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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §4.4.44.pr

Rescission of Minor's Acts Incurring Harm

Passage 746 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It explains that not all acts of minors under twenty-five are void, but only those specific acts that are found after inquiry to have caused them disadvantage due to deception or their own imprudence.

[ULPIANUS libro quinto opinionum. ] §4.4.44.prNon omnia, quae minores annis uiginti quinque gerunt, irrita sunt, sed ea tantum, quae causa cognita eiusmodi deprehensa sunt, uel ab aliis circumueunti uel sua facilitate decepti aut quod habuerunt amiserunt, aut quod adquirere emolumentum potuerunt omiserint, aut se oneri quod non suscipere licuit obligauerunt.
[ULPIANUS, in the fifth book of Opinions.] Not all things which those under twenty-five years of age do are void, but only those which, after due inquiry, are found to be of such a nature that they, either circumvented by others or deceived by their own easy-going nature, have either lost what they had, or lost the opportunity to acquire a benefit which they could have acquired, or bound themselves to a burden which they ought not to have undertaken.

Notes

  1. §4.4.44.preiusmodi deprehensa sunt, uel... uel... — The phrase eiusmodi (of such a kind) modifies deprehensa sunt (are found to be), and its specific details are explained by the subsequent participle phrases (circumventi, decepti) and verbs (amiserunt, etc.). Grammatically, the subject of deprehensa sunt is quae referring to the neuter plural ea (acts), but in the explanatory part, the subject shifts to the masculine plural "minors" (minores) by synesis (constructio ad sensum), so the participles and verbs are in the masculine plural and third-person plural.
  2. §4.4.44.promiserint — While the parallel verbs amiserunt and obligauerunt are in the perfect indicative, this verb alone takes the form of the perfect subjunctive (or future perfect). This is highly likely due to a scribal variant or confusion with omiserunt, but semantically it coordinates with the other two perfect verbs to express a past occurrence ("neglected/lost the opportunity").

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §4.4.44.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:4.4.44.pr

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