Legislation

As previously noted, in the republican age three legislative assemblies operated in Rome: the comitia centuriata, the comitia tributa and the conciliumplebis.

Initially, only the laws (leges) enacted by the comitia centuriata and the comitia tributa were binding on the entire populace while the resolutions of the concilium plebis (plebiscita) were only binding on the plebeians. However, according to Roman tradition, in 287 bc the socio-political developments associated with the struggle of the orders prompted the declaration that the plebiscita were binding on all citizens by virtue of the lex Hortensia de plebiscitis. In the period following the enactment of this law, the concilium plebis gained importance and gradually became the legislative assembly par excellence while the comitia centuriata remained the senior elective assembly. As the great majority of the statutes enacted after 287 bc were passed by the concilium plebis, the plebiscita were commonly referred to as leges. Originally, a law passed by the people could not come into force until it was approved by the senate (patrum auctoritas). This rule was reversed by the lex Publilia Philonis of 339 bc that provided the patrum auctoritas must be issued before, not after, a legislative proposal was submitted to the people.^{^[19]} Thereafter, laws usually had immediate effect following the formal announcement of the assembly’s decision endorsing the magistrate’s proposal.

In the last century of the Republic, the Roman state was embroiled in a political and administrative crisis and the political role of the assemblies waned. During these events, a legislative proposal sanctioned by the senate was occasionally not presented to the people but immediately entered into force. Moreover, the senate at times assumed the power to declare statutes null and void based on some alleged irregularity or violation of an established constitutional principle.

It is thus unsurprising that both the senatorial decrees (senatus consulta) and the leges are mentioned as sources of law by Cicero.^{^[20]} During the first century ad,lang=EN-US> the government transformed into the bureaucratic administration of a world empire and the mode of creating law by vote of the people gradually discontinued. As a result, the legislative function passed to the senate whose enactments acquired the full force of laws.

In general, the enactment of private law rules by formal legislation was exceptional, and leges and plebiscita encroached on this sphere of law only with hesitation and within narrowly defined limits. The great majority of statutes pertained to matters of constitutional and criminal law, or immediate political concerns such as the distribution of land, the granting of extraordinary honours and release from debt. Statutes were enacted, for example, to create new magistracies or to define the nature of public crimes and the procedures for dealing with them. Of the few statutes relating to private law, probably the most important was the lex Aquilia (third century bc) that recast the whole law of damage to property and had the greatest significance for the further development of the law of delict.^{^[21]} The lexAtinia (first half of the second century bc) excluded stolen objects (res furtivae) from usucapio (the acquisition of ownership through possession of an object for a certain prescribed period of time); the lex Laetoria (193-192 bc) provided legal protection to minors (persons under 25 years of age) against financial exploitation; the lex Cincia de donis et muneribus (c. 204 bc) prohibited gifts in excess of a certain amount with the exception of those in favour of near relatives and certain privileged persons; the lex Voconia (169 bc) imposed limitations upon the testamentary capacity of women; and the lex Falcidia (40 bc) specified the amount of legacies that could be bequeathed.

1.3.3

<< | >>

↑

Source: Mousourakis G.. Fundamentals of Roman Private Law. Springer, 2012.— 366 p.. 2012

Legislation

More on the topic Legislation: