Legal Historian to Reappraise Henry Maine's 'Ancient Law'
Legal historian Paul J. du Plessis is set to reassess Henry Maine's influential treatise 'Ancient Law', published in 1861. Du Plessis, who holds the Chair of Roman Law at the University of Edinburgh, aims to analyse the book's structure and arguments in his upcoming monograph.
Maine's work, heavily influenced by his classics scholarship at Cambridge and inspired by figures like Edward Gibbon and Georg Niebuhr, presents a narrative structure engaging with late 19th-century geopolitical issues. It draws on Roman law sources, comparative legal studies, and ethnographic accounts of ancient civilizations, including India.
Du Plessis' monograph will delve into two main parts of Maine's book. The first part justifies the focus on ancient law and outlines Maine's complex method, centered on Roman law and its insights into broader legal systems' responses to social change. The second part presents case studies, an approach echoed in du Plessis' own project exploring the Roman empire's response to social changes.
Maine's work has significantly impacted academic disciplines such as legal history, sociology of law, and legal anthropology. His methodology, which adopted comparative references and methods from Gibbon and Niebuhr, has left a lasting legacy.
Du Plessis' monograph promises to shed new light on Henry Maine's 'Ancient Law', a seminal work that continues to influence legal scholarship. By analysing its structure and arguments, du Plessis aims to provide a fresh perspective on this influential treatise.
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