The Same, Questions, Book I. For our Emperor Severus stated in a Rescript that in questions of doubt arising from statutory enactments, custom, or the authority of decisions which have always been decided in the same manner, should obtain the force of law.

Callistratus, Questions, Book I. Care must be exercised that a person be not appointed judge, whom either side expressly petitions for; as the Divine Hadrian stated in a Rescript that this would offer a bad precedent unless it should be especially allowed by the Emperor through respect for him whose appointment was requested.

Callistratus, Questions, Book I. Where anyone does not produce documents, the plaintiff is permitted to swear to the claim, so that judgment may be rendered against the defendant for an amount of damages equal to the interest the plaintiff has in having the documents produced; and this the Divine Commodus stated in a Rescript.

Callistratus, Questions, Book I. Hence, if partners begin to act separately, and each one of them transacts business on his own account, there is no doubt that the partnership is dissolved.

Callistratus, Questions, Book I. The Divine Claudius ordered by an Edict that the following should be added to the Cornelian Law: “If anyone, while writing the will or the codicil of another, should insert with his own hand the bequest of a legacy to himself, he shall be liable, just as if he had violated the Cornelian Law; and no pardon shall be granted to those who pretend to have been ignorant of the severity of the Edict.” Not only one who has drawn up the bequest of a legacy for his own benefit, with his own hand, is considered to have done so; but also he who, through the agency of his slave, or his son who is under his control, is honored by a legacy at the dictation of the testator. 1It is clearly provided by the Imperial Constitutions that if a testator specifically states, over his signature, that he has dictated to a slave belonging to anyone, that a legacy should be paid the master of the latter by his own heirs, the bequest will be valid; but the general signature of the testator will not avail against the authority of the Decree of the Senate, and therefore the bequest will be considered as not having been written, and the slave who wrote it for his own benefit should be pardoned. I think, however, that it would be safer for pardon to be asked from the Emperor, of course after the parties interested have relinquished their claim to what was left to them. 2The Senate likewise decreed that if a slave, by the order of his master, should write the bequest of his own freedom in a will or a codicil, for the very reason that it is written with his own hand he will not become free; but freedom can be granted to him under the terms of a trust, provided that, after the writing had been done, the testator signed the will or the codicil with his own hand. 3And as only the kind of freedom acquired by means of a trust was embraced in this Decree of the Senate, the Divine Pius stated in a Rescript that the spirit of the Decree, rather than the letter of the same should be followed; for when slaves obey their masters, they are excused through the necessity of the power to which they are subjected; but when the authority of the master is added, he having stated over his signature that he had dictated and read what had been written, he says that it is considered to have been written by the hand of the master himself, when this had been done by his desire. This, however, should not be extended so as to include free persons over whom the testator has no right. Still, it must be ascertained whether the same necessity for obedience did not exist, and whether those who did not comply had an honorable excuse when they failed to do what was not permitted. 4It was decided that pardon for violating the Cornelian Law should also be granted to a mother, for whose benefit the bequest of a legacy had been written by her slave at the dictation of her son. 5The Senate also made the same decision with reference to a daughter who, at the dictation of her mother, through ignorance of the law, wrote a bequest to herself. 6If anyone, after having appointed two heirs, should add that if either one of them died without leaving children, the estate should be given to the survivor, if he had children, but if both should die without any, the estate (what follows was written in another hand) should be given to the person who wrote the will: it is held that he who wrote the will should be released from the penalty of the Cornelian Law; but it would be more beneficent to permit him to acquire what has been mentioned above.

Callistratus, Questions, Book I. It is provided by the Imperial Mandates, which are communicated to Governors, that no one shall be sentenced to chains for life; and this was also stated by the Divine Hadrian in a Rescript.