# Institutes of Gaius 1.1.9-13

Roman Law and Society, Institutes of Gaius, 1.1.9 to 1.1.13. Latin.

Canonical: https://interlinea.aeterna-institute.org/library/latin/roman-law-and-society/institutes-of-gaius/1.1.9

" Est quidem vera lex recta ratio, naturæ congruens, diffusa in omnes, conBlans, sempiterna; quæ vocet ad officium jubendo, vetando a fraude deterreat, quæ tamen neque probos frustra jubet aut vetat, neque improbos jubendo aut vetando movet. Huic legi neque obrogari fas est, neque derogari ex hac aliquid licet, neque tota abrogari potest. Nec vero aut per senatum aut per populum solvi hac lege possumus: neque est quærendus explanator aut interpres ejus alius. Nec frit alia lex Romæ, alia Athenis, alia nunc, alia posthac; sed et omnes gentes et (3) A statute is what the people order and establish. A plebiscite is what the commonalty order and establish. Moreover, the commonalty is distinguished from the people by the fact that the entire body of citizens including the patricians, is designated by the appellation, "the people"; but the other citizens, exclusive of the patricians, are indicated by the term commonalty; for which reason the patricians formerly declared that they were not bound by plebiscites, as they were enacted without their sanction; but subsequently the Lex Hortensia was passed, by which it was provided that plebiscites should bind the entire people; and hence, in this way, they were placed on the same footing as laws. (4) A Decree of the Senate is what the Senate orders and establishes, and therefore it obtains the force of law, although this formerly was disputed. (5) An Imperial Constitution is what the Emperor establishes by a decree, an edict, or a letter, and there was never any doubt that it had the force of a law, as the Emperor himself derives his authority from a statute. (6) The magistrates of the Roman people have the power of promulgating edicts, but the highest authority attaches to the edicts of the two prætors, the urban and the foreign, whose jurisdiction is vested in the governors of the provinces; as well as to the edicts of the curule Ædiles, whose jurisdiction the quæstors administer in the provinces of the Roman people, for quæstors are not appointed in the provinces of the Emperor and, therefore, the latter edict is not published in these provinces.

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Roman Law and Society, Institutes of Gaius. Text: The Latin Library (thelatinlibrary.com), used with permission. Changes: HTML markup removed and the text divided into reading sections by Interlinea.
License: Used with permission (https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/about.html). Source: http://thelatinlibrary.com/law/gaius.html.