Paul J. du Plessis holds the chair of Roman law at the University of Edinburgh. He is a legal historian whose research focuses predominantly on the multifaceted and complex set of relationships between law and society in a historical context. His main field of research is Roman law (with specific reference to property, obligations and, to a lesser extent, persons and family). In the context of his interest in ‘law and society’, his research also focuses on a further period where Roman legal principles were used to create law, namely the period of the European ius commune in the late Middle Ages. Here, his research explores themes such as structure, doctrine and legitimacy with a view to challenging the accepted ‘macro-narratives’ of European legal history. He is the author of six books with publishers including Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury, and the Editor of eight volumes with the same publishers. His research has been funded by various national and international organisations including the National Research Fund (South Africa), The Institute for Classical Studies (United Kingdom), and the Journal of Legal History (United Kingdom). Recent indicators of esteem: In 2020, he was elected to the Senatus Academicus. In 2021, he was elected Professor Extraordinarius at the Faculty of Law, The University of the North West.