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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §45.3.36.pr

Stipulation by an Abandoned Slave and Estate Slaves

Passage 7544 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Explains the validity of stipulations made by an abandoned slave and distinguishes the legal status of an abandoned slave from that of a slave belonging to an inheritance.

[IAUOLENUS libro quarto decimo epistularum. ] §45.3.36.prQuod seruus stipulatus est, quem dominus pro derelicto habebat, nullius est momenti, quia qui pro derelicto rem habet, omnimodo a se reiecit nec potest eius operibus uti, quem eo iure ad se pertinere noluit.
[JAVOLENUS, from the fourteenth book of Epistles.] What a slave, whom his master held as abandoned, has stipulated is of no validity, because he who holds a thing as abandoned has cast it off from himself in every way, and cannot make use of the services of one whom he did not wish to belong to him under that legal status.
quod si ab alio adprehensus est, stipulatione ei adquirere poterit: nam et haec genere quodam donatio est.
But if he has been taken possession of by another, he can acquire for him by stipulation; for this also is a kind of donation.
inter hereditarium enim seruum et eum, qui pro derelicto habetur, plurimum interest, quoniam alter hereditatis iure retinetur, nec potest relictus uideri qui uniuerso hereditatis iure continetur, alter uoluntate domini derelictus non potest uideri ad usum eius pertinere, a quo relictus est.
For there is a very great difference between a slave belonging to an inheritance and one who is held as abandoned, since the former is retained by the law of inheritance, and he who is contained in the general law of inheritance cannot be deemed abandoned; whereas the latter, having been abandoned by the will of his master, cannot be deemed to belong to the use of him by whom he was abandoned.

Notes

  1. §45.3.36.prnullius est momenti — nullius and momenti are genitives of quality or value, functioning as the predicate of the main clause to mean "of no validity" or "of no importance".
  2. §45.3.36.prpro derelicto — A legal phrase composed of the preposition pro ("as", "in the capacity of") and the ablative neuter of the perfect passive participle derelicto (from derelinquere, "to abandon"), meaning "as abandoned" or "as a derelict". The phrase habere pro derelicto means "to hold as abandoned".
  3. §45.3.36.preo iure — Ablative of respect or attendant circumstance, meaning "under that legal status" or "by that right". It refers to the legal status resulting from the master's abandonment of the slave, explaining that under such a status, the master did not wish the slave to belong to him.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §45.3.36.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:45.3.36.pr

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