Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Slaves and children were also useful to help fill a gap in Roman commercial law. Roman law had little in the way of agency. That is, only the actual parties to a transaction had any obligations from it; contrast buying, say, computer software at a store today, where the warranties and other obligations lie with Microsoft, not with the cashier. Moreover, Roman law did not recognize the “artificial persons” we call corporations. Today I buy software from Microsoft, not from Bill Gates personally. This was impossible in Rome. Children and slaves provide a partial exception, since they can make acquisitions for their father/owner. Their use as extensions was limited because they still had a limited capacity to undertake obligations for him. (See Chapter 12 on societas and Chapter 14 on joint ownership for other aspects of the “corporation” issue.)

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