Learning Objective: Students will learn about the basic divisions of persons.

2. + Law of Persons: Relating to the rights, duties,
capacities and incapacities of individuals and their
relation to the family group.
+ Law of Property: Includes provisions relating to
ownership, possession and jura in realiena.
+ Law of Succession: Divided succession into two
categories – intestate and testamentary
+ Law of Obligation: Identified contract as source of
obligation.

3. Preeti Kana Sikder
Lecturer, Department of Law & Justice
Jahangirnagar University

4. Patria
Potestas
Marriage
Adoption
Guardianship

5. + First division: Free men and Slaves
+ Second division: Independent and
dependent status in family
+ Third division: Some independent
persons have a tutor or a curator,
others don’t

6. Power of Life and Death

7. + Slaves were in the power of their masters. This
implied complete disability, personal and
proprietary. The master had “the right of life and
death” and everything acquired by the slave was
acquired for the master.
+ Manumission: the status of slavery might be
brought to an end by the master when he took
appropriate steps to make him free
– By a fictitious law suit
– By enrollment of the census
– By will

8. The process took its name from the
wand (vindicta) with which the
plaintiff touched the slave, alleging
that he was free.

9. By Enrolment on the census

10. Such manumission could be direct or indirect.
It could be written in the will: “be my slave
free” or “I charge my heir with a trust to
manumit my slave”

11. Independent and Dependent
Status

13. Each person in a family had different positions.
Every family consisted of the paterfamilias, his
wife, children and slaves.
In ancient Rome, all persons were either sui juris
or alieni juris. And the father alone was sui juris
while others were alieni juris. Whoever was
under his power, was within the family and
whoever was freed, ceased to belong to the
family.

14. An Institution which claims that children are
in the power of a father or remoter
ascendant

15. Bond that united
the members of
a family through
patria potestas
Relations that
can be traced
though common
descent from the
same pair of
married persons
Agnation
Cognation

16. + Patria Potestas: came into existence
in many ways, among which
following ways will be discussed –
–Civil law marriage
–Adoption
–Adrogation

17. + Civil Law Marriage:
A civil law marriage is contracted by Roman
citizens who are united according to law, males
having reached years of puberty, females being
of marriageable age (14 for males, 12 for
females), whether they be sui juris or in power,
provided that children in power must have the
consent of the paterfamilias.

18. + Spouses must be qualified to contract a civil
law marriage
+ They must be of marriageable age
+ There must be no rule of law forbidding them
to marry
+ Children in power must have necessary
consents
+ Husband and wife must be consenting parties
to the marriage

19. The husband must have the right to contract a civil
law marriage with the wife

20. Difficulties arose in the case of paterfamilias when there
were cases of unreasonable refusal of consent. Justinian
brought changes by declaring that consent of an insane
parent was not required. Later Lex Julia allowed daughters
and sons to apply to a magistrate for leave to marry.

21. Marriage was concluded by consent. The need for
precise activation of marriage led to the tradition of the
husband taking the wife to his house (ductio in domum).

22. • Marriage did not effect a transfer of the wife’s property to
the husband or give him any right of administration. She
retained her contractual freedom, except that she could
not make a gift to her husband, any more than he could to
her. This was one reason why it was of importance to fix
the moment at which the marriage took place.
• As the wife controlled her own property, the husband was
not bound to provide for her needs.

23. +Adoption: was of two kinds
–a) of a person sui juris, and
–b) of a person alieni juris

24. + Conditions of Adoption:
– Privilege of adoption was traditionally denied to
women, because they could not have any one
under their power. This provision was altered
during the period of Emperor Diocletian (AD 284
to AD 305)
– Adoption should follow nature, therefore, no one
could adopt one who was older than himself.

25. + Adrogation/Arrogation
– The process of a sui juris person becoming alieni
juris by placing himself under the potestas of
another citizen. It resulted in the extinction of a
Roman family.
– An act of supreme legislature, an act from comitia
calata, was necessary.
– Women could neither arrogate nor be arrogated
until the era of Diocletian who recognised that
women could be arrogated.

26. + Effect of Adrogation
– The arrogated person would pass into the
potestas of the person arrogating him.
– The arrogated person would lose his ancient
religious rites.
– His descendants and the whole of his property
would pass with him into the new family.

27. THIRD DIVISION OF PERSONS

28. + Tutela: a right and power exercised over a free
person [that is, a person sui juris] who on
account of tender years cannot take care of
himself, given and allowed by civil law

29. Tutela impuberum (Perpetua) Tutela
Mulierum

30. The power of a tutor extended generally over the
person and property of the pupil. His duties were:
– To interpose his authority and remove legal
incapacity of the pupil when any juristic act had to
be done;
– To administer the property of the ward to his best
advantage;
– To take proper care of the person and to supervise
the education and well being of the ward.

31. Furiosi
Prodigals
Cura Minoris
Deaf and
Dumb Persons

32. + Curatio: curators differed from tutors mainly
in following particulars;
– They were appointed to administer the property,
not to control the person
– No one was obliged to have a curator unless he
was a party to a litigation
– A curator could not be appointed by will, but if so
appointed, was generally confirmed by the
magistrate

33. + R W Lee, The Elements of Roman Law, pp 46-
107
+ Dr. L Kabir, Roman Law, pp 54-97