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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §35.1.53.pr

Prohibition of Accounting and Unconditional Freedom

Passage 5384 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It explains that if a testator orders the manumission of a slave conditional on rendering accounts but subsequently forbids the slave from doing so, the slave is granted freedom under the will as if it were unconditional.

[IDEM libro singulari de heurematicis. ] §35.1.53.prSi quis seruum liberum esse iusserit, si heredi rationes reddidisset, posteaque eum rationes reddere uetuerit quasi puram facturus libertatem, competit ex testamento libertas.
[BY THE SAME AUTHOR in the single book on Inventions.] If anyone has ordered that a slave be free, provided he has rendered accounts to the heir, and afterwards has forbidden him to render the accounts, as if he were going to make the freedom unconditional, the freedom under the will is competent.

Notes

  1. §35.1.53.prquasi puram facturus libertatem — The future active participle facturus expresses the intention of the subject of the main clause (the testator), and combined with quasi, it forms an adverbial phrase meaning "as if he were going to..." Puram libertatem refers to the Roman legal concept of "unconditional freedom" (pura libertas), which is not subject to any condition or term.
  2. §35.1.53.prcompetit — A verb in the third-person singular present indicative, meaning "is available," "is competent," or "legally arises." It reflects the legal doctrine that if the fulfillment of a condition is prevented by the party who would benefit from its non-fulfillment (here, the testator's subsequent prohibition), the condition is deemed to have been fulfilled, and the freedom takes effect.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §35.1.53.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:35.1.53.pr

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