Birks Peter. Roman Law of Obligations

Oxford University Press, 2014. — 303 p. — ISBN 978-0-19-871927-4.This Roman Law of Obligations comprises notes of lectures given at the University of Edinburgh in 1982 by Peter Birks, who was then Professor.
of Civil Law in the Scottish capital. These notes, his own, were found in his archives some years after his death and are now being published. The rekindled grief for all those who knew him when he was with us will not, it is hoped, overshadow the intellectual pleasure that this manuscript should bring, both to scholars of Roman law and to those interested in the writings of one of the greatest legal academics of his century.Obligations: The Conceptual Map.
Definition: What is an Obligation?
Differentiation: Where do Obligations Fit in the Roman View of the Law?
The difference between rights in rem and in personam.
Differences between Gaius and Justinian.
Outside the institutional scheme.
Internal Organisation: How Are Obligations Arranged?
The classification of obligations used by Gaius.
The classification of obligations in Stair.
Contracts.
The Organisation of Roman Contract.
Arrangement of the List in Gaius’s and Justinian’s Institutes.
Formal and Informal Contracts.
The Contract Litteris and the Rôle of Writing Generally.
Justinian’s Contract Litteris.
The Rôle of Writing Outside Contracts Litteris.
Arra.
Writing and Stipulations.
Contracts Verbis.
Dotis Dictio (Declaration of Dowry).
Iusiurandum Liberti (Freedman’s Oath).
Stipulatio (Stipulation).
What was the formality?
Why did stipulation not develop into a general law of contract complete in itself?
What limits were there on the scope of stipulation?
Special applications of stipulation.
Contracts Consensu.
Emptio-Venditio (Sale).
The demonstratio.
The intentio.
The action against the buyer.
Risk (periculum).
The passing of property.
Locatio-Conductio (Hire).
The demonstratio.
The intentio.
Societas (Partnership).
The demonstratio.
The intentio.
The condemnatio.
Mandatum (Mandate, Commission or Agency).
The demonstratio.
The intentio.
Special applications.
Contracts Re.
Mutuum (Loan for Consumption).
Commodatum (Loan for Use).
The demonstratio.
The intentio.
Depositum (Deposit).
The demonstratio.
The intentio.
Pignus (Pledge).
The contract of pignus: the relationship between pledgor and pledgee.
The relationship between pledgee and res.
Delicts.
Furtum (Theft).
The Action.
Paul’s Definition.
The Intent.
The Act.
What did contrectatio mean to the high classics?
What did contrectatio mean to Justinian?
Was there an earlier doctrine and nomenclature?
The Absence of Consent.
Liability for Helping.
Claiming the Res.
A Variety of Penalties.
Rapina (Robbery).
Damnum Iniuria Datum (Loss Wrongfully Caused).
The Shape of the Delict.
The Statute.
Interpretation in the Statutory Core.
Has the plaintiff suffered loss (damnum)?
Did that loss arise from a thing spoiled (res corrupta)?
Did the spoiled thing belong to the plaintiff (res actoris)?
Did the defendant do the spoiling ‘corpore suo’?
Did the defendant do the harm wrongfully (iniuria)?
The Praetorian Periphery.
Has the plaintiff suffered loss (damnum)?
Did that loss arise from a thing spoiled (res corrupta)?
Did the spoiled thing belong to the plaintiff (res actoris)?
Did the defendant do the spoiling ‘corpore suo’?
Did the defendant do the harm wrongfully (iniuria)?
The Measure of Recovery.
Lis crescit (the suit enlarges).
The original measure.
Full value under chapter III?
The measure in high classical law.
Iniuria (Contempt).
The Name of the Delict.
The Action.
The Measure of Recovery.
The Edictal Provisions.
Of convicium (shouted invective).
Of affronts to sexual propriety.
‘Let nothing be done to cause infamy’.
The general edict de iniurii.
The Scope of the Classical Delict.
The Classical Scope Re-Stated Summarily.
Requirements in Relation to Intention.
The History.
The edictal phase.
The pre-edictal phase.
Some Ancillary Features.
Recollections in tranquillity.
A year to sue.
The counter-iudicium.
The lex Cornelia de iniuriis.
Dependent persons.
Miscellaneous Other Categories.
The Quasi Categories.
The Content of the Quasi Categories.
The Ideas behind the Quasi Categories.Extracts from Gaius’s and Justinian’s Institutes.
Translated by the author.
Questions.
Further Publications by Peter Birks.