Consensual Contracts

The Romans recognized several important contracts in which the obligation of the contract rested upon simple consent. Of this class there were four examples : sale, hire, partnership, and the peculiar contract of mandate. Since consent is the basis of contracts in English law, it is in the consensual contracts that we find the greatest resemblance in the Roman and English law of contract.

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Rights and Duties of Parties

It was the duty of the landlord (locator) to deliver the property to the tenant (conductor) and to permit him to keep it for the time agreed upon. If the tenant was deprived of the property before the termination of his lease in consequence of the landlord's fault, the latter had to pay him full compensation (id quod interest). But if the landlord was not in fault, the tenant was entitled only to a remission of the rent. Thus, if a farm let to a tenant was confiscated, or a house burned, the tenant was entitled simply to remission of the rent. So in case of a chattel, if it was carried off by robbers, the hirer was released from payment for the unexpired term of the contract. If the lessor of a house determined to pull it down and rebuild it during the term, he had to pay the lessee compensation if the rebuilding was unnecessary, but if necessary, he was required simply to allow a remission of the rent. The landlord was also required to keep the property in good order
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Modes of Becoming Slave

The principal modes by which a person might become a slave were by birth and by capture in war. These modes were recognized by the Jus Gentium. There were also several cases peculiar to the Jus Civile in which persons were reduced to slavery as a punishment for wrong doing.
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Restraints on Manumission

There seems to have been originally no restraint upon the power of a master to free his slaves, but by the lex Aelia Sentia, enacted A. D. 4, certain restraints were imposed. The objects of this law seem to have been to protect the public against the creation of un- desirable citizens, to prevent fraud on creditors, and to protect the master against improvident manumissions.
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