INTRODUCTION

What is the relationship between Roman law and the society which produced it? The answer to this question is in fact much more complicated than it may seem at first glance. There are two divergent academic views on the issue. On the one hand, Alan Watson has argued that it is too simplistic to assume that a close link between law and society should necessarily exist. Although some connection is bound to be present, the precise nature of it often remains obscure and cannot by definition be used to explain the nature of specific rules of law. On the other hand, John Crook has argued that there is a close relationship between Roman law and society and that many rules of law may be explained in terms of the peculiarities of that society. The aim of this chapter is to test these two views using a specific area of Roman private law, namely letting and hiring, one of the consensual contracts which has become a much discussed topic in the last few years. More specifically, this chapter will investigate the effect of death of one of the parties on the contract of letting and hiring. It may well be asked why letting and hiring should receive special attention in this regard, since death had a variety of legal consequences in virtually every aspect of Roman private law. The reason for the particular focus is the following. Letting and hiring, like sale, was a consensual contract with widespread application.