PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

I feel passionately about Roman law. I have taught the subject for many years and have found it to be a richly rewarding experience, at least in the intellectual sense. Roman law provides an invaluable introduction to the understanding of legal con­cepts and a passport to the appreciation of Continental legal systems.

This book is written for students. It is intended as a first book of Roman law for use at undergraduate level and it reflects, I trust, certain beliefs which I hold strongly about the teaching of the subject:

(a) Historical context Roman law cannot be understood without some apprecia­tion of Roman political and constitutional history (social and economic too). Unfortunately, many students who study Roman law for the first time lack a sufficient knowledge of Roman history. I have therefore begun the book with a fairly extensive account of the history of Rome, with special emphasis on political and constitutional developments.

(b) The use of Latin In my experience, the majority of students of Roman law are not familiar these days with Latin. To be confronted by textbooks in which Latin words and phrases are used in profusion can be very discouraging for those without a command of Latin. 1 have therefore attempted to keep the use of Latin words to a minimum wherever possible, and have included translations whenever appropriate.

(c) Modern relevance An appreciation of the influence of Roman law on subse­quent legal systems is important. I have endeavoured, therefore, to emphasize the ways in which the content and historical evolution of modern systems (particularly English law) have been affected by Roman law.

(d) Illustrative extracts I believe that the subject can best be taught by illustrating the rules and concepts of Roman law with extracts from original sources. The extracts used in this book are shown in bold font. They are taken from Justinian's Digest, by far the richest and most important source of Roman law. These extracts serve several purposes: some are quoted as authority for a particular rule; some are used to illustrate a rule; some are meant to indicate controversial issues; and some are aimed mainly to entertain and thus to make the subject even more memorable. Occasionally, the extracts combine several or all of these functions.

The book covers the basic content of Roman civil law. The criminal law is not dealt with, a few sporadic references apart. I have attempted to give as detailed a treat­ment as appropriate of the civil law, given the confines within which the book had to be written.

As there are many areas of Roman law which are the subject of controversy and speculation, or about which little is known for certain, a textbook on the subject is bound to reflect this state of affairs. Hence, words and phrases such as 'possibly' or 'probably' or 'it seems that' or 'the most plausible view is that' are conspicuous by their presence.

To some extent Roman law was Roman men's law: substantial parts of it were decidedly male-orientated and described in masculine terms. Consequently, it is difficult to write about Roman law exclusively in gender-neutral terms—and it would be a distortion of the subject to do so. A further complication is that occa­sionally it is not clear from the Roman texts whether males and females are being differentiated when rules of law are described. As a general guideline, references in this book to the masculine pronoun or to males (e.g. 'patron', 'freedman', 'master') include females except where the contrary is stated or clearly implied from the context.

I would like to thank all at Blackstone Press (as it then was) for making this book possible. Their enthusiasm, encouragement, editorial assistance, and prepa­ration of the index were invaluable. The University of Pennsylvania Press was kind enough to allow me to use extracts from the Digest of Justinian (edited by Alan Watson). For copyright reasons the North American spelling of certain words has been retained. I have occasionally shortened some of the extracts; the relevant omissions are indicated by ellipses.

My grateful thanks are owed to a number of colleagues at the University of Bristol for their assistance in various guises. In particular, Thomas Wiedemann, Reader in the History of the Roman Empire, made many useful suggestions con­cerning Chapters 1 and 4. Patricia Hammond not only processed the manuscript with superb efficiency but also improved it in several respects through her interest in and understanding of ancient Rome.

My family, particularly my wife, Margaret, proved a tower of strength at all times, and helped me to find a reasonably sane balance between the demands of family life, writing the book, playing competitive chess, and lecturing on Italian opera.

The law is stated as at 14 November AD S6S.

Andrew Borkowski

Faculty of Law University of Bristol

The Ides of March 1994