Roman Law

Profile. The department explores the legal experience of the Romans up to today´s legal orders. The origins of law lie in Roman law. Since the Enlightenment, Roman Law has pervaded all relevant codifications (e.g. the French Code civil, the Austrian civil code ABGB or the German civil code BGB).

Teaching. Students learn professional legal languages skills, reasoning techniques and case analysis. Seminars, colloquia and inter-faculty doctoral specialisation programmes (Ancient Cultures of the Mediterranean and Interdisciplinary Gender Studies) offer doctoral students and postdocs the opportunity to participate in historic exegetical fundamental research.

Research. Research activities focus on cooperation with experts on antiquity. Central fields of research are gender diversity, rhetoric, slavery and asylum, criminal law and the law of obligations, senile dementia and will theory, natural law, women´s movements and private law codifications.

Projects. An intercontinental network spanning across Europa and Latin Amerika cooperations since 2008. The Leda series is a product of this cooperation and is edited in Graz. An anthology on female prostitution and a monograph on Civis Romana have recently been published.