The First Year of Roman Law

This is a useful introduction to Roman law with a level of detail that falls midway between an outline and a textbook. Carefully organized, it is also an excellent reference guide, and includes marriage and family law, slavery, adoption, successions, ownership. "To begin with, it is quite comprehensive, for there is not a single principle of Roman law, sufficiently important to be included in first-year study, which the author has omitted.... [L]egal principles and definitions are very concisely stated, and a lecturer on the subject will be glad to find an important rule given in such brief, almost epigrammatic form, that it can be readily committed to memory. (...) Another good feature is the practice of frequently citing the original Latin phrases and sentences.... Lastly, the translator has provided a good index, which is a valuable addition to the original work. We are sure that many teachers of Roman law will welcome this book as a manual to be placed in the hands of their students.": Columbia Law Review 7 (1907) 377-378.ABRIDGED CONTENTSBOOK I. History of the Roman LawDivisionTitle I. First Period - Legendary PeriodTitle II. Second Period - Historic Republican PeriodTitle III. Third Period - The Imperial DuarchyTitle IV. Fourth Period - The True MonarchyTitle V. Fifth Period - The Later Empire - JustinianBOOK II. PersonsTitle I. Preliminary ConceptionsTitle II. Status LibertatisTitle III. Status CivitatisTitle IV. Status FamiliaeV. Incapacities of FactBOOK III. ThingsTitle I. Division of ThingsTitle II. Summary Notions as to ObligationsBOOK IV. ActionsTitle I. General and Historical Notions - The CourtsTitle II. Systems of ProcedureBOOK V. OwnershipTitle I. Attributes and Evolution of OwnershipTitle II. PossessionTitle III. Different Kinds of OwnershipTitle IV. Sanction for the Right of Ownership Title V. Modes of Acquiring OwnershipTitle VI. Extinction of the Right of Ownership Title VII. Civil and Praetorian Dismemberments of the Right of OwnershipBOOK VI. SuccessionsTitle I. Succession in General - Instruction of the Heir Title II. Conditions for the Validity of WillsTitle III. Intestate SuccessionTitle IV. Acceptance and Disclaimer of the Inheritance Title V. Fideicommissa HereditatisTitle VI. Actions Concerning the Hereditas BOOK VII. Donationes Inter Vivos and Mortis Causa Division