pattern, Michael Sevel

2:In Search of a Roman Rule of Law, Michael Peachin

The Republic

3:Cato and the Rule of Law, Kit Morrell

4:The Populus and the Rule of Law, Amy Russell

5:'Rule of Law' and the Gods in the Late Republic, Catherine Steel

6:The Praetor's Edict and the Rule of Law, Andrew Pettinger

7:Non Iure Rogata: The People, the Senate, and the Rule of Law in Republican Rome, W.Â Jeffrey Tatum

8:Not in the Last Instance, AndrewÂ M. Riggsby

Principate and Empire