Caroline Humfress

Prof Caroline Humfress is a Professor of Medieval History and Deputy Head of the School of History at the University of St Andrews. She serves as Co-Director of the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research and Convenor of the MLitt in Legal and Constitutional Studies. Her research focuses on Ancient, Late Antique, and Early Medieval law and religion, employing interdisciplinary approaches from legal theory, anthropology, and sociology. She recently co-edited The Cambridge Comparative History of Ancient Law (2024) and is completing a monograph on multilegalism in Late Antiquity for Oxford University Press.

Her teaching spans undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including courses on Legal Cultures in Late Antiquity and Comparative Studies in Legal History. She supervises PhD students in legal history and related fields. Her research emphasizes comparative legal frameworks, legal pluralism, and the intersection of law with religious and social structures in pre-modern societies.

Prof Humfress collaborates internationally on projects such as the comparative analysis of ancient legal systems across Greek, Roman, Indo-European, Near-Eastern, and Chinese contexts. Her work challenges modern legal assumptions through historical lenses, as seen in her 2024 Law and History Review article on legal pluralism's mythologized narratives.

• Affiliations: Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research, School of History
• Key Projects: MLitt Legal and Constitutional Studies program development, multilegalism monograph, comparative ancient legal history