Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

and the whole partnership was thereby dissolved and remain ing obligations had to be settled. (In principle, this happened immediately, but since the contract operated on a good faith basis, a judge might prevent a partner from taking unfair advantage of the order of payments and expenses.) In fact, if any of the partners wanted to file suit over the operations of the partnership, he or she was automatically considered to have ended the agreement. Finally, if one of the partners died, the partnership was also dissolved, at least in later law. All of this suggests that partnerships were very fragile, and this is true, but it should be noted that the remaining partners (or even the entire original group) could instantly form a “new” partner ship if they so desired. It is worth saying a few words about a very special case of partnership. Many functions of the Roman state (building proj ects, supply for the army, tax collection) were not carried out by governmental agencies but were instead outsourced to groups of private investors in a bidding process. These groups were called publicani (hence the “publicans” of the New Testament). Partnerships formed for this purpose were governed by special rules. They normally survived the death of a partner, whether in diminished form or by replacing that partner with an heir. Some have also suggested that these partnerships had a more corporate identity, rather than existing as a set of purely bilat eral obligations as described here, but the evidence is weak. We have seen one formal contract ( stipulatio ) and three consensual ones (sale, hire, and partnership). Let me introduce two more contracts (one very briefly) to illustrate a third type.

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