COMPARATIVE LAW W.B. Fisch, Winter 1999 Assignment #5
6. Justinian and the Corpus Juris Civilis
What was the purpose of Justinian's compilation?
What was its structure?
Institutes
Code
Digest
Novels
What was the model for the organization of
the Digest? Was it "systematic" in the modern sense (i.e., like
a code)?
7. Torts: Lex Aquilia
Does the statute establish a general law of
property damage?
Does it establish a private right of action?
Was its purpose purely compensatory? Is the
provision imposing double liability on the defendant who denies liability
and then loses at trial, analogous to our concept of punitive damages?
To any other device of our modern law?
Are the two examples given by Alfenus
consistent with each other? What is the concept of "fault" reflected in
them?
8. Inheritance Law: Legitim
What is the principle of Universal Succession?
Is there an "estate" in the legal sense?
Who is responsible for the debts of the deceased?
How is this determined?
How do the positions of heir and legatee
differ under this system?
What protection was provided for children
under this system (the jus civile), if the testator chooses to disinherit
them?
How does the concept of the "undutiful will"
come into the law?
Special court of the centumvirs (inheritance
and other ancient statutory actions)
Fiction of testator's insanity, eventually
dropped
How is the right to take against the will
measured?
9. Patria Potestas Revisited
(I)
What happens to persons in his potestas,
on the death of the paterfamilias?
Children and adoptees
Grandchildren
How else does potestas terminate?
Loss of citizenship by paterfamilias
Punitive slavery
Emancipation
Adrogation/adoption?
What happens to the property of a person under
potestas?