Prof Caroline Humfress

Deputy Head of School

Professor in Medieval History

Phone: +44 (0)1334 46 2893
Email: ch226@st-andrews.ac.uk
Location: Mediaeval History, 71 South Street
Office hours: ME3238 Tuesday 4pm to 5pm, LC5001 Tuesday 12pm to 1pm, or by appointment.

Teaching

Undergraduate:

Legal Cultures in Late Antiquity (Hons)

Holy Lives in Late Antiquity (Hons)

The Fall of Rome and the Origins of Europe 400 - 1000 (Sub-Hons)

Postgraduate:

The Idea of Law (MLitt Legal and Constitutional Studies)

Comparative Studies in Legal History (MLitt Legal and Constitutional Studies)

Research areas

Caroline Humfress is Professor of Medieval History, a former Director of the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research and the founding / current Convenor of the MLitt in Legal and Constitutional Studies. She has published widely on Ancient, Late Antique and Early Medieval law and religion, placing historical questions in dialogue with legal, anthropological and sociological concepts and approaches.

Most recently she has edited The Cambridge Comparative History of Ancient Law (Cambridge University Press, at press 2023): the first project of its kind in the field of comparative ancient legal history, working with an international team of experts across the fields of Ancient Greek, Roman, Indo-European, Near-Eastern and Chinese law. She is currently completing a monograph for Oxford University Press (Laws' Empire. Multilegalism in Late Antiquity), in addition to working on ancient constitutionalism and ideas of legal ordering in Late Antiquity and beyond.

PhD supervision

Misty Ducasse
Meghan Dulsky
Chao Xiao
Sophia Kniaz
Freja Stamper

Selected publications

Open access

Legal pluralism’s Other: mythologizing modern law
Humfress, C., 9 Jun 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Law and History Review. FirstView, 14 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Out of time? Eternity, christology and Justinianic law
Humfress, C., 31 Aug 2023, Political thought, time, and history. Robertson, J. (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 36-53 18 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open access

The early Church
Humfress, C., Feb 2022, The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law . Winroth, A. & Wei, J. (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 11-31
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open access

Beyond the (Byzantine) state: towards a user theory of jurisdiction
Humfress, C., Oct 2021, Entangled Legalities Beyond the State . Krisch, N. (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 353 - 375 (Global Law Series).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open access

Law, bureaucracy and the practice of government and rule
Humfress, C., 31 Mar 2021, The Oxford World History of Empire. Bang, P., Bayly, C. & Scheidel, W. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, Vol. I. p. 266-287
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open access

Natural law and casuistic reasoning in Roman jurisprudence
Humfress, C., 19 Apr 2021, State and Nature: Studies in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy . Adamson, P. & Rapp, C. (eds.). Berlin: de Gruyter, p. 247-266 20 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open access

'Cherchez la femme!' Heresy and law in late antiquity
Humfress, C., Jun 2020, The church and the law. McKitterick, R., Methuen, C. & Spicer, A. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Vol. 56. p. 36-59 (Studies in Church History).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open access

A new legal cosmos: late Roman lawyers and the early medieval church
Humfress, C., 9 Feb 2018, The medieval world. Linehan, P., Nelson, J. L. & Costambeys, M. (eds.). 2nd ed. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 21 p. (Routledge worlds).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open access

Gift-giving and inheritance strategies in late Roman law and legal practice
Humfress, C., 7 Jun 2017, Donations, inheritance and property in the Nordic and Western world from late Antiquity until today. Rønning, O-A., Møller Sigh, H. & Vogt, H. (eds.). Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Vol. Abingdon. 19 p. (Routledge studies in cultural history).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity
Humphries, M., Nicholson O., and team of 'subject editors', 2017, Oxford University Press.
Research output: Other contribution

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