Obligations in Classical Procedure
15 Pages Posted: 20 Feb 2009
Date Written: February 20, 2009
Abstract
The civil law gave the praetor relatively few rules of procedure with which to manage a tribunal. Accordingly many rules of procedure were the product of the praetor's own active lawmaking. His lawmaking frequently took the form of actions and stipulations, which is to say, obligations. This essay describes a selection of law reforms where this was the case. The essay concludes with the suggestion that the praetor turned to more effective methods of enforcement, not because the older methods were poor, but because parties were more frequently turning to litigation for the adjudication of claims, and less frequently for simple arbitration.
Keywords: Roman law, Roman civil procedure, Legal history
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation