The Civil Law Centre

In April of 1994 the School of Law at the University of Aberdeen approved the establishment of a Centre for the Study of the Civil Law Tradition. In 2009, after a break of a number of years, the Centre is being relaunched with a broader remit. The Centre provides a single institution devoted to the study of the Civil law and the Civil tradition in modern legal systems.

The aims of the Centre are:

• to research the Classical Roman law, its second life in Europe, and the means by which it was transmitted into modern legal systems;
• to research the law of modern civil or mixed legal systems;
• to research Scots law where it shows the influence of the Civil law tradition;
• to promote, where appropriate, the functional solutions offered by the Civil law tradition to the problems of Scots law; and
• to promote and expand the teaching of Roman and Civil law.
  

The centre is holding an exciting seminar series during the 2009-2010 academic year. Speakers are currently arranged for November 2009 and February 2010. Details will be available in due course. Anyone wishing to speak at the Centre or to attend any of its events should contact Adelyn Wilson (adelyn.wilson@abdn.ac.uk).

Various courses promoting the aims of the Centre are currently available to students of the University, including:

• Foundations of Private Law - an introductory course in private civil law compulsory for first year LLB students. This course focuses particularly on property law and the law of obligations but also covers the revival of Roman law from the eleventh century and the Scottish reception of Roman law.
• Scottish Legal History Honours - a course which explores in detail a variety of traditional and innovative topics, from the Regiam Majestatem and the founding of the College of Justice to animal trials and legal education. A guest speaker from a neighbouring Civil law system is invited to give a guest lecture, allowing students an opportunity to see the development of Scots law in the greater context of European legal history.
• Roman Law Honours - a course which equips the student with the crucial knowledge of Roman legal writing and court procedure but also provides them with the opportunity to explore in greater depth both the Roman law of sale and the development of the Lex Aquilia.
• European Legal History Honours - a course which covers a range of exciting topics, including the barbarian codes and the lex mercatoria, as well as movements of legal scholarship Humanism, Natural law, second Scholasticism, and the rise of institutional writing in Europe.
• Comparative Law - this course examines the nature of civilian systems, mixed systems and common law systems as well as the creation of a new "common law" of Europe.

Members of the Centre

David L. Carey Miller  BA, LLB (Natal), LLM (Edin), PhD (Aberd), Advocate (High Court of South Africa)

Professor Carey Miller researches principally in the Civil law influenced systems of Scottish and South African property law. He is the co-author of Land Title in South Africa, co-author of Corporeal Moveables in Scots Law (2nd edn, 2005), co-editor of The Civilian Tradition and Scots Law, and the author of The Acquisition and Protection of Ownership (1986) on the South African Roman-Dutch law. He has contributed to Acta Juridica, The Juridical Review, the Law Quarterly Review, and the South African Law Journal. He has done visiting work at the universities of Cape Town and Natal in South Africa and at Brigham Young and Maryland in the USA. He is Co-ordinator of the Baltimore, Maryland Summer School in Comparative Law held annually in Aberdeen. He is a council member of the UK National Committee of Comparative Law and a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law.

Gero R Dolezalek Dr. jur. (Frankfurt/Main)

Professor Dolezalek researches principally in Scots legal history of the 15th - 17th centuries and in manuscripts of Canon law and Roman law. He formerly held a chair of Canon law at the University of Nijmegen / Netherlands, thereafter a chair of Roman and Comparative Law at the University of Cape Town / South Africa and last a chair of Private law, Roman law and History of Church law at the University of Leipzig / Germany, and has held guest professorships in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain - lecturing in the respective languages. He has published books on manuscripts of law and has contributed to Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, Ius Commune, Legal History Review, Rivista Internazionale di Diritto Comune, Studia Gratiana, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung, and to many Festschriften and other miscellaneous volumes.

Robin Evans-Jones  LLB (Aberd), PhD (Edin)

Professor Evans-Jones researches principally in Roman law, the law of unjustified enrichment, and German law. He is the author of Unjustified Enrichment, Enrichment by Deliberate Conferral: Condictio and was editor of The Civil Law Tradition in Scotland. He has contributed to the Revue Internationale des Droits de l'Antiquité, Bullettino dell'Istituto di Diritto Romano, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, Labeo, Cuadernos Informativos de Derecho Historico, Rechtshistorische Journal, Zeitscrift der Savigny Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Juridical Review, Irish Jurist, Journal of the Law Society of Scotland, Scots Law Times, South African Law Journal, The Law Quarterly Review, and the Cambridge Law Journal.

C G van der Merwe  LLB, BCL (Oxon), LLD

Professor van der Merwe researches principally in the law of property. He was appointed to the Chair of Civil law in January 2000. He was formerly a professor in Private law and Roman law, and Dean of the Law Faculty, at the University of Stellenbosch. He is the author of Sectional Titles, Share-Blocks and Time-Sharing, and co-author of Historical Foundations of South African Private Law. He contributed the chapters on 'Apartment Ownership and Security in Immovables' to the International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law. He has published several articles on condominium law in South African, French, Dutch, German, Singaporean, and Scottish periodicals. He is a participant in the European Common Core project of the Italian University of Trento (property section), the project of Mixed Legal Systems under the auspices of Professor Palmer of Tulane.

Roderick Paisley  LLB (Aberd), Dip LP (Aberd), Solicitor & Notary Public (1989), PhD (Aberd)

Professor Paisley was awarded his doctorate for a thesis on Crown Rights in Relation to Land in Scotland. Prof Paisley joined the Faculty following a period as a solicitor in private practice specialising in land law and conveyancing in Scotland and is conducting research related to land law including servitudes.
 

Books from the Centre

Books recently published by current and former members of the Centre include the following:

Carey Miller, D. and Irvine, D., Corporeal Moveables in Scots Law, pp.367 + xli, Scottish Universities Law Institute / W.Green, 2005. 2nd edn.

Carey Miller, D. and Reid, E. (eds), A Mixed Legal System in Transition: TB Smith and the Progress of Scots Law, pp.332 + x, Edinburgh University Press, 2005.

Carey Miller, D. and Zimmermann, R. (eds.), The Civilian Tradition and Scots Law. Aberdeen Quincentenary Essays. Schriften zur Europäischen Rechts- und Verfassungsgeschichte, bd. 20. Duncker & Humblot. Berlin, 1997. ISBN 3-428-09011-X. ISSN 0937-3365.

Carey Miller, D. and Pope, A., Land Title in South Africa. Juta. Capetown, 2000. ISBN 0-7021-5120-3.

Evans-Jones, R. (ed.), The Civil Law Tradition in Scotland. The Stair Society, supplementary series, vol. 2. Edinburgh, 1995. ISBN 1-872517-08-0.

Evans-Jones, R., Unjustified Enrichment: Enrichment by Deliberate Conferral: Condictio. Thomson/W. Green. Edinburgh, 2003. ISBN 0-414009-97-5.

Metzger, E. (ed.), A Companion to Justinian's Institutes. Duckworth. London, 1998. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY, 1998. ISBN 0-7156-2798-8.

Metzger, E., A New Outline of the Roman Civil Trial. Oxford University Press. Oxford, 1997. ISBN 0-19-826474-7.

Metzger, E. (ed.), Law for All Times. Essays in Memory of David Daube. Lawrence, KS: Roman Law Society of America, 2004. ISBN 0-9764149-0-2.

Metzger, E., Litigation in Roman Law. Oxford University Press. Oxford, 2005. ISBN 0-19-829855-2 [for the OUP USA page for this book, click here]

A full publications list for each of the centre members can be accessed here:

David Carey Miller

Gero Dolezalek

Robin Evans-Jones

Roderick Paisley

CG van der Merwe

Papers from the Centre

A small number of papers by present and former members of the Centre can be read directly from here.

Evans-Jones, R.

Roman Law in Britain. Originally published as R. Evans-Jones, 'Roman Law in Britain', in U. Manthe and C. Krampe, edd., Quaestiones Iuris. Festschrift für Joseph Georg Wolf zum 70. Geburtstag [Freiburger Rechtsgeschichtliche Abhandlungen (n.F.), Bd. 36] (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2000) (ISBN 3-428-09866-8), pp 83-110. Reprinted by Roman Law Resources Electronic Reprints in HTML, or for downloading in Microsoft® Reader or PDF.

MacCormack, G.

Anthropology and Legal Theory. 1978 Juridical Review, pp. 216-32. (pdf).

Culpa in the Scots Law of Reparation. 1974 Juridical Review, pp. 13-29. (pdf).

Voluntas testatoris and Scaev. D. 29,7,14 / Afr. 29,7,15. Pomoerium 1. 1994. (pdf).

Metzger, E.

'Acquisition of Living Things by Specification', Edinburgh Law Review 8 (2004), 112-15. [Download in PDF]

Actions. Originally published as E. Metzger, 'Actions', in E. Metzger, ed., A Companion to Justinian's Institutes (London: Gerald Duckworth and Co., Ltd, and New York: Cornell University Press, 1997), ISBN 0715628305 (Duckworth Pbk), 071562798 (Duckworth Hbk), 0801485843 (CUP Pbk), 0801436192 (CUP Hbk), pp 208-228. Reprinted by Roman Law Resources Electronic Reprints in HTML and for downloading in PDF format or Microsoft® Reader.

'Adam Smith and Roman Servitudes', Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, 2004. [Download preprint in PDF]

The Case of Petronia Iusta, Revue Internationale des Droits de l'Antiquité 47 (2000), pp. 151-65.

The Current View of the Extra-Judicial Vadimonium, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte (2000), pp 133-78.

Evidence for Ladungsvadimonium. [Paper]. 52nd Session of the Société 'Fernand De Visscher' pourl'Histoire des Droits de l'Antiquité, Madrid. 29 September 1998. (17K).

Interrupting Proceedings in iure: uadimonium and intertium . Originally published at 120 Zeitschrift der Papyrologie und Epigraphik 215-225 (1998). Reprinted by Roman Law Resources Electronic Reprints in HTML and by the ZPE for downloading in PDF format.

'Roman Judges, Case Law, and Principles of Procedure', Law and History Review 22/2 (2004). [Download in PDF]

'Quare? Argument in David Daube, after Karl Popper'. In: E. Metzger (ed.), Law For All Times: Essays in Memory of David Daube. Lawrence, KS: Roman Law Society of America. 2004. pp. 27-58.

Scholarship in the Sunshine. [Paper]. 50th Session of the Société 'Fernand De Visscher' pour l'Histoire des Droits de l'Antiquité, Brussels. 17 September 1996. (18K).

Below are materials from former students of the Centre.

Meyer-Spasche, R.

Roman Law [The Recovery of Benefits Conferred under Illegal or Immoral Transactions, Chapter One]. Part of a thesis submitted for the degree of PhD at the University of Aberdeen. 2002. Available for reading in HTML, or for downloading in PDF format or Microsoft® Reader.

du Plessis, J.

Compulsion in Roman Law. Part of a thesis submitted for the degree of PhD at the University of Aberdeen. 1997. Available for reading in HTML, or for downloading in PDF format or Microsoft® Reader.

Roman Law Resources

Dr Ernest Metzger, formerly a member of the Centre and now at the University of Glasgow, manages a comprehensive internet 'portal' for Roman law. Roman Law Resources gives access to a wide range of internet materials, including sources, secondary literature, bibliographies, CD-ROMs, book reviews, discussion lists, discussion forums, newsgroups, journals, events, faculties, libraries, instititutes, chairs, errata, booksellers, and other related websites. The site also contains a directory of historians of ancient law, a collection of corrections to the English translation of Justinian's Digest, two large palingenesiae of late imperial laws, and a moderated discussion forum for Roman and civil law.

Aberdeen Quincentenary

In September of 1995 the Centre hosted A Celebration of the European Legal Tradition, a conference to mark the quincentenary of the University of Aberdeen. Seventy participants from Britain and the continent attended the two days of presentations and discussion of Roman, Civil, and European Law. The papers have been published by Duncker and Humblot.

Library at Aberdeen

In 1995 Professor Gero Dolezalek prepared an enormous catalogue of the older legal literature held at the library at the University of Aberdeen. The catalogue is principally concerned with the literature of ius commune, and comprises all law books (generally) at Aberdeen printed before 1800, all books on Scots law and other non-English law before 1840, and some later law books hidden in unsuspected places. His An Account of Antiquarian Legal Literature at Aberdeen is available for reading.