ОДГОВОРНОСТ ЗА ШТЕТУ ПРИЧИЊЕНУ ТУЂИМ РАДЊАМА У РИМСКОМ ПРАВУ
LIABILITY FOR DAMAGE CAUSED BY ACTIONS OF ANOTHER IN ROMAN LAW

Summary/Abstract: Roman law strictly underlined the principle of intuitu personae in contractual obligations. When it comes to civil liability for delicts, the rule was that no one was to be held liable for the damage he did not cause directly or indirectly. However, when frequent warfares resulted in the accumulation of loot, which led to the emergence of private property, there was an increasing need for the liberation from the influence of the pater familias. At the same time, the development of trade required participation in legal transactions and the liberation from strict formalism by introducing traditio as an informal way of acquiring property. The new circumstances required to narrow the scope of the legal capacity of the pater familias, in favor of alieni iuris and slaves, in order to enable them to participate in legal and economic transactions, according to the orders of the pater familias. Although a step forward in trade liberalization, these changes generated some legal uncertainty, due to the restraints imposed by third parties regarding legal transactions, and considering that alieni iuris and slaves did not have their own assets. These legal transactions represented the obligationes naturalles, which did not enjoy judicial protection. The adoption of the edict which introduced new actions (actiones adiecticiae qualitatis) extended the scope of responsibility of the pater familias for damage caused by actions of another, thus providing additional opportunities for third parties to seek legal protection by judicial means. By instituting this extended liability, the pater familias was obliged to compensate the damage caused by a person alieni iuris or slave from his household to a third party, or to hand over the delinquent to mancipium in order to compensate the loss in the plaintiff’s property, which ultimately corresponded to the need to adapt the legal solutions to the new trading circumstances, while preserving legal security.

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