Lecturae Ciceronis III. Cicero On the Laws: New Perspectives on De Legibus

CALL FOR PAPERS
Lecturae Ciceronis III. Cicero On the Laws: New Perspectives on De Legibus
The Department of Classics and Philosophy and the Department of Law of the University of Cyprus are pleased to announce an international conference on Cicero's De legibus, to be held in Nicosia on 19–20 March 2026. The Conference is generously sponsored by the Patrum Lumen Sustine Foundation (PLuS).
This is the third conference in the series Lecturae Ciceronis, annually organised by the Société International des Amis de Cicéron (SIAC): after the first conference on the De inuentione (Paris, 21–23 March 2024) and the second on the correspondence to Brutus (Epistulae ad Brutum) (Turin, 20–21 March 2025), the third work to be scrutinised will be the philosophical treatise De legibus.

Cicero's On the Laws (De Legibus), a treatise of the mid-first century BCE is cast as a philosophical dialogue between Cicero, his brother Quintus, and his friend Atticus. The work was conceived as a pendant to the De Republica. Even though De Legibus was probably never completed, the three surviving books reveal Cicero's attempt to ground Roman law in natural law, integrating Stoic philosophy with the civic traditions of the Roman Republic. The dialogue explores the relationship between universal justice, divine reason, and human legislation.
With its reflections on natural law, political order, and republican tradition, the De Legibus offers fertile ground for interdisciplinary research, bridging philosophy, law, rhetoric, religion and intellectual history. This conference aims to investigate the text not only from a philological standpoint but also through its ethical, political, and legal dimensions, as well as its reception in later periods.
Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):
• Philological and textual analysis of De Legibus
• The concept of lex naturae and its relationship with Stoicism
• Political and constitutional models in Cicero's thought
• Law and justice: between mos maiorum and universalism
• The impact of religion, rituals and sacral institutions on law and statecraft
• Intersections between De Legibus and other works of Cicero (De Re Publica, De Officiis)
• Manuscript tradition, transmission, and reception of De Legibus from the Middle Ages to the modern era
• The contribution of De Legibus to the foundations of Western legal thought
• Contemporary interpretations of Cicero's political and legal philosophy
Selected papers stemming from the conference will be published as a thematic issue of the peer-reviewed journal Ciceroniana On Line (https://ojs.unito.it/index.php/COL): to ensure the publication by the end of the year, the submission deadline for the revised papers is 15 June 2026.

Submission Guidelines:
Interested scholars are invited to submit an abstract (max 300 words) to magnavacca.adalberto[at]ucy.ac.cy by 15 November 2025.
Notification of acceptance will be sent by 30 November.
Papers may be delivered in English, Italian, French, or German.
Organising Committee: Nikitas Hatzimihail, Adalberto Magnavacca, Spyridon Tzounakas
Scientific Committee: Charles Guérin, Nikitas Hatzimihail, Adalberto Magnavacca, Ermanno Malaspina, Spyridon Tzounakas
Invited Speakers: I. Deligiannis, P. J. du Plessis, G. La Bua, J. Wildberger
Important Dates:
• Deadline for Abstract submission: 15 November 2025
• Notification of acceptance: 30 November 2025
• Conference dates: 19 & 20 March 2026

Lieu de la manifestation : Nicosia
Organisation : Nikitas Hatzimihail, Adalberto Magnavacca, Spyridon Tzounakas
Contact : magnavacca.adalberto[at]ucy.ac.cy