Category Archives: Volume 20, no. 2 (2025)

Introduction to the Special Issue: Pax Boreo-Romana: Reflections on Roman Law with Icelandic and Global Legal Traditions

Introductory note

This special issue, Pax Boreo-Romana: Reflections on Roman Law with Icelandic and Global Legal Traditions, emerges from an experiment in teaching and learning Roman law in Iceland, specifically at the University of Akureyri. What began as a conventional introductory course soon revealed a deeper ambition shared by the students to understand their own legal systems … Continue reading Introduction to the Special Issue: Pax Boreo-Romana: Reflections on Roman Law with Icelandic and Global Legal Traditions →

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Retaliatory Justice and Roman Legal Order: A Comparative Study of Icelandic and Mediterranean Traditions

Group work (editor review), , , , , ,

Abstract This paper examines the evolution of vengeance (vindicta) as a juridical and moral principle across four legal traditions, such as Roman, Icelandic, Sardinian, and Albanian, to understand how revenge, far from being a primitive instinct, formed the past matrix of social order and justice. The analysis uses Palermo’s idea of the système vindicatoire as … Continue reading Retaliatory Justice and Roman Legal Order: A Comparative Study of Icelandic and Mediterranean Traditions →

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Citizen or not? Roman status, EU nationality and the Nordic courts on who counts.

Group work (editor review), , , ,

Abstract This article examines who qualified as a citizen in Roman law and who did not. It sets out Rome’s three main groups regarding citizenship, the citizens, latins and peregrini, and the rights and obligations they carried. It then compares how EU citizenship today opens access to Union rights, such as free movement and residence, … Continue reading Citizen or not? Roman status, EU nationality and the Nordic courts on who counts. →

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Women’s Legal Capacity and the Decline of Tutela Muliebris in the Late Republic and Early Principate

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Abstract This paper reassesses women’s legal capacity in Rome by arguing that the substantive decline of tutela muliebris began not under the Principate but already in the late Republic. An examination of juristic texts, Digest cases, marital practices, and socio-economic developments shows that Roman guardianship had become largely formal long before Augustus. The Principate codified … Continue reading Women’s Legal Capacity and the Decline of Tutela Muliebris in the Late Republic and Early Principate →

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Possession and Ownership in Roman Law and the BGB

Group work (editor review), , , ,

Abstract The German Civil Code (BGB) has its 125th anniversary this year (2025). This is the reason for looking back to the roots of the BGB – the Roman Law. Therefore, the following analysis will compare the BGB with the Roman Law. This comparison focuses on ownership and possession as two fundamental concepts of Property … Continue reading Possession and Ownership in Roman Law and the BGB →

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Pax Boreo-Romana: A Pedagogical Exploration of Roman Law in Icelandic Classrooms

Group work (editor review),

Abstract Through the project Pax Boreo-Romana, Roman law is reimagined as a living pedagogical tool in Icelandic legal education. This commentary explores how classical legal concepts are taught through active learning, comparison, and creative engagement. It argues that Roman law continues to offer a powerful training ground for legal reasoning, even at the edge of … Continue reading Pax Boreo-Romana: A Pedagogical Exploration of Roman Law in Icelandic Classrooms →

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A Legal Paradox: The Roman Republic’s Legal Code’s Influence and Manifestation in the Soviet Union’s Jurisprudence

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Abstract: One would think of Roman Law and Soviet Law to be strange bedfellows, given the socialist-communist governmental regimes of the Soviet Union and the republican regime of the early Roman Empire. However, Roman law has provided the foundations for much of the Soviet legal system, from the disparate realms of taxation to even criminal … Continue reading A Legal Paradox: The Roman Republic’s Legal Code’s Influence and Manifestation in the Soviet Union’s Jurisprudence →

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