Emancipation - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition emancipation

Definition :

Emancipation. A solemn act by which a pater-familias divests himself of his power over his filius-familias, so that the filus-familias may become sui juris. There are three forms of emancipatio: (1) The old emancipation, which was by several man-cipationes, followed by several enfranchisements. The man-icipatio, or solemn sale, destroyed the patria potestas and put the filius familias in mancipio, which was a kind of slavery. The enfranchisement by the purchaser made the filius-familias sui juris. As the enfranchiser acquired all rights of patronage, the father, on occasion of the last mancipatio, added the trust-clause (fiducia contracta), i.e., an express condition that the purchaser should remancipate the filius-familias to the pater-familias, so that having ceased to be a pater-familias, and being only an ordinary purchaser, he might enfranchise his child, and so acquire the rights of patronage.

(2) The Anastasian emancipation, introduced by Anastasius. It consisted in obtaining an imperial rescript, authorising the emancipation, which was to be registered with the proper officer. In this way a filius-familias might be emancipated in his absence, which could not be done by the old form per 's et libram, since the purchaser had to lay hold of the thing.

(3) The Justinian emancipation, a mere declaration of the pater-familias before the magistrate, no leave being required for the purpose (recta via), Sand. Just.