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Thinking like a Roman jurist. From ancient to modern legal reasoning.

The law of ancient Rome has had and continues to have a considerable influence on many modern legal systems belonging to the "civil law" tradition. This influence has mainly passed through the universities. Indeed, the very structure of the university was born and articulated around the study of Justinian's  Corpus Iuris Civilis, first in Italy, in Bologna, then spreading throughout the world. The reasons for this success of Roman law are manifold, but the main reason lies in the way Roman jurists thought about law. Therefore, we will try to place ourselves in the shoes of an ancient jurist, trying to understand from within this peculiar way of thinking. Roman jurists addressed questions such as: What makes something identical to itself in the course of time? To whom does a treasure found in someone else's land belong? Is a lifeboat a ship? Their answers to such questions were logical and respectful not just of the legal order but also of the economic and social interests at stake. This talk will present an anatomy of Roman legal thought through the close reading of texts, as texts are the strongest thread linking us to antiquity. It will also pay attention to how the jurists' reasoning took over other aspects of ancient culture, making juristic texts not only a key to modern legal thinking, but also a powerful source of knowledge of the ancien world.