Conference "Law in the Roman Provinces" in Münster

Basic data for this project

Description

Since late antiquity, the pervasiveness of Roman law in the Imperium Romanum has usually been taken for granted. From this perspective, law united the empire as a coherent sphere of civilization, an image preferred by Roman emperors and modern scholars alike. While the continued existence of local law was at times acknowledged, the dominance of Roman concepts, especially after 212 CE, appeared to be beyond question. Recent research has significantly muddied the waters by paying attention to the many local variants of law and legal practice under Rome. However, a new narrative has not yet emerged, not least because the diverse data scattered throughout the empire seems to make a synthetic treatment of the subject a nigh on impossible task. Funded by the Thyssen Foundation, this international conference brings together a large number of experts to discuss how law, Roman or otherwise, was transmitted, used, neglected and transformed in the Roman provinces from the late Republic until the late third century CE. The panels are divided by region, but united by four main questions: Which societal fields are subject to law? Is there evidence for a gradual increase in the importance of Roman law (or of a sudden one after the Constitutio Antoniniana)? Whence does knowledge of law derive? And who are the carriers of ideas and innovations related to the legal realm?