The most momentous event in secular legal history is also perhaps the weirdest: Justinian’s compilation now known as the Corpus Iuris Civilis. Unsurprisingly, scholars have avoided stressing how odd the Corpus Iuris is. The most likely explanation is that it is so highly regarded that they have not noticed. They accept its high reputation, hence for them high quality is a given. This is a theme to which I return and no doubt, will continue to return. TheCorpus Iuris is so central in history for understanding how laws develops, and is so important today. Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis: Oddities of Legal Development; and Human Civilization * The present text is the opening lecture at a meeting in Trinity College, Dublin in March, 2002, on ‘Rabbinic Law, and its Roman and Near Eastern Context.’ I offer it to David Daube, my revered and beloved master. LECTURE 2 *
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