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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §1.3.5.pr

Adapting Laws to Common Rather than Rare Cases

Passage 24 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Celsus argues that the law should be adapted to events that occur frequently and easily, rather than to those that happen very rarely.

[IDEM libro XVII digestorum. ] §1.3.5.prnam ad ea potius debet aptari ius, quae et frequenter et facile, quam quae perraro eueniunt.
[THE SAME on the Digest, Book XVII] For law ought to be adapted to those things which happen both frequently and easily, rather than to those which occur very rarely.

Notes

  1. §1.3.5.praptari — A passive infinitive depending on the verb debet ('ought to'), indicating that the subject ius ('law') is to be 'adapted' or 'fitted' to the prepositional phrase ad ea ('to those things').
  2. §1.3.5.prpotius ... quam — A comparative construction meaning 'rather ... than'. After quam, the preposition ad and its antecedent pronoun ea are omitted, creating a symmetrical structural parallel between the two clauses.
  3. §1.3.5.preueniunt — Although placed only at the very end of the sentence, this verb also applies to the first relative clause (quae et frequenter et facile) in the comparison.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §1.3.5.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:1.3.5.pr

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