Roman Law
10/29/2007
Outline

DELICTS (cont’d), PROCEDURE AND INTRODUCTION TO THE XII TABLES

DELICTS AND PROCEDURE

The Roman Institutional Treatises

Categories (Cont'd)

[§ numbers are to G.I., unless otherwise noted; a hard copy of the following scheme may be found in the Materials, pp. 262–3]

Things (res) (cont'd):

ex delicto
furtum–4.1	vi bona rapta–4.2	damnum iniuria datum–4.3	iniuria–4.4
quasi-delict (mostly examples of absolute or vicarious liability)–4.5

[Procedure]:

[procedure]
actions–§§1-114	exceptions–§§115-37	interdicts–§§139-70	abuse of process–§§171-82	summons and vadimonium–§§183-7

A. Actions–4.1-114

actions (in general)–§182
in rem vs. in personam–§§1-5	rei persecutoriae vs. peonales–§§6-9	ad legis actiones vs. sua vi–§10

legis actiones–§§11-12
sacramentum–§§13-17		iudicis postulatio–§17a	condictio–§§17b-20	manus iniectio–§§21-25	pignoris capio–§§26-9
in rem	in personam

4.30-68	formulae
	a.	substitution for legis actiones–§§30-1
	b.	formulae ficticiae–§§32-8
	c.	parts of the formula–§§39-44
	d.	conceptio in ius and in factum–§§45-7
	e.	condemnatio certae or incertae pecuniae–§§48-52
	f.	overclaim–§§53-60
	[g. ?	multiple claims–see JI.4.6.36-8]
	h.	cross-claims (including bonae fidei iudicia, compensatio against a banker, and deductio against a bonorum emptor)–§§61-8

4.69-87	actions by or on behalf of others
	a.	actions against a pater or dominus on the contract of a son or slave–§§69-74
	b.	noxal actions (actions on the delict or a son, slave or animal)–§§75-9, 81
	c.	actions on the contract of one in manu or in mancipio–§80
	d.	representatives in litigation–§§82-7

4.88-102

security

4.103-114	extinction of actions
	a.	iudicia legitima and imperio continentia–§§103-9
	b.	actiones perpetuae and temporales–§§110-11
	c.	active and passive transmissibility–§§112-13
	d.	satisfaction before judgment–§114

B. Exceptions and further pleas–4.115-37

	1.	exceptiones–§§115-25
	2.	replicationes–§§126-9
	3.	praescriptiones–§130-7

C. Interdicts–4.139-70

interdicts–§139-42
decrees		interdicts (stricto sensu)
restitutory	exhibitory	prohibitory

possessory interdicts–§182
acquiriing–§§144-7	retaining–§§148-53	recovering–§154-5

	2.	simple and double interdicts–§§156-60
	3.	procedure under interdicts–§161-70

D. Abuse of process–4.171-82

is restrained by
pecuniary penalty	oath	fear of infamy

	1.	penalties on the defendant–§§171-3
	2.	penalties on the plaintiff–§§174-81
	3.	actions involving infamia–§182

E. Summons and vadimonium–4.183-7

Roman Law
10/29/2007
Outline

GENERALITIES ABOUT THE XII TABLES

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ADOPTION OF THE XII, ACCORDING TO LIVY

II. HOW RELIABLE IS OUR TEXT?

1.	The whole of the first part of Livy has been devoted to the struggle between patrician and plebeian, and to the struggle against the the Etruscan rulers of Rome. While there is much in this that is anachronistic, there is no sound reason to doubt its basic historicity.
2.	In 462 a 1. Terentila calling for codification was passed by an assembly of the plebs arranged according to tribes according to the 1. Publia of 471 B.C. But the measure was not approved by the Senate.
3.	454 — the embassy to Athens. Famine and plague, probably historical.
4.	451 — the first decemvirate. The names seem historical. The first X Tables.
5.	450 — The 2d decemvirate. The names seem phony. The last 2 Tables. Good men and bad men.
6.	The threat of war and the summoning of the Senate. The legend of Verginia and Appius Claudius.
7.	The 2d secession. 449 B.C. Valerius and Horatius, the good consuls.
8.	445 — the 1. Canululeia, abolishing the restriction on connubium. The beginning of the military tribunes, related, perhaps, to the desire to get plebeians into power.

We haven’t got the full text of the XII. The ‘bronze’ tablets were destroyed by the Gauls in 390 B.C. But the memory of the text survived.
1.			Four instances of references to number of the Tables:
			a.		It’s in Festus a dictionary writer of the 2d or 3d century who based himself on a similar work from the Augustan period: The definition is of reus which F. says in old language can mean either plaintiff or defendant. At Capito Ateius in eadem opinione est [that the word means defendant], sed exemplo adiuvat interpretationem; nam in secunda tabula secunda lege, in qua scriptum est “quid horum fuit unum [vitium, Cuj.] iudici arbitrove reove, eo dies diffissus esto” hic uterque, actor reusque, in iudicio ‘reus’ vocatur ....”
			b.		IV. Dionysisus of Halicarnassus reports IV.2b among the Romulan laws and then says: “The decemviri referred to this law among others, and it exists in the 4th of what they call the twelve tables.”
			c.		X. Cicero De legibus reports that the provisions concerning funerals in the laws of Solon were carried over almost word for by the decemviri in the 10th table.
			d.		XI or XII given here as XI,1 — intermarriage. E.g., Cicero De republica: “After the ten had written ten tables of laws with the greatest fairness and foresight, they substituted another ten for the next year ... who in a most inhumane law in two additionnal tables of wicked laws established the the plebs not have connubia (lawful marriage) with the patricians.”
2.			Three sources of further information on the order:
			a.		Commentary on the XII written by Gaius, 28 fragments from it in the D. (though number of them are put together). From this we learn that each G. book deals with 2 Tables. If this is right, then a lot of our numbers are wrong. For example, Table 2 probably had some provisions dealing with theft.
			b.		Commentaries on the ius civile. Of these Sabinus seems to have followed the XII order. Almost no frags survive of his three books, but there are commentaries ad Sab.
			c.		The Edict of the Praetor. Reconstructed from the commentaries on the edict.
3.	From this the following pattern emerges which is traditional if not totally supported by the surviving evidence:
				I–III Procedure IV–V Persons and Succession VI–VII Property VIII–X Delicts XI–XII Various topics, additional tables
4.		How accurate is the language? The lapis niger of c. 500 B.C. contains about 16 full words and about 16 more partial ones. 3 examples:
					quoi for qui (III.4, III.22) sakros for sacer (VIII.21) iouxmenta for iumentum (I.3)

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