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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.4.6.pr

Conditional Manumission and Merger of Usufruct

Passage 6354 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian explains that if the owner appoints the usufructuary as heir and grants conditional freedom to a slave, the slave becomes the heir's full property due to the merger of the usufruct, and will attain freedom once the condition is met.

[ULPIANUS libro octauo decimo ad Sabinum. ] §40.4.6.prSi fructuarium dominus proprietatis heredem scripserit et seruo sub condicione sit libertas data: quoniam interim fit heredis, confusione facta usus fructus, si extiterit condicio, perueniet ad libertatem.
[ULPIANUS in the eighteenth book on Sabinus.] If the owner of the property has appointed the usufructuary as heir, and freedom has been given to a slave under a condition: since in the meantime the slave becomes the heir's property, a merger of the usufruct having taken place, if the condition is fulfilled, he will attain freedom.

Notes

  1. §40.4.6.prheredis — A possessive genitive indicating ownership. It means that the implied subject (the slave) becomes the property of the heir (fit heredis).
  2. §40.4.6.prconfusione facta usus fructus — An ablative absolute construction where usus fructus is a genitive qualifying confusione. It refers to the merger (confusio) in Roman law, where the usufruct is extinguished because the usufructuary inherits the bare ownership, uniting both rights in the same person.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.4.6.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.4.6.pr

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