LECTURE on Byzantine Law

We are pleased to announce that on Monday 25^th March, at 15.00-16.00 Salvatore Sciortino will deliver a lecture with the title: The nomen actionis in the Justinianic libellus conventionis

ABSTRACT

In the Justinianic age, alongside the ἰδικαί ἀγωγαί of classical derivation, exist the new γενικαί ἀγωγαί, coined by Byzantine jurists and able to contain within them elements of several ‘special’ actions. The lecture will deal with the subject of the plaintiff’s interest in indicating the name of these actions in the libellus conventionis.

After examining the validity of the arguments that can be attributed in favour of and against to the existence of an interest in this sense, the lecture will deal with a case by case analysis aimed at identifying in which hypotheses the actor had interest to indicate the name of the actio in the libellus conventionis. This in order to understand in what terms it was still useful for the Justinian trial per libellum the classical system of actions.

The analysis of the fragments of Byzantine literature makes it possible to advance some hypotheses on the practical destination of the Justinian age manuals and of the commentaries of the antecessores, commonly considered unrelated to the practical training of the students.

Salvatore Sciortino is associate Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Palermo. His basic research interests lie in the classic system of consensual contracts with particular reference to the societas and the Roman criminal process with particular reference to the discipline of absentia rei.