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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §49.1.16.pr

Denial of Appeals to Notorious Criminals for Public Good

Passage 8480 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The author explains that imperial constitutions concerning appeals and the preservation of the status quo do not apply to notorious criminals, such as robbers or leaders of sedition, whose immediate punishment is in the public interest.

[MODESTINUS libro sexto differentiarum. ] §49.1.16.prConstitutiones, quae de recipiendis nec non appellationibus loquuntur, ut nihil noui fiat, locum non habent in eorum persona, quos damnatos statim puniri publice interest: ut sunt insignes latrones uel seditionum concitatores nel duces factionum.
[MODESTINUS, from the sixth book of Differences.]\n\nImperial constitutions which speak of receiving and of making appeals, to the end that no change should be made, do not apply to the person of those whom it is of public interest to punish immediately upon condemnation: such as notorious robbers, or stirrers up of sedition, or leaders of factions.

Notes

  1. §49.1.16.prut nihil noui fiat — A clause expressing purpose, "so that nothing new be done," which refers to the fundamental principle of Roman law that during the pendency of an appeal, the status quo must be preserved (nihil innovetur) and no execution of the judgment or other changes should occur.
  2. §49.1.16.prquos damnatos statim puniri publice interest — The syntax of the impersonal verb interest. The adverb publice means "publicly" or "for the sake of the public interest." The subject of interest is the accusative and infinitive clause quos damnatos statim puniri ("that they, having been condemned, be punished immediately"). Here, quos is a relative pronoun referring back to eorum and functions as the subject of the passive infinitive puniri, while damnatos is a perfect participle in agreement with quos.
  3. §49.1.16.prnel — A corruption or typographical error for the coordinating conjunction uel ("or"), possibly influenced by Romance vernacular (such as the Italian prepositional article nel). Chronologically and contextually, it is to be read as uel.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §49.1.16.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:49.1.16.pr

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