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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §2.2.2.pr

Punishment for Judicial Malice and Assessor Liability

Passage 261 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus explains that under this edict, the malice of the administrator of justice is what must be punished, and if an unjust judgment occurs due to an assessor's negligence, the liability should fall on the assessor themselves, not the magistrate.

[PAULUS libro tertio ad edictum. ] §2.2.2.prHoc edicto dolus debet ius dicentis puniri: nam si adsessoris imprudentia ius aliter dictum sit quam oportuit, non debet hoc magistratui officere, sed ipsi adsessori.
[PAUL, on the Edict, Book III.] Under this edict, the malice of the person administering justice must be punished; for if, through the imprudence of an assessor, the law was administered otherwise than it ought to have been, this ought not to prejudice the magistrate, but the assessor himself.

Notes

  1. §2.2.2.prius dicentis — Genitive singular of the present participle *ius dicens* (the one administering justice), functioning as a possessive or subjective genitive modifying *dolus* (malice).
  2. §2.2.2.prquam oportuit — Consisting of the conjunction *quam* corresponding to the comparative adverb *aliter* (otherwise) and the perfect active indicative third-person singular of the impersonal verb *oportet* (*oportuit*). It means "otherwise than it ought to have been."
  3. §2.2.2.prmagistratui — Since the verb *officere* (to prejudice, harm) governs the dative case, both *magistratui* and *ipsi adsessori* (to which the omitted verb in the second clause applies) are in the dative case.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §2.2.2.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:2.2.2.pr

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