Roman Law in Context (Key Themes in Ancient History)

Rating:
Summary: lucid and inviting
Review: It is hard to imagine a better introduction to the grand world of Roman law and legal history. This is a scholarly and also beautifully written essay on the most interesting cultural creation of the Romans, their law. Recommended most highly.

Rating:
Summary: A very informative, but somewhat dry book
Review: Johnston's book is basically organized into three sections, thought there is no mention of this structure in the table of contents. The first section introduces the reader to the sources of Roman law (how the law was made, and who made it). The second section discusses the substantive law of family, property, and contracts. The third section discusses litigation (or how the laws discussed in section two worked in practice). At the end of the book, there is a very good glossary of Roman legal terms, followed by an extremely helpful discussion of the Roman legal literature for the serious student of Roman Law to pursue.

Johnston's book does a great job of packing a lot of information into very few pages, but often at the expense of several rereads by the reader. The information is accurate and well-researched, thought it could have been presented better (see next paragraph). However, whether you're new to Roman law, or have studied the subject in depth, you will come away with a better grasp of Rome's legal system, her institutions, and her laws.

Now, for the criticism. I believe that Johnston's book would have been much better if he would have followed his discussion of the sources of Roman law (section I) with the section on litigation (section III, which discusses how the law operated in practice), followed then by a discussion of the substantive law. Johnston's organization, by not doing this, presented the reader with an entire book of disparate and seemingly disjunctive technical material without a mechanism for synthesizing it until the reader reached Johnston's last chapter on litigation. This was the chapter that tied everything together, and it should have been discussed earlier. Only upon reading this last chapter did I finally understood why everything Johnston had told me before was important, and because of this, it looks like I'll be reading this book again to fully appreciate the impact of the previous chapters.

Therefore, I would recommend reading chapter one, then the last chapter, and then the material on the substantive law following the first chapter. Doing so, I guarantee, will save you a lot of head scratching and will enable you to appreciate this book, which is otherwise very good.

Personally, while this book is accessible to the beginner, I would recommend that a reader unfamiliar with Roman law begin with Nicholas' "An Introduction to Roman Law" or Crook's "Law and Life of Rome," both of which are excellent and will better prepare you for Johnston's book.

Rating:
Summary: A very informative, but somewhat dry book
Review: Johnston's book is basically organized into three sections, thought there is no mention of this structure in the table of contents. The first section introduces the reader to the sources of Roman law (how the law was made, and who made it). The second section discusses the substantive law of family, property, and contracts. The third section discusses litigation (or how the laws discussed in section two worked in practice). At the end of the book, there is a very good glossary of Roman legal terms, followed by an extremely helpful discussion of the Roman legal literature for the serious student of Roman Law to pursue.

Johnston's book does a great job of packing a lot of information into very few pages, but often at the expense of several rereads by the reader. The information is accurate and well-researched, thought it could have been presented better (see next paragraph). However, whether you're new to Roman law, or have studied the subject in depth, you will come away with a better grasp of Rome's legal system, her institutions, and her laws.

Now, for the criticism. I believe that Johnston's book would have been much better if he would have followed his discussion of the sources of Roman law (section I) with the section on litigation (section III, which discusses how the law operated in practice), followed then by a discussion of the substantive law. Johnston's organization, by not doing this, presented the reader with an entire book of disparate and seemingly disjunctive technical material without a mechanism for synthesizing it until the reader reached Johnston's last chapter on litigation. This was the chapter that tied everything together, and it should have been discussed earlier. Only upon reading this last chapter did I finally understood why everything Johnston had told me before was important, and because of this, it looks like I'll be reading this book again to fully appreciate the impact of the previous chapters.

Therefore, I would recommend reading chapter one, then the last chapter, and then the material on the substantive law following the first chapter. Doing so, I guarantee, will save you a lot of head scratching and will enable you to appreciate this book, which is otherwise very good.

Personally, while this book is accessible to the beginner, I would recommend that a reader unfamiliar with Roman law begin with Nicholas' "An Introduction to Roman Law" or Crook's "Law and Life of Rome," both of which are excellent and will better prepare you for Johnston's book.

Rating:
Summary: "Roman Law" But Little "Context"
Review: The good news about "Roman Law in Context": it's short and clear, and provides a great overview of Roman law in core areas like family law, sales, property, and litigation. The bad news: the book stays focused on technical legal doctrines, and only sketches in the law's social and political context. Bottomline: this is a great book for someone, perhaps a law student or non-legal historian of Rome, who wants a quick guide to Roman legal rules. But it's not such a great book for laymen who are interested in learning more about life in ancient Rome.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent discussion of Roman law for beginners
Review: Though this book is intended primarily for historians who want to learn about Roman law, it will also be of great benefit to law students who first approach the subject. The bad news is that it won't do as a reliable replacement for all the other books you're asked to consult and read, at least in part, for your examinations, but the good news is that, with Johnston's initial guidance as well as essential help at the revision stage, you'll get a much firmer grasp of Roman law as a whole than you would if you started from these other, sometimes no less excellent books. Predictably enough for a short book, Johnston focuses largely on the classical period and discusses only private law (family, property and commerce), but there are also illuminating chapters on sources and litigation. Apart from its provision of reliable and up-to-date knowledge on the substance of Roman law and its social context, Johnston's book also deserves praise for its two other virtues: it is one of these rare books that simply don't seem to contain a single wasted sentence, and it offers informed comparisons between our own legal culture and that of ancient Rome. I was particularly impressed by his remark that getting the best people to litigate for you (both jurists and advocates) was a matter of entering a complex network of patron and client relationships, and that it is in principle much easier to know what counts as legal excellence if securing it for yourself is merely a question of paying a certain amount of money. Speaking of which, since this is not a legal textbook, it is also a good deal cheaper than you might expect.