Józef inter gentes: On status and law between the centre and periphery

Following the footsteps of Józef Mélèze Modrzejewski and reassessing his law-custom theory, the essay explores the principles of law-application under Roman law. Passages from Ps.-Menander’s Epideictic Treatises and Gregory the Miracle-Worker’s Eulogy of Origen are confronted with the selected papyrological evidence of apparent ‘conflict of laws’ faced by the Roman jurisdiction: the petition of Dionysia (P. Oxy. II 237), and a text concerning the testamentary freedom of the Egyptians (P. Oxy. XLII 3015), and finally with a fragment of a juridical work attributed to Volusius Maecianus (D. XIV 2.9 pr.). In conclusions, a new take of the problem is presented. I suggest the principle ordering the choice of competent law be lex posterior derogat legi priori. Thus, after the Roman conquest the old norms remained in force until expressively abrogated by a new Roman precept: be it in a form of a judicial decision (in line of the Roman magistrate-law making), or new imperial legislation.