Jewish and Roman Law - Comparative Study

Description

Classical rabbinic law grew up in the shadow of the Roman empire, and must be understood in relationship to its legal legacy. Yet few, especially in the anglophone world, have mastered both corpuses--the remarkable Boaz Cohen was one; an undisputed pioneer, he built bridges between the legal cultures of these great civilizations. The essays collected here are a treasure of insight and erudition for all students of rabbinics, provincial Roman history, and comparative law. For the classicist seeking to understand rabbinic writings or the scholar of Jewish law searching the Roman legal traditions, the barriers to access are high--disciplinary, linguistic, and cultural. The studies that make up Jewish and Roman Law, here reissued, offer an accessible gateway to the complex labyrinth of legal sources for a new generation of classicists and rabbinicists, a rigorous if humbling training ground, and vital conceptual foundation from which to assess cultural contact, sympathy, and divergence. This two-volume set of essays by Boaz Cohen, late professor of law at the Jewish Theological Seminary and one of the leading talmudic scholars of his generation, was first published in 1966. The essays are accompanied here by a new introduction by Natalie B. Dohrmann of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Introduction to This Edition by Natalie B. Dohrmann vii Biography: Boaz Cohen (1899–1968) vii Contents viii Methodology x Cohen and the Study of the Rabbis xiii Conclusions xv Preface xix Introduction xxi A. General Part I. The Relationship of Jewish to Roman Law 1 II. Letter and Spirit in Jewish and Roman Law 31 III. Letter and Spirit in the New Testament 58 IV. Law and Ethics 65 B. Law of Persons V. Law of Persons 122 VI. Civil Bondage 159 VII. Peculium 179 VIII. Betrothal 279 IX. Dowry 348 X. Divorce 377 Volume 2 C. Law of Things XI. Contrectatio 409 XII. Antichresis 433 XIII. Possession 457 XIV. Specificatio 472 XV. Traditio Clavium 538 XVI. Ususfructus 557 XVII. Causation 578 XVIII. Acceptilatio in Jewish Law 610 XIX. “Juedisches Hehlerrecht” in Jewish Law 615 D. Law of Actions XX. Self-Help 624 XXI. Arbitration 651 XXII. The Testimonial Oath 710 XXIII. Testimonial Compulsion 734 Addenda 755 Corrigenda Postscript General Index 805 Index of Passages 831 Index of Latin Terms 882 Index of Greek Terms 887 Index of Hebrew and Aramaic Terms 889 Index of Hebrew and Aramaic Terms in Transliteration 893 Index of Arabic Terms Index of Oriental Terms Hebrew Section: 1 (On The Minor) 2 (On Derelictio)