Marriage without Manus - Free Marriage

Marriage without manus. the marriage of the Jus Gentium, was recognized as early as the Twelve Tables. Anciently, it seems, this form of marriage was not considered a true mar- riage.

The wife remained a member of her own family, under the power of her paterfamilias, or the guardianship of her relatives, as the case might be, and the children of the marriage followed the condition of their mother.

They were not legally related to their father, and did not pass into his potesfas nor become members of his family. In time, however, during the period of the Republic, marriage without manus came to be recognized as a true marriage and ranked with a justum matrimonium,, or marriage valid by the Jus Chile.

The legal effect of such a marriage was, indeed, not the same as that of a marriage with manus, but the marriage was recognized as a legal marriage. And in time— during the Empire — the marriage without manus superseded marriages with manus. and the old forms of marriage disappeared. Coemption and confarreation were no longer known and usus lost its effect so that the frinocfium- was not required to prevent a free marriage from ripening into a marriage with manus.

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Pacts

Except in the case of the consensual contracts, the Roman law never recognized a mere oral promise or agreement as amounting to a contract in the full legal sense. To be binding, the promise must be expressed in a certain form, as in the case of the verbal contracts, or have induced performance, as in the case of the nameless contracts. Nevertheless, mere informal promises or agreements were not entirely without legal efifect. As a rule they were not directly enforceable by actions, but they were available as defenses. These agreements were called pacts (pacta). Agreements enforceable by action were called contracts (contractus). As early as the Twelve Tables an informal agreement to waive an action for a tort (delict) was held binding, and constituted a good defense to the action. Afterwards the prastor admitted pacts as defenses to actions on contracts as well as on delicts. A contract could not, strictly speaking, be discharged except in its own appropriate manner. A...
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Paterfamilias and Filiusfamilias

Every Roman citizen was either a paterfamilias or a filiusfamilias. that is, he was either independent or free from paternal power {homo sm juris), or dependent or subject to paternal power (homo alieni juris). The term paterfamilias does not necessarily mean the actual father or head of a family. It was simply the generic name for an independent person. The paterfamilias might be either a child or an adult, either married or unmarried. A female, however, could never occupy the position of paterfamilias, for she was never legally independent, at least under the old law. Correspond- ing to the term paterfamilias was filiusfamilias, or Uliafa- milias, which was the generic name for any person under paternal power whether son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter, etc. The distinction between paterfamilias and filiusfamilias belongs entirely to private law. It was not observed in public law. A filiusfamilias if otherwise qualified, was as capable of voting or holding offic...
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Commodatum (Loan for Use)

A commodatum was a loan of property for the use of the borrower. It arose whenever one person (the commodator ) delivered a thing to another (the commodatorius ) for the latter's gratuitous use. It was a contract of praetorian origin and a bona fidei negotium both parties being bound to do everything required by good faith. The contract was made by the mere delivery of the property for the contemplated use. The borrower did not become the owner of the property, he got merely the right as against the lender, to the use of the property. Hence a person not the owner of the property — even a thief — could give a thing in commodatum. The transaction was gratuitous if the borrower was to pay for the use, it was a contract of hire. The borrower was required to exercise the highest care ( omnis or exacta diligentia ), to take as good care of the thing lent as a good paterfamilias would bestow, not merely such care as the particular borrower usually bestowed upon hi...
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