The Relationship between Roman and Local Law in the
Babatha and Salome Komaise Archives
Jacobine G. Oudshoorn
The discovery of the Babatha archive provided scholars
with unique opportunities for reconstructing the life of Jews in second-century
Arabia. Although legal issues and especially the question of the relationship
between Roman and local law have received attention in a number of
publications, this study presents the first complete overview of the legal
situation as presented in the Babatha as well as the Salome Komaise archive,
using references to law in the documents' texts as the key element for
understanding what law is applicable to these documents. By distinguishing
between two levels in the papyri, of substantive and of formal law, a new
understanding is reached of the part both Roman and local law played in legal
reality.