IUS ET LEX: PATRIARCHAL STRATEGIES IN ROMAN LEGAL DISCOURSE
IUS ET LEX: PATRIARCHAL STRATEGIES IN ROMAN LEGAL DISCOURSE

Summary/Abstract: This paper interrogates the twofold operation of ius and lex as mechanisms of gendered restriction in Roman law. It proposes that Roman legal patriarchy did not rest solely on codified statutes or merely on entrenched custom but strategically employed both. In the domain of private law, Roman woman’s ‘capacity to act’ (under the modern terminology) was restricted via the ‘lex’ whilst it was the ‘ius’ which curtailed her ‘legal capacity’, especially within the public sphere. Romans remained silent when exclusion was assumed within state governance and resorted to tailored justifications when female agency risked social or economic disruption. This study aims to make sense of this shifting dynamic and argues that the two legal voices of ‘ius without reasons’ and ‘lex with reasons’ were no less orchestrated than improvised.

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