LEX CORNELIA

lex Cornelia (leks kor-nee-lee-<<schwa>> or kor-neel-y<<schwa>>). [Latin] Roman law. One of several laws passed by the dictator L. Cornelius Sulla in 82–81 B.C. — Also termed Cornelian law.

lex Cornelia de edictis (leks kor-nee-lee-<<schwa>> dee ee-dik-t<<schwa>>s). See lex Cornelia de jurisdictione.

lex Cornelia de falsis (leks kor-nee-lee-<<schwa>> dee fal-sis orfawl-sis). [Latin] Roman law.

See lex cornelia nummaria testamentaria.

lex Cornelia de injuriis (leks kor-nee-lee-<<schwa>> dee in-joor-ee-is). [Latin] Roman law. The Cornelian law providing a civil action for the recovery of a penalty in certain cases of bodily injury and violent invasion of property. • The precise boundary between the crime and the delict is not clear. But the two procedures probably existed side by side.

“Lex Cornelia de iniuriis …. Punished three kinds of injury committed by violence: pulsare (beating), verberare (striking, causing pains) and domum introire (forcible invasion of another’s domicile).” Adolf Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law 549 (1953).

lex Cornelia de jurisdictione (leks kor-nee-lee-<<schwa>> dee joor-is-dik-shee-oh-nee). [Latin] Roman law. The law forbidding a praetor from departing, during his term of office, from the edict he had promulgated at the term’s commencement. • It did not, however, forbid the offer of new remedies. — Also termed lex Cornelia de edictis.

lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis (leks kor-nee-lee-<<schwa>> dee si-kair-ee-is et v<<schwa>>-nee-f<<schwa>>-sis). [Latin] Roman law. A law combining jurisdiction over gangster-type killings and poisoning, or attempts at such crimes, and addressing the bringing of false witness and bribery of a judge or juror, if those actions brought about a person’s death. • The statute was soon extended to cover murder generally when committed within or close to Rome. Emperor Antoninus Pius added a provision for murder to include a slave owner who deliberately killed his own slave.

lex Cornelia de sponsu (leks kor-nee-lee-<<schwa>> dee spon-s[y]oo). [Latin] Roman law. A law prohibiting a person from acting as surety for the same debtor to the same creditor in the same year for more than a specified amount.

lex Cornelia nummaria testamentaria (leks kor-nee-lee-<<schwa>> n<<schwa>>-mair-ee-<<schwa>> tes-t<<schwa>>-men-tair-ee-<<schwa>>).Roman law. A statute making forgery (falsum) a crime, and creating a special court to try forgery cases. • Until the later Roman Empire, falsum included both coining and document forgery. — Also termed lex Cornelia de falsis. See FALSUM(2).

“It is not absolutely clear whether Sulla passed two laws, one on forging wills and the other on forging money, or whether the one lex Cornelia nummaria testamentaria provided for both sorts of offence to be heard by the quaestio de falsis which it created.” O.F. Professor Robinson, The Criminal Law of Ancient Rome 36 (1995).

[Blacks Law 8th]