Wrongful Damage to Property in Roman Law British Perspectives

A new assessment of the importance of the lex Aquilia (wrongful damage to property) on Roman law in Britain

Few topics have had a more profound impact on the study of Roman law in Britain than the lex Aquilia, a Roman statute enacted c.287/286 BCE to reform the Roman law on wrongful damage to property. This volume investigates this peculiarly British fixation against the backdrop larger themes such as the development of delict/tort in Britain and the rise of comparative law.

Taken collectively, the volume establishes whether it is possible to identify a 'British' method of researching and writing about Roman law.

Paul J. du Plessis is Professor of Roman law in the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh. His research include Roman law, medieval interpretations of Roman law, Roman-Dutch law, the historical development of the civilian tradition in mixed jurisdictions, and the relationships between law and history and law and society in a historical context. He has secondary research interests in the development of European private law, comparative law and international private law.

Paul is the editor of Wrongful Damage to Property in Roman Law: British Perspectives (Edinburgh University Press, 2018), Cicero's Law: Rethinking Roman Law of the Late Republic (Edinburgh University Press, 2016) and New Frontiers: Law and Society in the Roman World (Edinburgh University Press, 2013). He is the co-editor, with John W. Cairns, of Reassessing Legal Humanism and Its Claims: Petere Fontes? (Edinburgh University Press, 2015), The Creation of the Ius Commune: From Casus to Regula (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) and Beyond Dogmatics: Law and Society in the Roman World (Edinburgh University Press, 2007).

Preface
Paul J. du Plessis

Matters of Context

1. The Early Historiography of the Lex Aquilia in Britain: Introducing Students to the Digest
John W. Cairns
2. William Warwick Buckland on the Lex Aquilia
David Ibbetson
3. 'This Concern with Pattern': F.H. Lawson's Negligence in the Civil Law
Paul Mitchell
4. Student's Digest: 9.2 in Oxford in the Twentieth Century
Benjamin Spagnolo

Case Studies

5. Revisiting D.9.2.23.1
Joe Sampson
6. Reflections on the Quantification of Damnum
Alberto Lorusso
7. Causation and Remoteness: British Steps on a Roman Path
David Johnston
8. Roman and Civil Law Reflections on the Meaning of Iniuria in Damnum Iniuria Datum
Giuseppe Valditara
9. Lord Atkin, Donoghue v Stevenson and the Lex Aquilia: Civilian Roots of the 'Neighbour' Principle
Robin Evans-Jones and Helen Scott
10. Conclusions
Paul J. du Plessis

Index