Revisiting Roman Statehood: Examining the International Legal Framework of the Foederatio Model in the Context of the Later Roman Empire

The knowledge of how legal pluralism was practiced by late antique empires in hierarchical societies continues to be essential in the examination of the models of asymmetric sovereignty in history and in the present day situation. This study will discuss the quasi-federative foederatio model used by the Roman Empire in the Dominate (284–476 CE) and how lex foedus has served as a juridical instrument that combined internal administrative rank and outsourced treaty linkages. The study utilizes integrative synthesis of historical-retrospective methods, hermeneutic and comparative-legal methods to restructure the structural-functional matrix of Roman international legal personality. The commentary shows that foedus agreements established stratified legal forms (foedus aequum, foedus iniquum, clientela, deditio), and gave foederati some form of legal personality without imperial suzerainty. Divisio regni of 364 and 395 was administrative dismembering as opposed to fragmentation of sovereignty, and ideology of Christianitas created theological justification of hierarchical legal pluralism. This quasi-federative model is illustrated in the Gothic foedus of 382: Goths did not lose their internal autonomy and sovereignty in internal regulation, but at the same time did not lose external regulation under ius Romanum. This legal framework made it possible to survive over time with the integration of barbarians without the loss of the universalist claims, and eventually affected the Byzantine governance as well as medieval European federative structures.