Ulpian Pioneer of Human Rights

This is the second edition of Tony Honore's 1982 book on the life andworks of Ulpian, the early third-century lawyer from Syria who contributedtwo-fifths of Justinian's sixth-century Digest, which for many centuries formedthe staple of European legal education. His writing has been at least asinfluential as that of any other lawyer, ancient or modern. As an intellectualin government he not only wrote about Roman law and administration, public andprivate, on a massive scale but he also played a full part in the turbulent lifeof the Severan dynasty (193-235), until his own murder by rebellious troops in223 or 224 AD.The book has been thoroughly revised in the light of recent scholarship andthree new chapters added. The new edition stresses Ulpian's claim to be thefirst lawyer to champion human rights. He expounded Roman law to thecosmopolitan society of his time, in which citizenship was extended to all freepeople in the empire, as a system based on reason and equity designed forpeople, including slaves, who are by nature free and equal. His voluminousworks, mainly composed in 213-17 AD, were dictated in a conversational style.In dealing with legal problems they argue from example and analogy and appeal toconsiderations of utility and equity in a way not unlike that of Anglo-Americanlawyers.The book examines Ulpian's style and method of work, distinguishes genuine worksfrom those falsely attributed to him, and examines his claim that law is thetrue 'philosophy'.

Tony Honore is Emeritus Professor at Oxford University. He was Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford from 1971-88. He has been described as 'the main architect of the modern South African law of trusts' (by Maruis de Waal), and is also a leading legal philosopher and historian.