The Law of Family

The family law of the Romans was a highly developed and most important branch of their law. The legal status of a person was determined, as we have seen, in part by his family relations.

In general, the legal effect of the rules governing the family relations was to subordinate one person to the authority, often to the arbitrary authority, of another, the head of the family.

This subordination extended not only to the persons of those who were subject to the family power, but also to their property.

Family law is divided into three parts, corresponding to three forms of family power :

  1. The Law of Marriage, governing the relation of husband and wife. This has to do with the marital power;
  2. The Law of Patria Potestas, or the paternal power, governing the relation of parent and child {paterfamilias and Uliusfamilias) ;
  3. The Law of Guardianship, or the tutorial power, governing the relation of guardian and ward.

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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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Formal Manumission

There were three kinds of formal manumission: Manundssio per vindictam. Mamimissio censu. Mamimissio testamento. Manundssio per vindictam. This was by a fictitious or collusive suit. The master, the slave, and a third person appeared before a magistrate (consul, pretor, proconsul, or president of a province), and the third person laid his rod (vindicta) on the slave and declared him to be free; the mas- ter also touching the slave with his rod admitted the claim and turned the slave around three times and let him go (whence, mamiimssion). The regular formalities of the procedure in jure cession were at first observed, but subsequently the formalities were dropped and all that was re- quired was the declaration before the magistrate by the master of his intention to free the slave. Mamimissio censu. The enrollment of the slave on the census as a citizen with the master's consent made him free. The census was held only once in five years and only at Rome, and hence t
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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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