Ex Oriente Lex
Ex Oriente Lex

Author: Raymond Westbrook

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2015-02-25

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1421414678

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An essential collection of Raymond Westbrook’s groundbreaking work on the cross-cultural history of ancient law. Throughout the twelve essays that appear in Ex Oriente Lex, Raymond Westbrook convincingly argues that the influence of Mesopotamian legal traditions and thought did not stop at the shores of the Mediterranean, but rather had a profound impact on the early laws and legal developments of Greece and Rome as well. He presents readers with tantalizing fragments of early Greek or archaic Roman law which, when placed in the context of the broader Near Eastern tradition, suddenly acquire unexpected new meanings. Before his untimely death in July 2009, Westbrook was regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on ancient legal history. Although his main field was ancient Near Eastern law, he also made important contributions to the study of early Greek and Roman law. In his examination of the relationship between ancient Near Eastern and pre-classical Greek and Roman law, Westbrook sought to demonstrate that the connection between the two legal spheres was not merely theoretical but also concrete. The Near Eastern legal heritage had practical consequences that help us understand puzzling individual cases in the Greek and Roman traditions. His essays provide rich material for further reflection and interdisciplinary discussion about compelling similarities between legal cultures and the continuity of legal traditions over several millennia. Aimed at classicists and ancient historians, as well as biblicists, Egyptologists, Assyriologists, and legal historians, this volume gathers many of Westbrook’s most important essays on the legal aspects of Near Eastern cultural influences on the Greco-Roman world, including one new, never-before-published piece. A preface by editors Deborah Lyons and Kurt Raaflaub details the importance of Westbrook’s work for the field of classics, while Sophie Démare-Lafont’s incisive introduction places Westbrook’s ideas within the wider context of ancient law.

Ex Oriente Lex
Ex Oriente Lex

Author: Raymond Westbrook

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2015-02-25

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1421414686

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An essential collection of Raymond Westbrook’s groundbreaking work on the cross-cultural history of ancient law. Throughout the twelve essays that appear in Ex Oriente Lex, Raymond Westbrook convincingly argues that the influence of Mesopotamian legal traditions and thought did not stop at the shores of the Mediterranean, but rather had a profound impact on the early laws and legal developments of Greece and Rome as well. He presents readers with tantalizing fragments of early Greek or archaic Roman law which, when placed in the context of the broader Near Eastern tradition, suddenly acquire unexpected new meanings. Before his untimely death in July 2009, Westbrook was regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on ancient legal history. Although his main field was ancient Near Eastern law, he also made important contributions to the study of early Greek and Roman law. In his examination of the relationship between ancient Near Eastern and pre-classical Greek and Roman law, Westbrook sought to demonstrate that the connection between the two legal spheres was not merely theoretical but also concrete. The Near Eastern legal heritage had practical consequences that help us understand puzzling individual cases in the Greek and Roman traditions. His essays provide rich material for further reflection and interdisciplinary discussion about compelling similarities between legal cultures and the continuity of legal traditions over several millennia. Aimed at classicists and ancient historians, as well as biblicists, Egyptologists, Assyriologists, and legal historians, this volume gathers many of Westbrook’s most important essays on the legal aspects of Near Eastern cultural influences on the Greco-Roman world, including one new, never-before-published piece. A preface by editors Deborah Lyons and Kurt Raaflaub details the importance of Westbrook’s work for the field of classics, while Sophie Démare-Lafont’s incisive introduction places Westbrook’s ideas within the wider context of ancient law.

Law, Orientalism and Postcolonialism
Law, Orientalism and Postcolonialism

Author: Piyel Haldar

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-12-05

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 1135897557

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Focusing on the ‘problem’ of pleasure Law, Orientalism and Postcolonialism uncovers the organizing principles by which the legal subject was colonized. That occidental law was complicit in colonial expansion is obvious. What remains to be addressed, however, is the manner in which law and legal discourse sought to colonize individual subjects as subjects of law. It was through the permission of pleasure that modern Western subjects were refined and domesticated. Legally sanctioned outlets for private and social enjoyment instilled and continue to instil within the individual tight self-control over behaviour. There are, however, states of behaviour considered to be repugnant to, and in excess of, modern codes of civility. Drawing on a broad range of literature, (including classical jurisprudence, eighteenth century Orientalist scholarship, early travel literature, and nineteenth century debates surrounding the rule of law), yet concentrating on the experience of British India, the argument here is that such excesses were deemed to be an Oriental phenomenon. Through the encounter with the Orient and with the fantasy of its excess, Piyel Haldar concludes, the relationship between the subject and the law was transformed, and must therefore be re-assessed.

The Laws of Hammurabi
The Laws of Hammurabi

Author: Pamela Barmash

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0197525407

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Among the best-known and most esteemed people known from antiquity is the Babylonian king Hammurabi. His fame and reputation are due to the collection of laws written under his patronage. This book offers a new interpretation of the Laws of Hammurabi. Ancient scribes would demonstrate their legal flair by composing statutes on a set of traditional cases, articulating what they deemed just and fair. The scribe of the Laws of Hammurabi advanced beyond earlier scribesin articulating legal thinking. The tradition that inspired the Laws of Hammurabi continued outside of Mesopotamia. It influenced biblical law and may have shaped Greek and Roman law.

Credit and Usury in Jewish Society in the Mishnah and Talmud
Credit and Usury in Jewish Society in the Mishnah and Talmud

Author: Ben Zion Rosenfeld

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-12-05

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9004681965

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Credit is the oxygen of every society. In many cases we wonder why the rabbis prohibit certain business credit transactions considering them usury. The writer uses literary and epigraphic sources to decipher the rabbinic approach. This book shows how rabbinic legislation innovatively expand the Torah prohibition of usury in loans to all fields of credit. It is a pioneering inquiry regarding rabbinic literature compiled under Roman and Sasanid rule, helping to fill the void in research concerning credit. It also distinguishes various kinds of credit differentiating credit of money for money, or products, exposing the ramifications of the rabbinic legislation.

Revision of the Codes, An Indian-European Dialogue
Revision of the Codes, An Indian-European Dialogue

Author: Adrian Loretan

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 3643802382

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In the Second Vatican Council (1962 - 65) the Catholic Church reached a new viewpoint of itself, both internally and externally. The Declaration Dignitatis Humanae developed this opinion of the individual as dignified (DH 2) and as a person equipped with his or her own sense of conscience (DH 3). Based on this form of dialogical thinking, the Council can tolerate varying forms of Christianity other than the Catholic form and accept other religions or beliefs. The canonical translations of this theological spin to the human person (DH 1) in this book are presented by Indian and European authors with a view to a revision of the Codices. Prof Dr Adrian Loretan Since 1996, he has taught Canon and Constitutional Law and Religion at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland. He is the Director of the Center for Comparative Constitutional Law and Religion and a Senate Member of the University. As well he is the editor of the book series titled Law and Religion (26 vols.) and Religionsrechtliche Studien (4 vols.). Prof. Dr. Felix Wilfred Emeritus Professor of the State University of Madras, India, where he was Chair of the School of Philosophy and Religious Thought. He is the president of the International Review Concilium (published in six European language editions), as well as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Asian Christianity, published by Brill, Leiden. He is the editor of the monumental volume: The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (2014).