Project description
Understanding local law-making in the Roman Empire
Rome used law as a tool to assert its authority over non-Roman subjects. Communities in the Greek East maintained their own legal traditions, which were assimilated into the Roman legal system. Law emerged as a significant arena for provincials to negotiate Roman dominance and preserve their identities. The ERC-funded Local Law under Rome project aims to examine local legal cultures alongside Jewish jurisprudence, which provides a comprehensive source of local law-making during the Roman period. The project will compare local legal systems with Roman legal administration to comprehend subordinate legal discourses. It will identify patterns of integration among legal traditions and characterise provincial legalism as a method for cultural and political differentiation in the absence of legal autonomy.
Objective
Law and order were Rome’s vehicles for displaying its imperial authority and supremacy over non-Roman subjects. However, Rome did not fill a legal vacuum; rather, it competed with established legal practices among communities in the Greek East. These communities took pride in their legal traditions, as they were being absorbed into the Roman legal order. Consequently, the sphere of law served provincials as a major arena for negotiating Roman power and demarcating their own local identities: what customs to maintain and what trends to resist?
Despite scholarly interest in the plurality of laws under Rome, this project proposes an innovative cross-disciplinary study of these local legal cultures as an expression of provincial agency and self-determination. While previous studies were limited to the scattered remains of legal activities in the Greek East on papyri or on inscriptions, it is the premise of this project that only by integrating the hitherto neglected body of Jewish jurisprudence we may gain access into provincial perceptions of their legal cultures. Early rabbinic literature (1st-3rd centuries CE), which has been marginalized as an isolated phenomenon, is in fact the only comprehensive source of local law-making under Rome and is therefore the most appropriate framework for studying provincial legalisms in all of their forms.
By applying a multi-dimensional comparative analysis of key legal fields, Local Law under Rome provides a structured method including the following stages for proceeding towards a new understanding of subordinate legal discourse: First, the project contextualizes each system of local law separately against the background of Roman legal administration and local traditions. Next, it discerns patterns of integration across different legal traditions, and finally it characterizes the distinct nature of provincial legalism, as means for cultural and political distinction in circumstances of law without power.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
91904 JERUSALEM
Israel
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.