mr. D. (Daphne) Penna

Daphne Penna studied law at the University of Athens in Greece where she completed her Masters in 'History, Philosophy and Sociology of Law' with specialisation 'History of Law' (cum laude, 2003). In the year 2012 she defended and published her thesis on 'The Byzantine Imperial Acts to Venice, Pisa and Genoa, 10th-12th centuries. A Comparative Legal Study' (ed. Eleven International Publishing, The Hague 2012) PDF available here: https://pure.rug.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/14499312/The_Byzantine_Imperial_Acts.pdf

In 2022 together with Roos Meijering she published the book: "A Sourcebook on Byzantine Law. Illustrating Byzantine Law through the Sources." (ed. Brill). This is the first book in English providing a wide range of Byzantine legal sources. In six chapters, this book explains and illustrates Byzantine law through a selection of fundamental Byzantine legal sources, beginning with the sources before the time of Justinian, and extending up to AD 1453. 

Penna is currently working as an assistant professor at the Department of Legal History at the University of Groningen. From September 2024 she also works as an associate professor in Roman law at KU Leuven. Her research interests lie in Roman and Byzantine law and especially in their influence on the European legal tradition; she has published extensively on this area (Brill, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, De Gruyter, Palgrave Macmillan, Taylor & Francis, Dossiers Byzantines, Fontes Minores, Forschungen zur byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Revue des Études Byzantines, Subseciva Groningana etc..; see Publications for details).

Penna has taught seminars and has been invited to give lectures on Byzantine law within Universities and Research Centres in Europe and the U.S.A, for example: Universities of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Leiden, Sorbonne University, the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., Harvard University's Centre for Byzantine Studies Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C., Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Mainz, Münster, Palermo, Athens, Thessaloniki, Edinburgh, Kent, the Institute of Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Athens, the Centre of Byzantine Studies in Thessaloniki, the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Netherlands Institute Athens etc.  (see Research, Full Research Profile, Activities).