This monograph makes a seminal contribution to existing literature on the importance of Roman law in the development of political thought in Europe. In particular it examines the expression 'dominus mundi', following it through the texts of the medieval jurists – the Glossators and Post-Glossators – up to the political thought of Hobbes. Understanding the concept of dominus mundi sheds light on how medieval jurists understood ownership of individual things; it is more complex than it might seem; and this book investigates these complexities. The book also offers important new insights into Thomas Hobbes, especially with regard to the end of dominus mundi and the replacement by Leviathan. Finally, the book has important relevance for contemporary political theory. With fading of political diversity Monateri argues “that the actual setting of globalisation represents the reappearance of the Ghost of the Dominus Mundi, a political refoulé – repressed – a reappearance of its sublime nature, and a struggle to restore its universal legitimacy, and take its place.” In making this argument, the book adds an important original vision to current debates in legal and political philosophy.

This book features original essays by leading academics and emerging researchers written in honour of a legal comparatist who, over the course of four decades, has played a major role in comparative law’s development: Pier Giuseppe Monateri. Rather than being just a celebrative work without analytical appeal, this book makes a significant contribution to the comparative legal literature by exploring key comparative law themes and recent developments in the field. Reflecting Monateri’s vast expertise, innovative thinking, and truly global network, the volume is divided into five thematic areas of both scholarly and practical significance: Comparative Law and Its Methods; Comparative Private Law; Law and Literature; The Politics and Ontology of Law; Comparative Law & Economics. Discussing novel case-studies as well as exploring Monateri’s importance to the comparative enterprise through various trajectories of inquiry – for example, normative, doctrinal, empirical, critical – this book takes a fundamental and much-needed step towards the establishment of comparative law as a fully-fledged academic discipline and professional practice. Addressing the current status and future direction of comparative law, this book will appeal to legal comparativists, as well as students and scholars with broader interests in the nature of legal cultures.

This volume brings together a rich and varied collection of essays by Gilles Quispel (1916-2006), Professor of the History of the Early Church at Utrecht University from 1951 until his retirement in 1983. During his illustrious career, Professor Quispel was also visiting Professor at Harvard University in 1964/65, and visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven from 1969 until 1974. The fifty essays collected in this volume testify to most of the prominent themes from Professor Quispela (TM)s scholarly career: the writings of the Nag Hammadi library in general and the "Gospel of Thomas" in particular; Tatiana (TM)s "Diatessaron" and its influences; the "Hermetica"; Mani and Manichaeism; the Jewish origins of Gnosticism; and Gnosis and the future of Christianity. This volume also makes a number of his less known earlier publications (mainly presented under the heading a ~Catholicaa (TM)) available to the international community. Until shortly before he died, Professor Quispel remained active in his study of the "Gospel of Thomas." He had been one of the first to acquire the Coptic text of the "Gospel of Thomas," of which he published the first translation in 1959 and his final translation in 2005. He was also active in researching the "Diatessaron," and Valentinus a ~the Gnostica (TM). One of his most recent essays a " published for the first time in this volume a " is on a ~the Muslim Jesus.a (TM)