Abstract

CAPOGROSSI COLOGNESI, L.. Da sì piccoli inizi .... Fundamina (Pretoria) [online]. 2014, vol.20, n.1, pp.100-109. ISSN 2411-7870.

A century ago, in Roman law studies, it was a rather common idea that, in ancient cities, legal protection was not immediately extended to the legal relationships between citizens and foreigners. This protection was possible only as a consequence of a special position, granted to foreigners, through the hospitium - private or publicum - or an international obligation assumed by the city as a consequence of a treatise between two sovereign cities. This was the case of the relationship between Romans and Carthaginians established by the first treatise between Rome and Carthage in 509 BC. A different position was that of the Latini in Rome (and of the Romans in the Latin cities): to which the same Roman law as for Roman citizens applied. This kind of assimilation was known as ius commercii and conubii. Following an idea of Dieter Nörr, the author suggests that a more general legal protection should have been granted by Romans to all foreign tradesmen. For that reason there were, in the XII Tables, general provisions concerning the position of foreign citizens in process, as well in private agreements. It is also possible that the typical forms of ius civile, such as mancipatio, should have been employed in these transactions, although they could not have the same consequences for what concerns the Roman ius civile.

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