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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §1.5.25.pr

Freeborn Status Conferred by Judicial Ruling

Passage 89 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text explains that anyone declared freeborn by a judicial ruling must be legally regarded as such, even if they were actually a freedman, based on the principle of res iudicata.

[IDEM libro primo ad legem Iuliam et Papiam. ] §1.5.25.prIngenuum accipere debemus etiam eum, de quo sententia lata est, quamuis fuerit libertinus: quia res iudicata pro ueritate accipitur.
[BY THE SAME AUTHOR, in the first book on the Lex Iulia et Papia.] We ought to accept as freeborn even him concerning whom a judgment has been rendered, although he may have been a freedman: because a decided matter is accepted as truth.

Notes

  1. §1.5.25.pringenuum accipere — The verb accipere is used here in the sense of 'to regard' or 'to interpret,' and the accusative adjective ingenuum serves as a predicative accusative modifying the object eum.
  2. §1.5.25.prres iudicata — A technical term in Roman law referring to 'a matter already decided by judicial decree' (res iudicata). The clause starting with quia in this section is the source of the famous legal maxim 'res iudicata pro veritate accipitur'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §1.5.25.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:1.5.25.pr

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