Research activities & more

Tomb inscriptions and grave monuments make up the majority of inscriptions that have been preserved from the Roman Empire. Insofar as they were erected by heirs who declared themselves morally or legally obliged to commemorate the deceased, they also provide information about Roman inheritance law, especially the contents of wills.

This project examines Latin funerary inscriptions and monuments from Rome, Italy, and the provinces to better understand Roman testamentary law. The background to this is the observation that grave inscriptions and grave monuments often refer to the testator's last will and testament. For example, the testator may require his heir to erect a gravestone under threat of disinheritance. The legal significance of such provisions, however, has only been partially explored.

The project brings together legal research on Roman law with the methods of ancient epigraphy, drawing especially on the Zurich-based Epigraphic Database Clauss Slaby (EDCS).

Further information

Orelli-Tag 2025/Orelli Day 2025

The Orelli Day has been held annually since 2011 in memory of the important Zurich philologist and politician Johann Caspar von Orelli (1787-1849). The festive event takes up topics and personalities from classical studies and is organized by the various chairs of classical studies in cooperation with the Department of Greek and Latin Philology. Prof. Dr. Ulrike Babusiaux and Prof. Dr. José Luis Alonso from the Faculty of Law (chairs of Roman law) have taken over the organization for 2025.

“Reception processes between Switzerland and Japan and Japan and Switzerland”

To mark the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Switzerland, the Chair was organizing an event on reception processes between Japan and Switzerland in collaboration with the current Japanese visiting researcher Prof. Dr. Yu Awatsuji. 

The public event took place on tuesday, May 28, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. in the Library of the Faculty of Law.

Tabulae testamenti: Manifestations and functions of the will in the imperial period

Conference at the University of Zurich - Prof. Dr. Ulrike Babusiaux (Roman Law), Faculty of Law, and Prof. Dr. Anne Kolb (Ancient History), Faculty of Arts were hosting this conference on wills in the imperial period from Tuesday, March 12, to Thursday, March 14, 2024, at the University of Zurich Center. 

Symposium Senn/Symposium Senn, 2019

On Friday, October 25, 2019, a symposium in honor of Prof. Marcel Senn, Dr. iur., was held in the faculty building of the University of Zurich, organized by Prof. Dr. Ulrike Babusiaux.

Orelli-Tag 2014/Orelli Day 2014

The Orelli Day took place on Saturday, February 1, 2014, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the auditorium (KOL-G-201) of the University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71. The Orelli Day was organized by Prof. Dr. Babusiaux and Prof. Dr. Eigler (Classical Philology Seminar) and was dedicated to Friedrich Ludwig Keller (1799-1860), who is considered the creator of the Zurich judicial reform and the founder of scientific jurisprudence in Switzerland. 

"Soldatenkaiser" 

Prof. Dr. Anne Kolb / Prof. Dr. Ulrike Babusiaux - The Law of the Soldier Emperors – Legal Stability in Times of Political Upheaval? Conference at the University of Zurich, April 10–12, 2013

The period of military monarchy after the end of the Severan dynasty, i.e. the era of the so-called soldier emperors (235-284), has received little attention from a legal history perspective. In contrast, historical research has increasingly examined this era in recent years and gained new insights into its structures and developments. The conference aims to foster close cooperation between representatives of Roman law and ancient history in order to overcome research divergences in this field and to incorporate the results of historical research into the study of Roman sources. At the same time, it aims to provide an opportunity to examine and, if necessary, refine the results of historical research by incorporating legal sources. In particular, it will be necessary to discuss whether and to what extent political instability and the role of the military also had an impact on the law. To this end, it is necessary to examine the conditions under which imperial law was primarily developed, as well as the content, implementation, and impact of the law thus created. These considerations, which must also address the question of continuity between the Severan dynasty and the soldier emperors, should yield new insights into the evaluation of the era and its law that go beyond the traditional debate about whether it should be classified as “epiclassical” or “postclassical.” Speakers include ancient historians and representatives of Roman law from Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, England, and the USA. The lectures will be held in German and English. The discussion can be conducted in German, English, and Italian.

Workshop on argumentation structures in Talmudic and Roman law, 2013

The conference took place on June 28, 2013, in Zurich. The conference was organized by Prof. Dr. Ulrike Babusiaux, Prof. Dr. Ronen Reichman from Heidelberg, Prof. Dr. Matthias Armgardt from Konstanz, and Prof. Francesco Lucrezi from Salerno.

The Handbook of Roman Private Law was edited by Prof. Dr. Ulrike Babusiaux (Zurich), Prof. Dr. Christian Baldus (Heidelberg), Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Ernst (Oxford and Zurich), Prof. Dr. Franz-Stefan Meissel (Vienna), Prof. Dr. Johannes Platschek (Munich) and Prof. Dr. Thomas Rüfner (Trier) and was published by Mohr Siebeck in 2023. 

Get OPEN ACCESS to the Handbook here.

Further information on the work and its creation can be found here.

Nörr Library: Prof. Dr. jur. Dr. h.c. mult. Dieter Nörr left behind a significant specialist library, which, at his express wish, was to be made available for public use by an institution if possible. Since summer 2018, the Dieter Nörr Library has been housed in the Faculty of Law at the University of Zurich.

Information about the collection: The Dieter Nörr Library at the Faculty of Law in Zurich contains approximately 4,000 books. These include monographs, anthologies, journals, and encyclopedias. There is also a collection of offprints, estimated to contain 5,000 works. The core of the collection is devoted to Roman law and ancient legal history, but the Dieter Nörr Library also offers numerous works from other areas of law, philosophy, ancient literature and cultural history, medieval and modern history, psychology, physics, and sociology.

Further information on the library and access to it can be found here.

Zurich Discussions on Legal History: The Zurich Discussions on Legal History (ZAA) is a series of lectures on various topics related to legal history that has been running since 1954. Each discussion evening consists of a lecture followed by a discussion and lasts approximately 90-105 minutes. The lectures usually take place three times per semester on a Thursday evening.

Further information on the program and registration can be found here. 

The "Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte" (ZRG, also known as the Savigny Journal) represents an integral part of European legal history research.

Click here to access the Savigny Journal (link) via the publisher De Gruyter Brill.