Les héritiers de Lenel: la chaire royale de droit romain à Oxford (1948-2004)

The four incumbents of the Oxford Regius Chair of Civil Law in the second half of the 20th century share one remarkable feature, namely, that they all are related to Otto Lenel, the German initiator of modern Roman law studies. The connection is twofold, both personal (through teacher-pupil relationships) and intellectual, in that they have received and developed Lenel’s project. This project can be described as the restoration of the primacy of procedure in Roman law, as well as the putting back in order of the Roman law library. Professors Beatson and Zimmermann’s recent Jurists Uprooted helped to unveil this connection. The present shorter article aims at expounding it in a more systematic way by exploring the background to this relationship, as well as the link between each of the incumbents (H. F. Jolowicz, David Daube, Tony Honoré, Peter Birks) and Otto Lenel.