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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.16.19.pr

Labeo's Tripartite Division of Legal Acts and Contracts

Passage 8833 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian cites Labeo's definition, which categorizes legal acts into 'what is done' (actum), 'what is contracted' (contractum), and 'what is managed' (gestum), with their respective definitions and examples.

[ULPIANUS libro undecimo ad edictum. ] §50.16.19.prLabeo libro primo praetoris urbani definit, quod quaedam 'agantur', quaedam 'gerantur', quaedam 'contrahantur': et actum quidem generale uerbum esse, siue uerbis siue re quid agatur, ut in stipulatione uel numeratione: contractum autem ultro citroque obligationem, quod Graeci συνάλλαγμα uocant, ueluti emptionem uenditionem, locationem conductionem, societatem: gestum rem significare sine uerbis factam.
[ULPIANUS, in the eleventh book on the Edict.] Labeo, in the first book on the Urban Praetor, defines that some things are 'done', some are 'managed', and some are 'contracted': and indeed, that 'what is done' is a general term, whether something is done by words or by a thing, as in a stipulation or a payment; but 'what is contracted' is a mutual obligation, which the Greeks call synallagma, such as buying and selling, letting and hiring, partnership; on the other hand, 'what is managed' signifies a thing done without words.

Notes

  1. §50.16.19.prquod quaedam 'agantur' — Instead of the accusative with infinitive (A.c.I.) construction common in classical Latin, a quod clause with the subjunctive is used here as the object of the verb definit. This is a syntactic feature frequently found in Vulgar and late Juristic Latin.
  2. §50.16.19.prcontractum autem ultro citroque obligationem — This is an accusative with infinitive (A.c.I.) construction where the copula esse is omitted (obligationem esse). The adverbial phrase ultro citroque ('mutually') directly modifies the noun obligationem, forming Labeo's famous definition of bilateral ('synallagmatic') obligation.
  3. §50.16.19.prsiue uerbis siue re quid agatur — quid is an indefinite pronoun (aliquid) with the prefix ali- omitted after siue, meaning 'something'. The term re ('by a thing' or 'by conduct') is contrasted with uerbis ('by words'), referring to a physical act or the delivery of a thing without formal spoken words.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.16.19.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.16.19.pr

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