Straus Fellow
Academic Year 2011-2012
Janez Kranjc
Janez Kranjc was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he also obtained his law degree and PhD. He was a Research Fellow at Vienna, Partridge Visiting Fellow at Cambridge, and Humboldt Fellow at Cologne. Since 1971, he has been teaching Roman law at the University of Ljubljana, and taught as a Visiting Professor in Poitiers, Graz and Irkutsk. His main areas of research are Roman law and its influence on modern law and legal terminology, in particular the Roman legal maxims and the impact of traditional Roman values on legal development. He has authored several books and papers in Slovenian, as well as some papers in German, French and English.
Research
Values in the Law: Lasting Echoes of Roman Law?
At the Straus Institute, I hope to pursue research on the relevance of traditional values and principles for the development of law and the perception of justice and legality in the modern society. The present economic and social crisis is often perceived as a logical – if not inevitable – consequence of a progressive disappearance of fundamental values and moral compass. In many countries, the implications of this phenomenon are translated into their legal orders, where value considerations are replaced by a hypertrophy of norms and ideas by verbosity. The legislative process too often succumbs to the exigencies of political pragmatism, which only further deepens the divide between the proclaimed legal ideals and the reality of daily politics.
Through my research, I would like to review the current state of law and fundamental legal principles in light of the basic legal principles and values identified by the Roman lawyers. The core question in this respect is whether there are principles and values that can be regarded as permanent or essential to the functioning of the legal system. I would also like to revisit the minimum moral standards of the legal profession. In certain aspects, the principle of justice contains strong moral elements. If law is to be understood as a vehicle of pursuing the idea of justice, we have to stress and bolster those aspects. But to be able to do so, we first have to identify them, as well as define their role and place in the legal system and the life of law.
