Frier Bruce W., McGinn Thomas A.J. A casebook on Roman family law

Oxford University Press, 2004. — xxi+506 p. — (Classical resources series / American Philological Association; no.5). — ISBN: 0-19-516185-8; 0-19-516186-6.This Casebook introduces the area of Roman law governing the most personal and urgent problems that free Romans normally confronted: the marital relationship, the power of fathers over their children, and the devolution of property within the family. This area of law is interesting even today because, although many parts of it seem at least generally familiar, Roman family law was organized and developed on lines that are radically, and at times almost breathtakingly, different from any modern legal system. On one level, then, students are invited to think about a set of legal rules that are unlike anything they have ever seen before but that nonetheless are distinctly “legal” in a way that any modern lawyer can understand; but on another level students are also encouraged to think about how these rules are likely to have affected the actual lives of Romans.Major Jurists Cited in This Casebook
Introduction to Roman Family Law
Basic Concepts
Marriage
Getting Married
Capacity to Marry
Agreement and Marital Affection
Ceremony?
Further Aspects of the Marriage Process
Betrothal
Dowry
The Marital Regime
Manus Marriage
Relations between Spouses
Procreation and Sexual Fidelity
The Property of the Spouses
Administering the Dowry
The End of Marriage
Captivity, Deportation, and Divorce
Return of the Dowry
Patria Potestas
Powers
The Power of Life and Death
Consent to Marriage
Custody and Maintenance
Property and Obligations
Acquiring for the Pater Familias
Obligating the Pater Familias
The Peculium
Liability for Wrongful Acts
Creation and Termination
Birth
Adrogation and Adoption
Emancipation
Succession
Intestate Succession
Civil and Praetorian Law
The Senatusconsulta Tertullianum et Orphitianum
The Undutiful Will
Bequests to Nonheirs
Legacies
Fideicommissa
Gifts Mortis Causa
Appendix: A Specimen Roman Will
Tutelage and the Status of Children and Women
Children, Young Adults, Lunatics, and Spendthrifts
The Tutelage of Children
Curatorship of Lunatics and Prodigals
The Status of Women
The Permanent Tutelage of Women
Appendix: Biographies of the Major Roman Jurists
Glossary of Technical Terms
Suggested Further Reading
Bibliography on the Roman Family
Index of Sources