This one day conference will explore ways in which region affected the “packaging” of legal traditions within disparate cultures that flourished in geographic contiguity between the sixth and the twelfth centuries. Students of late Roman, Sassanian, Byzantine, Jewish, Islamic and Christian canon law will consider how their respective traditions of law were shaped by such extra-legal phenomena as patronage networks, institutions, circumstances of material production, compositional choices, modes of disseminating law and jurisprudential theories. By facilitating awareness of the regionalism of certain formative, though extra-legal, factors, this cross-cultural collaboration should stimulate new avenues of historical research.

In each of the conference’s three sessions, students of disparate pre-modern legal cultures−Roman, Jewish, Christian, Sasanian and Islamic−will present original research that illuminates the formative role of extra-legal, region-specific factors in shaping the legal tradition in question. Respondents at each session will weave together the material presented and identify fruitful agendas for future collaborative scholarship.