A Short History of Roman Law by Tellegen-Couperus O. E

Author:Tellegen-Couperus, O. E. [OLGA TELLEGEN-COUPERUS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2011-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

9.3. THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

9.3.1. The criminal trial

At the end of the republic there were two juridical procedures for criminal law: serious crimes were tried by special standing tribunals (quaestiones perpetuae), other crimes were dealt with by lower-grade magistrates, the so-called tresviri capitales. In the first few decades of the principate the tasks of the tresviri capitales were taken over by officials in the service of the emperor; the tribunals continued to exist for quite a long time after they had been reorganised and even expanded by Augustus.9

As early as 17 BC Augustus had regulated by law how the tribunals were to be composed and how they were to function. The list of potential jury-members, the album iudicum, was composed in a new way, the equites’ participation being increased. Furthermore the minimum age for jury service was lowered from 30 to 25, so that there would always be enough jury members available. By the end of his reign, probably in 18 AD, Augustus added two new tribunals to the six existing ones: the quaestio de adulteriis and the quaestio de annona. The first had to pass judgment in cases of adultery involving a married woman or an otherwise honourable woman and in cases of procurement. The second had to pass judgment in cases of hoarding or speculation which led to a rise in food prices.

The tribunals had a number of disadvantages which were not adequately dealt with by the innovations of Augustus. First of all, a citizen could only lodge a complaint about a crime if there existed a tribunal for that crime. Secondly, it sometimes happened that in one case several persons were involved who had committed various crimes. In such a case it would have been more efficient to have all the persons involved tried by one jury. In addition, the penalties that could be imposed were often regarded as being too mild for the type of crime committed. Therefore, the work of the tribunals was first supplemented but soon taken over by the new criminal court of the emperor and his delegates. In about the year 200 all quaestiones perpetuae had disappeared.

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