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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.16.208.pr

Property and Inheritance as Universality of Rights

Passage 9022 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The passage explains that the term 'property' (bonorum), like 'inheritance' (hereditatis), refers to a legal totality of rights and succession, rather than to individual physical assets.

[IDEM libro quarto quaestionum. ] §50.16.208.pr'Bonorum' appellatio, sicut hereditatis, uniuersitatem quandam ac ius successionis et non singulas res demonstrat.
[THE SAME, in the fourth book of Questions.] The term 'property', like that of 'inheritance', denotes a certain universality and a right of succession, and not individual things.

Notes

  1. §50.16.208.prBonorum — A noun in the genitive plural. It functions as a limiting genitive modifying appellatio, meaning 'the term of "property"'. Similarly, hereditatis (genitive singular of hereditas, 'inheritance') after sicut is also a genitive modifying an implied appellatio.
  2. §50.16.208.pruniuersitatem quandam ac ius successionis — An accusative phrase functioning as the direct object of demonstrat, which is contrasted with et non singulas res ('and not individual things'). This provides a juristic definition in Roman law where 'property' (bona) and 'inheritance' (hereditas) denote a unified legal estate or status (totality, uniuersitas) including rights and liabilities, rather than merely individual physical assets.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.16.208.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.16.208.pr

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