Aspects of Family Law in the Ancient World – a Cross-cultural Perspective: International Conference at University College London, 22-24 April 2015

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The Department of Greek and Latin at University College London (UCL) is
planning to host an international conference on 22-24 April 2015 on aspects
of family law in the Ancient World. We are using the term ‘family law’ as a
convenient label for the range of legislation by which states seek to
regulate the behaviour of ‘families’ and their members, and to define the
boundaries between private and public responsibility for such matters. We
are operating with a broad conception of the Ancient World, embracing a
range of Mediterranean and Near and Middle Eastern cultures from the
earliest times to late antiquity (including Egyptian, Old and Neo-Assyrian,
New Babylonian, Persian, Ugarit, Alalakh, Greek and Roman).

Confirmed speakers include: Prof. Sophie Démare-Lafont (Paris), Prof. Edward
Harris (Durham), Prof. Alberto Maffi (Milan), Prof. Paul Mitchell (UCL),
Prof. Karen Radner (UCL), Prof. Lene Rubinstein (RHUL), and Prof. Jakub
Urbanik (Warsaw).

Papers (in English, French, German or Italian) will be 20 minutes long, with
10 minutes for discussion. We welcome proposals under any of the four broad
themes outlined below.

Rights and obligations of kinship: legal obligations of parents (including
‘social parents’ such as guardians or stepparents) on the care and
maintenance of children; legal obligations of children to care for elderly
parents; extent of the state’s responsibility for the care and protection of
vulnerable family members (e.g. widows, orphans, and the elderly); legal
obligations for burial and commemorative rites.

Marriage/divorce/adultery: eligibility for marriage; definitions of incest;
procedures for a legally valid marriage; laws on dowry and marital property;
definitions and legal consequences of adultery; attitudes to monogamy and
polygamy, and to concubinage and other informal relationships; legal
provision and procedures for divorce.

Bastardy: distinctions between ‘legitimacy’ and ‘illegitimacy’ (bastardy);
legal means of controlling or preventing illegitimate births (such as
abortion or infanticide); ‘proof’ of legitimacy in cases of dispute;
legitimation of children who were born illegitimate; legal relationship
(including inheritance rights) between illegitimate children and their
parents and other members of the birth family; effect of bastardy on civic
status (citizenship, right to marry, right to own property, etc.).

Property and inheritance: definitions of individual versus family property;
types of property that could be inherited; entitlement to own and inherit
property (including women’s rights); importance of patrilineal succession
and male precedence; testamentary freedom; adoption of an heir.

Please send your proposed title and abstract (no longer than 300 words, in
any of the four conference languages), by 31 July 2014, to
ancientfamilylaw@ucl.ac.uk. (Please also feel free to contact us with any
queries at this address.) All proposals will be acknowledged, and we aim to
confirm acceptance by 30 September.