It is becoming increasingly clear that the body, in its material dimension, is at the heart of our society, and especially of the legal
structures that govern it. The beginning and end of life, the availability of the body and freedom of movement are just some of the
many aspects of this complex issue, that has been brought even more at the centre of the political and legal debate after the
pandemic, which has highlighted a tendency – already in place for years – of the power to govern the bodies of citizens.
In this framework it remains unclear to what extent the rules of a democratic order can legitimately affect the body. The reason for
this uncertainty can be found in the absence of adequate reflection and awareness of the legal status of the body. There is a lack of
organic studies on the subject.
The intention of the research group is precisely to fill this gap, offering a wide-ranging work that reconstructs the legal status of
corporeality in ancient Rome: model of legal systems in Europe and beyond.
The subject matter, in fact, is strongly influenced by Roman law, although, this influence is actually ‘negative’. The law’s delay in
regulating the body, in fact, has often been justified referring to an alleged and unproven historical-legal reason: the concealment of
the body by the Roman legal system – which perceived the persona as an abstract category, in opposition to the concreteness of res–, was due to the placing of religion in charge of matters related to bare life. Such a conclusion, however, seems unacceptable and
betrayed by the corporeality with which Roman law was imbued and on which it was founded, so much so that Roman law can be defined as a law of bodies: just consider the huge importance of the secare partes and the noxae deditio. The legal system was in
fact created in function of, and in the image of man, and the existence of a body was an indispensable element for Roman law to
operate. The divinities themselves – subjects of the legal system – were endowed with their own physicality.
The research group therefore proposes to reread the ancient sources in order to understand the exact legal relevance of the body in
the ancient legal system, pursuing lines of research that have not been adequately studied so far. The investigation will focus on: the
legal status of the body in the biological processes of the prenatal phase, the care of both the living and the dead body; the bodily
characteristics of the persona; the ownership and availability of the body; the use of the body in particular infamous activities; the
relationship between the body and power; the relationship between the body and the divine; and the body in public space.
The results of the research will be set out in a volume that will form the foundations upon which to develop a conscious body of law.
Also, the research group will create a juridical lexicon that will define the legal bodily categorises studied so far.