Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Family Law

the kind of guardianship of an incapacitated spouse that we have today or otherwise act as a stand-in. Inheritance rights between spouses were weak and for a long time actually non existent (Chapter 15). Marriage did have a few miscellaneous consequences that are better thought of as stemming from other parts of the law, not from marriage law itself. For instance, if a wife was slandered, her husband could sue for damages him self (Chapter 18). Starting from the time of the first emperor, unmarried persons were at a significant disadvantage in inheri tance, and even once married, childless couples might not be allowed to inherit from each other. Outside of inheritance most of these circumstances, however, would arise only rarely. The central role of consent makes Roman marriage look much like a contract (Chapter 12), but in one respect marriage law goes even further than contract law. Once contracts were agreed to, they were binding on both parties unless they were cancelled by mutual agreement. Marriage, however, ended if and when the consent ended on either side. Either spouse could divorce the other at any time and for any reason. Side agree ments not to divorce or even to penalize the party who initiated a divorce were invalid. (There was one significant exception. A freedwoman could not divorce her patron-husband without his consent.) This, at any rate, was the theory. While legally clear, the sit uation presented practical difficulties. First, it could be remark ably hard to prove the existence or absence of consent. Suppose you just act “single” by living alone or the like? Or even marry someone else? Second, technically, even transient breakdowns

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