Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.6.4.pr

Possession of Goods for Natural and Adopted Children

Passage 6019 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus explains the right to possession of goods for children who have undergone a change of status, distinguishing between natural and adoptive children and outlining the legal effects of emancipation.

[PAULUS libro secundo ad Sabinum. ] §38.6.4.prLiberi et capite minuti per edictum praetoris ad bonorum possessionem uocantur parentium, nisi si adoptiui fuerint: hi enim et liberorum nomen amittunt post emancipationem.
[PAULUS in the second book on Sabinus.] Children who have undergone a change of status are called to the possession of the goods of their parents by the praetor's edict, unless they were adoptive children; for the latter, after emancipation, lose even the name of children.
sed si naturales emancipati et adoptati iterum emancipati sint, habent ius naturale liberorum.
But if natural children who have been emancipated and adopted are emancipated again, they have the natural right of children.

Notes

  1. §38.6.4.prcapite minuti — Refers to those who have undergone a "change of status" (capitis deminutio) involving changes in freedom, citizenship, or family position. Here, it specifically refers to those whose family status (status familiae) was altered by being released from paternal power (emancipatio), which constitutes the minimum change of status (capitis deminutio minima).
  2. §38.6.4.prparentium — The genitive parentium (of the parents) can be interpreted as modifying either the preceding bonorum possessionem (possession of goods) or the initial liberi (children). Although translated here as modifying bonorum possessionem, the practical meaning in either case refers to the possession of the parents' goods.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.6.4.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.6.4.pr

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