Institutions - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition institutions

Definition :

Institutions. It was the object of Justinian to comprise in his Code and Digest, or Pandects, a complete body of law. But these works were not adapted to the purposes of elementary instruction, and the writings of the ancient jurists were no longer allowed to have any authority, except so far as they had been incorporated in the digest, Smith's Dict. of Antiq. It was therefore necessary to prepare an elementary treatise, and the Institutes were published a month before the Pandects, A.D. 533, and designed as an elementary introduction to legal study (legum cunabula). The work was divided into four books, subdivided into titles.

The Institutes are the elements of the Roman Law, and were composed at the command of the Emperor Justinian, by Trebonian, Dorotheus, and The ophilus, who took them from the writings of the ancient lawyers, and chiefly from those of Gaius especially from his Institutes and his books called Aureorum (i.e., of important matters).

The Institutes are divided into four books, each book into several titles, and each title into several parts--the first of which is called Principium, and those which follow, paragraphs. The first book of the Institutes has twenty-six titles, the second twenty-five, the third thirty, and the fourth eighteen; in all, ninety-nine titles. First, it is to be observed that the division is triple--Persons, Tings, and Actions--under which the subject-matter of the four books of the Institutes is comprised. The first book treats of the rights of Persons; the second, third, and five first titles of the fourth, of Things; and Actions are the subjects treated of from the sixth title of the fourth book to the end. The first book treats of Persons, but it is from Title III. only; for the first two, which are by way of introduction, explain Justice, Law, and Right; the meaning of the Right or State of Persons follows in two divisions, which complete the remaining part of the first book.

According to the chief Division of Persons treated of from Titles III to VIII of the first book, men are either Free or Slaves. The condition of all slaves is the same, but it is not so with free men, of whom some are free by birth, others by emancipation.

The second Division of Persons begins at Title VIII. of the first book, and is explained in the following titles of that book. It is of independent persons, and of such as are under the power of another. The power of masters over their slaves, and of fathers over their children, is treated of; after which is shown the manner of acquiring paternal power--viz., by marriage, legitimation, and adoption, and how that power may be lost.

Title XIII to the end of the first book treats of Pupils, or such as have Tutors; of Minors, or such as have Curators appointed to them; and lastly, of persons who are of age and masters of their own actions.

In Title XX matters relating to Curators, and in the last three of this book, three things, common to Tutors and Curators, are treated of. These are: the security they are obliged to give to indemnify Pupils and Minors; the lawful causes exempting persons from being Tutors or Curators, and those for which they may be deprived of their offices.

Things are treated of in Title I of the second book to Title VI. Of the fourth, under three heads--their divisions, the way of acquiring them, and the means by which they become due to us. The divisions are principally two; by the first, things are divided into those which belong to individuals and those which do not; by the second, they are corporeal or incorporeal. The property in things is acquired either by Natural Law or by Civil Law.

Title II. explains the second Division of Things, which are either corporeal or incorporeal: and here real or personal services, as being incorporeal things, are treated of. The modes of acquisition introduced by the Civil Law follow; and the property of Things, according to the Civil Law, acquired either by particular or universal title.

Title VII. treats of Usucaption or just Usurpation an the conditions which it requires, and Title VII. of Donations; Titles VIII. and IX. Of those who have the power of alienation, and those through whom property may be acquired.

Title III. shows how a Testament made in the form prescribed by law, and not invalidated, may be carried into execution, which is done by the heir accepting the succession.

Fiduciary Bequests are treated of in Titles XXIII. and XXIV.

Testamentary Successions, which take place before others, are explained in the last fifteen titles of the second book.

Title I. of the third book, and those that follow, treat of Legal Successions, admissible only in default of Testamentary.

Title V. treats of the Succession to Intestates, to which the cognati, or female side, were admitted by the Pr'torian equity, according to the degree of cognation.

The Title, in conclusion, treats of those who were excluded from this P'torian succession, because allied to the deceased only by a servile relation.

The succession of Freemen is the subject of Title VII., and the assignment of Freemen that of Title VIII.

After disposing of the question of Succession, which by the Civil Law is the first mode of acquiring property by universal title, the other five modes which followed, by the P'torian succession, are called bonorum possessio; acquisition by abrogation; the adjudication of the goods of a deceased person, in order to make the enfranchisement of slaves effectual; and the two abrogated successions,

per bonorum venditionem and ex Senatus-Consulto Claudiano, Titles IX.-XII.

We then come to the last point relating to Things--viz., Obligations--being the means whereby things accrue to us. The principal division of them is into two kinds--Civil, or those constituted by the laws, or at least recognized by the Civil Law, and Pr'torian, or those which the Pr'tor has establi-shed by his own authority, also called honorary. There is a further division of obligations into four kinds, for they arise: (1) ex contractu; (2) quasi ex contractu; (3) ex maleficio; (4) quasi ex maleficio, Title XIII., 1 and 2. First it is shown what on Obligation is, and the causes producing a mixed Obligation--that is, partly natural and partly civil, as a contract, quasi-contract, crime or offence.

Contracts made by words are called Stipulations, the general principles of which are first explained, in order to arrive at the chief divisions of that kind of contract. The first division is of the Stipulation made between the person who demands and him that promises, and of that made between several who stipulate or promise together.

The second is of the Stipulation made by free persons or slaves.

The third is of Stipulations that are called judicial, Pr'torian, common, or conventional.

The fourth is of Stipulations called equitable (utiles), or good in law, and of Stipulations which are inutiles.

The fifth is of Principal and Accessory Stipulations, called sureties or cautions.

Titles XXII. Treats of Written Contracts. The five following titles explain contracts made by the sole consent of the contacting persons, which are the contracts of purchase, of hire, of partnership, and of mandate.

Title XXVIII. treats of quasi-contracts; the next shows how Obligations are to be acquired; and the last, in what manner they may be extinguished. Having spoken of obligations which arise from contracts or quasi-contracts, the first five titles of the fourth book treat of obligations arising out of faults and quasi-faults--delicta or quasi delicta. The rest of the book, from Title VI. To Title XVI., is devoted to the treatment of Actions. It begins with the definition of an Action, which is followed by several divisions explained in Title VI., according to the chief and principal of which Actions are either real, personal, or mixed. The second is of Actions derived from the Civil Law, and such as have their foundations in Pr'torian equity. The third is of Actions by which the plaintiff seeks to recover a thing belonging or due to him, and of those by which the punishment of the offender only is aimed at, and of such actions by which both are intended. The fourth division is of Actions by which the plaintiff sued for the single, double, treble, or quadruple value of the thing he would recover. The fifth is of Actions of good faith, strict law, and arbitrary.

The sixth is of Actions in which the total of what is due is sued for, and in which the defendant is either not sued for the whole, or in consequence of which he is condemned to pay only so much as his circumstances will allow.

After these divisions of action are explained, Title VII. treats of certain Pr'torian Actions which are liable to, and which proceed from, contracts made by slaves or children under power, or else by persons to whom they have committed the management of their affairs.

Title VIII. speaks of Actions that may be brought against a master for an error committed by his slave.

Title IX. of Actions to which the owner is liable for the hurt or damage done by a beast.

Title X. directs what persons are to be employed in carrying on lawsuits.

Title XI. treats of the security required to the parties to a suit, or such as appear for them.

Title XII. sets forth the nature of temporary or perpetual Actions, and what Actions the law affords to or against heirs; which those are which lie in their favour and not against them; and lastly, those which are neither allowed for nor against them.

Title XIII. treats of Exceptions, and Title XIV. of Replications.

Title XV. of Injunctions, or Actions to put the party injured into possession.

Title XVI. declares the Penalty against such as commence vexatious suits.

Title XVII. prescribes rules to be observed by judges in the several suits brought before them.

And Title XVIII., the last, shows what were the Roman public prosecutions, which every one had free liberty to institute, and of which the penalties were established by the laws called Judiciorum Publicorum Leges.

The Institutes are quoted in the same manner as the Code and Pandects, with the letter I. or Inst.: thus, ' si adversus 12, I. DcNuptiis, is nothing more than the twelfth paragraph of the Title De Nuptiis, which, on reference to the index, will be found to be the tenth of the first book. This is usually now cited I. 1, 10, 12, 1 Colqu. R.C.L. s. 61.

Mean School of Architecture, School of Planning, School of Building Science and Technology and School of Interior Design. [Centre for Environment Planning and Technology University Act, 2005 (24 of 2005), s. 2(j)]

Mean an academic institution, not being a College, maintained by the University. [Babasahab Bhimrao Ambedkar University Act, 1994 (58 of 1994), s. 2(l)]

Used in several senses: e.g. (1) Laws, rites, and ceremonies enjoined by authority, as permanent rules of conduct or of government. (2) A commit-ment of the cure of souls by the bishop to the incumbent, whereby the benefice becomes filled. The clerk kneels before the bishop or his deputy, who reads the words of the institution out of a written instrument, drawn for this purpose, with the episcopal seal appended, which the clerk holds in his hand during the ceremony. Notice, one month before institution, must be given by the bishop to the churchwardens of the name of the person whom he proposes to institute: (English) Benefices Act, 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 48), s. 2(2). The clerk by institution (which may take place anywhere becomes parson as to the spirituality, may celebrate Divine service, enter on the par-sonage house and glebe, and take the profits of the benefice as from the death of his predecessor; though he cannot grant, or let, or claim a freehold in them, or bring an action for them till induction, which can take place only in the church to which the clerk is inducted. See INDUCTION. Institution being given to a clerk, a particular entry of it should be made in the register of the ordinary, not only that such a clerk received institution on such a day and year, but if the clerk were presented, at whose presentation, and whether in his own right or in another's, and if collated or presented by the Crown; then whether jure pleno or per lapsum temporis. Such entries should be carefully preserved, for the letters of institute on may be destroyed or lost, and the patron's title may suffer from want of evidence upon whose presentation institution was given (Mirehouse on Advow., p. 187). (3) A society for promoting any public object, as a charitable or benevolent institution, or literary and scientific institutions. (4) In the Civil Law, the appointment of a debtor as heir--i.e., to carry on the legal existence, the persona of the testator.

By the (English) Factory and Workshop Act, 1907

(7 Edw. 7, c. 39), an institution (s. 5) carried on for charitable or reformatory purposes where 'any manual labour is exercised in or incidentally to the making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finish-ing, washing, cleaning, or adapting for sale, of Articles not intended for the use of the institution,' is within and has to conform to the provisions of the (English) Factory and Workshop Act, 1901 (e Edw. 7, c. 22), unless it carries on the work under a scheme approved by the Secretary of State.

The term 'institution' is not defined in the Act of 1927, although, in the more elaborate provisions of Madras Hindu Religious and Charitable Endow-ments Act XXII of 1959, there is now a definition of the term 'religious institution' as well showing that this concept is wider than that of a temple, Commissioner v. Sri Ratnavarma Heggade, AIR 1977 SC 1848: (1977) 1 SCC 525: (1977) 1 SCR 889.