Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §42.3.8.pr

Inadmissibility of Surrender of Assets Prior to Debt Confirmation

Passage 6932 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It explains that a debtor who petitions to surrender their property before their debt is formally established by acknowledgment, judgment, or confession in court should not be heard.

[ULPIANUS libro uicensimo sexto ad edictum. ] §42.3.8.prQui cedit bonis, antequam debitum agnoscat, condemnetur uel in ius confiteatur, audiri non debet.
[ULPIANUS in the twenty-sixth book on the Edict.] He who surrenders his property before he acknowledges the debt, is condemned, or confesses in court, ought not to be heard.

Notes

  1. §42.3.8.prQui cedit bonis — The demonstrative pronoun (is) which serves as the antecedent of the relative pronoun qui is omitted, making the entire clause function as the subject of the main verb audiri non debet. The phrase cedere bonis refers to the legal surrender of a debtor's property to creditors in order to avoid personal execution.
  2. §42.3.8.prantequam debitum agnoscat, condemnetur uel in ius confiteatur — The verbs in the subordinate clause introduced by antequam (agnoscat, condemnetur, confiteatur) are all in the present subjunctive, as they express a prospective or expected event (the formal establishment of the debt) that must happen before the action of the main clause. The phrase in ius confiteri means to confess or admit the debt before the magistrate (in iure).
  3. §42.3.8.praudiri non debet — Literally 'ought not to be heard', meaning in a legal context that his petition or plea to surrender property should not be admitted or granted a hearing by the praetor.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §42.3.8.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:42.3.8.pr

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