Engaging study of key issues in Roman water regulation from legal and environmental history, both ancient and modern

Publisher description

This book provides a thorough introduction to Roman property law by means of "cases," consisting of brief excerpts from Roman juristic sources in the original Latin with accompanying English translations. The cases are selected and grouped so as to provide an overview of each topic and an orderly exposition of its parts. To each case is attached a set of questions that invite the reader to, e.g., clarify ambiguities in the jurist's argument, reconcile one holding with another, supply missing but necessary facts to account for the holding, and/or engage in other analytical activities. The casebook also illustrates the survival and adaptation of elements of Roman property law in the modern European civil codes, especially the three most influential of those codes: the General Civil Code of Austria (Allgemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch), the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch), and the Civil Code of Switzerland (Zivilgesetzbuch). All code excerpts are accompanied by English translations. By comparing and contrasting how the codes have adopted, adapted, or rejected an underlying Roman rule or concept, it is possible for the reader to observe the dynamic character and continuing life of the Roman legal tradition. To facilitate comparison with corresponding rules and concepts in the English common law tradition, additional texts and questions prepared by the translator will be mounted on an accompanying website, www.oup.com/us/romanpropertylaw.

This volume contains all of the Roman law, concerning fresh water, found in the Cerpus juris civillis.

"This casebook explores the writings of Roman lawyers on the law of contracts, a rich and hugely influential area of Roman private law. The 235 "Cases" are actual texts deriving, for the most part, from the Digest of Justinian (535 CE), but written hundreds of years earlier during the Classical era of Roman law. These Cases give a fairly complete view of the concepts and methods used to create rules and judge contract cases in Roman courts. The casebook concentrates especially on two central Roman contracts, stipulation and sale; but all other contracts are discussed, as well as Roman legal thinking on unjustified enrichment"--