Symposium on Roman Law

On Saturday, 7 March, a public and free symposium on Roman law will be held at the Faculty of History and Social Sciences from 10:00 to 15:00.

Once upon a time, Roman Law was taught in practically every law school that had any academic pretensions. The reason is that Roman Law is part of the history of the law and legal culture of most of the world‘s nations, and it was believed that the study of it was necessary to the understanding of contemporary legal institutions and their ongoing development.  

The tradition of teaching Roman Law has weakened widely along with a trend in legal education that emphasizes the training of bureaucrats rather than the cultivation of legal minds. Roman Law teaching is only one victim of this trend. But the Faroese legal education here at Fróðskaparsetrið is dedicated not only to the inclusion of a strong “Faroese dimension” in the teaching of law but to the deeper understanding of law and legal institutions as such, and the inclusion of Roman Law in the curriculum is reflective of this commitment.  

Thus, Roman Law has been included in our curriculum since our Bachelor of Law program was launched in 2019 and has been taught by Francesco Milazzo, a distinguished Professor of Roman Law at the University of Catania, in Sicily. Upon his retirement from the University of Catania, Professor Milazzo accepted our invitation to become an Affiliated Professor of Roman Law at Fróðskaparsetrið, where he will spend a month each year in residence here, teaching Roman Law and working among us as Distinguished Professor in Residence. 

In honor of his new status, a small, international Symposium of Roman will be held on the weekend of March 7-8. The modest “scientific program” will be held on Saturday, March 7th, and will begin with Professor Milazzo’s Inaugural Lecture, which he calls, “The Never-Ending Story of a Duck”. In this lecture, Professor Milazzo will discuss Roman Law and its teaching, which he says is nowadays widely misunderstood. 

In addition, there will be three further lectures by Sara Fusco, of the University of Akureyri; Jonathan Wood, of the University of Iceland, and Mikael M Karlsson, Affiliated Professor of Law at Fróðskaparsetrið.  

The lectures will all be suited to interested non-experts, including staff members and students of Fróðskaparsetrið and members of the general public who are all cordially invited to attend. Admission is free. 
 
The program is as follows: 
 
Saturday, March 7th:
 
10.00-10.15:  
Introduction  
  
10.15-11.30  
Francesco Milazzo (Fróðskaparsetur Føroya):  
Inaugural Lecture: "The Never-Ending Story of a Duck" 
 
11.30-12.15:  
Sara Fusco (University of Akureyri):  
“Pax Boreo-Romana: A Pedagogical Exploration of Roman Law in Icelandic Classrooms" 
 
12.15-13.30  
Lunch break 
 
13.30-14.15: 
Jonathan Wood (University of Iceland):  
“Caesar in the Kremlin? The Influence of Roman Law in the Development of the Legal Regime of the USSR"         
        
14.15-15:00: 
Mikael M Karlsson (Fróðskaparsetur Føroya):  
"An Exploration of Ciceronian Legal Advocacy"