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Cardozo Law Review

Abstract

That slavery can be nothing but bad is a universally accepted proposition; it has therefore been contrary to international law for quite some time. Yet there remains the following debate: were there systems of slavery in the past that were "better" than others-better, that is, for the slaves? It is worth recalling that according to the only surviving account of the history of Roman law written in antiquity, Gnaeus Flavius, the son of a freedman, utilized his position as the High Priest's scribe to make public the original register of the forms of action which had hitherto been kept secret. We are told this service "so ingratiated him with the citizenry that he became a tribune of the plebs, a senator and a curule aedile." The book he pirated was later known as the Flavian Law, and more than two millennia later, Hermann U. Kantorowicz was inspired to write an appeal for legal realism in Germany using Gnaeus Flavius as a pseudonym.

Keywords

Slavery, Race and Ethnicity Issues

Disciplines

Law | Law and Race

Included in

Law and Race Commons

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