The Origins of Nation and Subjecthood in Ancient Rome: from Gens to Subjecthood, from Citizenship to Nation

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant professor in Public Law, Faculty of Law, Shahid Beheshti University,Tehran,Iran.

2 PhD candidate in Public Law Law ,Shahid Beheshti University,Tehran,Iran.

Abstract

All scholars agree that the western public law has always looked at the Roman legal and political regimes specially in creating the concept of nation State. Therefore, the effects of Roman foundations on the western law can be studied from different aspects. It seems that in the concept of nation State the concepts "nation" and "subjecthood" can be found. The present paper seeks to deal with this question: “can we trace these modern legal concepts back to the Roman law?”. What have been studied here are the specific styles of the “gen” in Indo-European families and specific Roman approach towards colonialism and their effects on the creation of “subjecthood” and “citizenship” which is the precursor of “nation” in modern law. By the emergence of Christianity, the coherence form of “gen” to “nation” has been disrupted This is because in Christianity the relations between people are not based on the permanent link between a group of people and a territory, but are centered around common belief. This again led to the distinction between people and aliens. However, the former sequence of Indo-European tradition could have laid the foundation of “nation" even before Modern era.

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References

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Comparative Law Review
Volume 8, Issue 1
Spring & Summer
April 2017
Pages 343-360

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