Rule of Law in Ancient Rome

The ideal of the rule of law - that the law should protect all citizens from arbitrary exercises of power - can be traced from ancient Greece to the present day. The Roman contribution to the rule of law tradition has been largely overlooked, however, both in rule-of-law scholarship and recent considerations of Roman law.

Eleanor Cowan, Lecturer in Ancient History, Discipline of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney,Kit Morrell, Susan Blake Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, University of Queensland,Andrew Pettinger, Honorary Associate in Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney,Michael Sevel, Senior Lecturer in Jurisprudence, University of Sydney Law School

Eleanor Cowan is a lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Sydney. She is an historian of the Roman Republic and the Early Imperial period. Her research concentrates on communities in - and post- conflict; on constructions of autocracy; on domestic abuse in the ancient world and on Latin historiography.


Kit Morrell is the Susan Blake Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland. Her research focuses on the political and legal history of the late Roman republic.


Andrew Pettinger is an honorary associate in Ancient History at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on the emergence of the Tiberian age, constitutional change under Augustus, and the role of politics in periods of transition.


Michael Sevel is Senior Lecturer in Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney Law School. He researches issues in general jurisprudence, the rule of law, and moral and political philosophy, including the nature of political authority and the moral obligation to obey the law.