The Servus project. Reception of Roman law outside Europe
About this episode
This episode explores the revival of Roman law in the context of colonial domination and its implications on freedom, subjection, and race.
What happened when Roman law—crafted for citizens and slaves of the ancient world—was revived to justify colonial domination centuries later? In this episode, we explore how early modern thinkers like Hugo Grotius reinterpreted Roman legal categories to structure Dutch imperial rule, and how these ideas took shape in the colonial reality of Curaçao. Legal historians Jacob Giltaij and Christine Mertens (University of Amsterdam) discuss their project Servus , which traces the global afterlife of the Roman servus , uncovering how concepts born in Antiquity continued to define freedom, subjection, and race across the Atlantic world.
More episodes of Ius Commune Podcast
- The judgment of the provinces. Law and society in the Roman world with Ari Bryen
- Money in Imperial Rome: Legal Diversity and Systemic Complexity
- The God and the Bureaucrat
- Talking Late Antique Codification with Prof. Riedlberger
- Roman Law Exile and Legal Tradition w/ Prof. Kaius Tuori
- Ancient Maritime Loan Contracts w/ Prof. Peter Candy
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