Ancient Law

Ancient Law is a book written by Henry Sumner Maine, first published in 1861. The book explores the evolution of legal systems in ancient societies, including those of Greece, Rome, and India. Maine argues that ancient legal systems were based on a concept of status rather than individual rights, with laws and customs governing the relationships between different social classes. The book also discusses the transition from ancient to modern legal systems, and the emergence of individual rights and contract law. Maine's work has been influential in the fields of legal history and anthropology, and his ideas on the evolution of legal systems continue to be studied and debated today.It will be inferred from what has been said that the theory which transformed the Roman jurisprudence had no claim to philosophical precision. It involved, in fact, one of those ""mixed modes of thought"" which are now acknowledged to have characterised all but the highest minds during the infancy of speculation, and which are far from undiscoverable even in the mental efforts of our own day.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.