Search

[German version] To improve conjugal morals and to combat childlessness, Augustus, through the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus (18 BC), forbade marriages outside one's class and ordered through the lex Papia Poppaea (AD 9) that citizens of a marriageable age had a duty to marry, with unmarried people penalized by the forfeiture ( caducum ) of assets gifted to them in wills, and childless married people with the forfeiture of half of this; on the other hand, anyone who had children was accorded numerous privileges ( ius liberorum, ‘children's privilege’). Which regulations should…

[German version] In Roman law the appointment of a substitute heir ( substitutus), so as to avoid the danger that a will might become ineffective through the potential absence of the heir appointed by it (as a consequence of prior death or refusal; Succession, laws of III. D.). Instances of the modern-day persistence of substitutio vulgaris ('common substitution') are ' gemeine Substitutio' (§ 604 Austrian ABGB) and ' Ersatzerbeinsetzung' (§ 2096 German BGB). In the case of dependent minors of either sex, a Roman testator could prepare a second will settling the su…

[German version] A law introduced by the people's tribune Q. Voconius Saxa in 169 BC, which barred testators of the 1st census class (minimum assets of 100,000 as, Gai. Inst. 2,274) from naming a female heir in their will; this did not affect the intestate law of succession of women but following the law ( Voconiana ratione) women also had the intestate law of succession withdrawn from them from the 3rd degree of kinship (Paulus, Sent. 4,8,20). At the same time, the lex Voconia (LV) limited the maximum amount of legacies to half the inheritance (Gai. Inst. 2,226). In practice, …

[German version] Greek law   datetai . In early Roman law, co-heirs…

[German version] ('passing-over'). According to Roman ius civile, all sui heredes (natural heirs) had to be mentioned in the will, either by being expressly appointed heirs or by being disinherited ( exheredatio ). Sons and postumi (posthumous children) of both genders could be effectively disinherited only when this done by name (nominatim), while for all others (daughters, wife in…

[German version] ('house heirs') in Roman law were the offspring subject to the power of the testator who, on his death, immediately became independent ( sui iuris) (Gai. Inst. 3,2-5), i.e. children, grandchildren, whose father predeceased them, etc., the uxor in manu ('wife in the manus', i.e. subject to the legal power of the husband), who was in inheritance law on an equal footi…

[German version] According to Roman law sui heredes acquired the inheritance due to them on succession; if a suus had not yet outwardly shown that he wanted to keep the inheritance, the praetor permitted him to abstain from it ( se abstinere). In this case the suus was still the heres…

[German version] Disinheritance. Archaic Roman law allowed the appointment of an inheritor in a will probably only when there was no suus heres (family heir). Later, it became possible to appoint one among several   sui heredes as an heir and to disinherit the rest. In the historical era there were no limits on the disinheritance of sui, but this had to be…

[German version] According to Roman law, the kinship established by a blood relationship, which also applies to non-agnates; the degree was determined by the number of mediated procreations or births. The cognatio gained legal importance with the lex Cincia (204 BC): the cognati up to the 6th degree of relationship ( sobrini, great grandchildren from the same great-grandfather) were exempted from this law's ban on gifts. The lex Furia (beginning of the 2nd cent. BC) exempted these cognati from its restrictions, as well as in the 7th degree the children of …

…

[German version] ( alicui rei, ‘to become involved in something’). A suus heres (immediate heir,  Succession, law of III A) could not effectively disclaim a legal or testamentary legacy according to  ius civile ( semel heres semper heres), but if he declare…

[German version] In Roman law, the legacy (from legare: ‘to pronounce a binding declaration of will’, lex ). The possibility of bequeathing someone property through testamentary disposition ( Will) to the detriment of the heir was acknowledged in the XII Tables (5,3). There were two main types: 1) By legatum per vindicatio…

[German version] As wills passing over sons were not admissible in classical Greek law ( diathḗkē B.), the question of minimum share did not arise. Even in Roman law, however, a law of minimum share for close relatives developed only slowly. At the beginning of the development there was the right of mandatory heirs ( Succession, laws of III E) to invalidate the will entirely or receive at least a part of the estate in case they were passed over ( praeteritio ). Against disinheritance ( exheredatio ) the mandatory heirs were powerless. A true right of minimum share did exist for a patronus …

…

[German version] [1] (Religion) see Bible; Christianity; New Testament Apocrypha; Septuagint; Testamentary literature; Vulgate (Religion) see Bible; Christianity; New Testament Apocrypha; Septuagint; Testamentary literature; Vulgate Hengstl, Joachim (Marburg/Lahn) [German version] [2] History of law (History of law) Hengstl, Joachim (Marburg/Lahn) [German version] I. General Testament (from the Latin testamentum in the sense of the final will made before witnesses; see below IV.) denotes a unilateral 'last will and testament' (or, in common English parlance, 'will'), by which an heir is appointed, or a person envisaged by the legal system to be an heir excluded from inheritance. The Roman will is the model for the will in European jurisdictions to the present day. The prerogative to dispose of one's wealth and inheritance freely and irrevocably is neither se…

[German version] I. Ancient Near East see Cuneiform, legal texts in Thür, Gerhard (Graz) [German version] II. Greek Succession laws in Greece primarily followed the concept of family succession. Greek law therefore contained several provisions to secure succession within the family group even where there were no legitimate sons ( …

[German version] In Roman law, any ‘acquisition mortis causa ’not based on succession or legacy (Inheritance law III. H.): (1) gift mortis causa ( donatio ); what someone (2) received in fulfilment of a condition of a will…

[German version] The fideicommissum (literally: ‘entrusted to faith’), which from the 2nd cent. BC (Ter. Andr. 290-298) appeared alongside the legatum (legacy), was a request of the testator to an heir or legatee to pass on the inheritance in part or total to a third party. Since a fideicommissum…

[German version] The lex Papia Poppaea (AD 9), by economic pressure, indirectly forced marriage and the having of children by taking away from unmarried persons the entire capability of inheriting ( capacitas) for a bequest that fell to them in the course of an inheritance, and half the ability to work for married couples without children; married partners amongst themselves had capacitas for one tenth only ( Decuma). The bequest fell, as caducum (‘forfeited’ possessions), to those men named in the testament who had children, otherwise (since Caracal…

[German version] A person who died without leaving a valid testament. Under Roman ius civile the estate of the deceased firstly devolved upon the   sui heredes , or else upon the agnatic relatives of the next degree ( agnati proximi). According to the Law of the Twelve Tables (5th cent. AD), s ui became heredes in the case of succession, agnati only acquired property ( familia, XII 5.4) and became successors through   usucapio ; in classical Roman law (1st-3rd cent. AD) agnates became successors through   aditio hereditatis . From the 2nd cent. BC on, agnatic relatives in the female line from the 3rd degree down had no right of succession (  lex Voconia). If …