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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.7.2.pr-29.7.2.4

Legal Effects of Codicils and Validity of Trusts

Passage 4578 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Discusses the validity of trusts in codicils, the special rule that codicils are treated as part of the will, the incapacity of insane persons to make codicils, and the conversion of invalid inheritances into trusts.

[IULIANUS libro trigesimo septimo digestorum. ] §29.7.2.prSi ei, qui post testamentum factum et ante codicillos scriptos natus esset, codicillis per fideicommissum aliquid daretur, utile est.
[IULIANUS in his thirty-seventh book of Digests.] If something is given by a codicil through a trust to a person who was born after the will was made and before the codicil was written, it is valid.
§29.7.2.1Quod si ei, qui post testamentum factum et antequam codicilli scriberentur mortuus esset, datum esset, pro non scripto habetur.
But if it had been given to one who had died after the will was made and before the codicil was written, it is held as not written.
§29.7.2.2Codicillorum ius singulare est, ut quaecumque in his scribentur perinde haberentur, ac si in testamento scripta essent.
The special rule of codicils is that whatever is written in them is treated just as if it had been written in the will.
ideoque seruo, qui testamenti facti tempore testatoris fuisset, codicillorum tempore alienus, non recte libertas directa datur.
And therefore, direct freedom is not validly given to a slave who belonged to the testator at the time the will was made, but was someone else's at the time of the codicil.
Et contra si, cum testamentum fiebat, alienus esset, codicillorum tempore testatoris, intellegitur alieno seruo libertas data.
And conversely, if, when the will was being made, he belonged to someone else, but at the time of the codicil he belonged to the testator, it is understood that freedom was given to another's slave.
et ideo licet directae libertates deficiunt, attamen ad fideicommissarias eundum est.
And for this reason, although direct freedoms fail, recourse must nevertheless be had to trust-based freedoms.
§29.7.2.3Furiosus non intellegitur codicillos facere, quia nec aliud quicquam agere intellegitur, cum per omnia et in omnibus absentis uel quiescentis loco habetur.
An insane person is not understood to make a codicil, because he is not understood to perform any other act, since in all respects and in all things he is held in the position of an absent or quiet person.
H §29.7.2.4ereditas testamento inutiliter data non potest codicillis quasi hereditas confirmari, sed ex fideicommisso petitur salua ratione legis Falcidiae.
I nheritance invalidly given by a will cannot be confirmed by a codicil as if it were an inheritance, but is claimed under a trust, saving the calculation of the Falcidian law.

Notes

  1. §29.7.2.prpost testamentum factum — The perfect passive participle `factum` modifies the noun `testamentum`, expressing the occurrence of the action itself ('after the making of the will') in the so-called 'ab urbe condita' construction. Similarly, `ante codicillos scriptos` ('before the writing of the codicils') uses the same noun-participle structure.
  2. §29.7.2.2perinde haberentur, ac si — The conjunction `ac si` introduces a hypothetical comparison ('as if'), which takes the subjunctive pluperfect `essent` to express a condition contrary to past fact. The preceding `ut` clause is a noun clause explaining the content of `ius singulare`.
  3. §29.7.2.2eundum est — An impersonal passive construction using the neuter singular gerundive of the intransitive verb `eo` (to go), expressing obligation or necessity ('one must proceed / recourse must be had'). It indicates that if direct manumission fails, one must proceed to trust-based manumission for relief.
  4. §29.7.2.3H — The letter `H` at the end of §29.7.2.3 and `ereditas` at the beginning of §29.7.2.4 originally form the single noun `Hereditas` (inheritance) starting a new sentence. They were split across sections due to an error in textual transmission or editing. The translations replicate this physical division.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.7.2.pr-29.7.2.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.7.2.pr-29.7.2.4

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