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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §23.3.35.pr

Novation of Dowry and Transfer of Risk to the Husband

Passage 3409 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The text explains that if a husband, through novation, stipulates for a dowry promised by his father-in-law or another party, the risk associated with the dowry transfers from the wife to the husband.

[IDEM libro quadragesimo septimo ad Sabinum. ] §23.3.35.prDotem a patre uel a quouis alio promissam si uir nouandi causa stipuletur, coepit uiri esse periculum, cum ante mulieris fuisset.
[THE SAME in the forty-seventh book on Sabinus.] If the husband, for the purpose of novation, should stipulate for a dowry promised by the father or by anyone else, the risk begins to belong to the husband, whereas previously it had belonged to the wife.

Notes

  1. §23.3.35.prnouandi causa — meaning 'for the purpose of novation (novatio)'. This refers to the legal technique of extinguishing an existing obligation by replacing it with a new verbal contract (stipulatio), whether with the same content or with a change in parties or terms.
  2. §23.3.35.prcoepit uiri esse periculum, cum ante mulieris fuisset — The genitives uiri and mulieris denote possession or attribution, indicating to whom the risk (periculum, i.e., the risk of non-payment of the dowry) belongs. The conjunction cum introduces a clause of contrast ('whereas'), taking the subjunctive pluperfect fuisset.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §23.3.35.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:23.3.35.pr

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