Leges and plebiscita

Legislation, as the term is generally understood, i.e. the enactment of laws of general application by a competent legislative body, first appeared shortly after the abolition of the Monarchy.

The earliest statutes were called leges and were enacted either by the comitia centuriata on the proposal of a consul or by the comitia tributa on the proposal of a consul or a praetor. Leges were binding on the whole people, i.e. on both patricians and plebeians alike, as both classes were represented in these assemblies. Another type of statute were the plebiscita, the laws enacted by the assembly of the plebeians (concilium plebis) on the proposal of a tribune. As was noted in chapter 3, the plebiscita were binding only on the plebeians until 287 BC, when they were made binding on the whole people under the lex Hortensia de plebiscitis.^{^[379]} During the remainder of the republican period most Roman statutes were passed by the concilium plebis and its plebiscita were frequently referred to as leges. The majority of the laws passed during the Republic were concerned with matters relating to the organisation of the Roman state and the definition of the powers and duties of magistrates and other state organs. With respect to private and procedural law, however, these enacted laws were of less importance than the constantly growing body of unenacted law. This unenacted law was not a confused mass of shifting customs, but a steady tradition developed and handed down by specialists, at first the members of the college of the pontiffs and, later, by the jurists.

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Source: Mousourakis George. The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law. Routledge,2003. — 480 p.. 2003

Leges and plebiscita

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