Ancient Criminal Law: A Global Perspective
June 24 @ 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Ancient Criminal Law: A Global Perspective
Join us for an international workshop featuring contributors to our forthcoming Modern Criminal Law Review Special Issue on “Ancient Criminal Law: A Global Perspective,” guest edited by Clifford Ando (University of Chicago).
Recent years have witnessed several revolutions in the study of ancient law. These include new models for the study of ancient states, deriving in particular from comparative study; new interpretive emphasis on the limits of state infrastructural power; detailed study of the pluralist nature of legal authority in ancient empires in particular; and the extraordinary recovery of previously unknown documentary materials, especially in central Asian and East Asian contexts. This issue seeks to bring these new insights to bear on the study of criminal law in a global array of contexts: the Ancient Near East, classical Athens, Qin and Han period China, the high Roman empire, and rabbinic Judaism.
Participants include:
- Clifford Ando, University of Chicago (moderator)
- Beth Berkowitz, Columbia University
- Ari Bryen, Vanderbilt University
- Liang Cai, University of Notre Dame
- Benjamin Gallant, Harvard University
- Adriaan Lanni, Harvard University
- Mark Letteney, University of Washington
- Seth Richardson, University of Chicago
- Andrew Wolpert, University of Florida
June 24, 2026 @ 12pm (ET)
► To join us for this free online event, please register here. Registration is encouraged, but not required; if you prefer to join the event directly, head over to the MCLR+ YouTube channel at the time of the event (please note the time zone). All attendees will have the opportunity to post questions and comments via YouTube live chat.
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