The Rule of Law in Ancient Rome

Eleanor Cowan, Lecturer in Ancient History, Discipline of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney,Kit Morrell, Susan Blake Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, University of Queensland,Andrew Pettinger, Honorary Associate in Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney,Michael Sevel, Senior Lecturer in Jurisprudence, University of Sydney Law School

Eleanor Cowan is a lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Sydney. She is an historian of the Roman Republic and the Early Imperial period. Her research concentrates on communities in - and post- conflict; on constructions of autocracy; on domestic abuse in the ancient world and on Latin historiography.


Kit Morrell is the Susan Blake Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland. Her research focuses on the political and legal history of the late Roman republic.


Andrew Pettinger is an honorary associate in Ancient History at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on the emergence of the Tiberian age, constitutional change under Augustus, and the role of politics in periods of transition.


Michael Sevel is Senior Lecturer in Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney Law School. He researches issues in general jurisprudence, the rule of law, and moral and political philosophy, including the nature of political authority and the moral obligation to obey the law.

IntroductionFraming Questions1. The Rule of Law: A Thought Pattern, Michael Sevel2. In Search of a Roman Rule of Law, Michael PeachinThe Republic3. Cato and the Rule of Law, Kit Morrell4. The Populus and the Rule of Law, Amy Russell5. 'Rule of Law' and the Gods in the Late Republic, Catherine Steel6. The Praetor's Edict and the Rule of Law, Andrew Pettinger7. Non Iure Rogata: The People, the Senate, and the Rule of Law in Republican Rome, W. Jeffrey Tatum8. Not in the Last Instance, Andrew M. RiggsbyPrincipate and Empire9. Aspiration, Accountability, and Abuse: Augustus and the Law in Post-Conflict Rome, Eleanor Cowan10. Princeps legibus solutus est an non? Cultures of Legality in the Roman Empire, Tristan S. Taylor11. The Emperor as the Good Judge: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Jurisdiction as a Discourse on Justice and Rule of Law, Kaius Tuori12. Some Remarks on Certainty Roman Law, Cosimo Cascione