Transfer of Ownership in Dacian Sales Documents
Transfer of Ownership in Dacian Sales Documents

Summary/Abstract: In order to get a full picture of the regulation of transfer of ownership in Roman sales contracts, this essay investigates documents that allow access to everyday contract practice. Roman law, following the so-called traditional principle of the acquisition of ownership,required both the agreement of the parties and the traditio of commodity (merx) as conditions of the transfer of ownership. Causa emptionis is a recognised title for the transfer of ownership: thus the purchaser acquires the ownership if the handover of the commodity happens on the grounds of sale, as required for the performance of the sales contract. On the other hand, if the vendor had already given the commodity to the purchaser before the payment of purchase price (pretium), one more condition was necessary for the acquisition of ownership. Both the classical and the Justinian Roman law required the payment of purchase price for the purchaser’s acquisition of ownership, but this rule became formal due to the possibility of crediting pretium. Certainly, the relationship of mutual performances cannot be described setting out from a comprehensive and unified model at any stages of Roman legal development. For this reason, this essay presents the Dacian waxtablets, which report on the application of everyday Roman imperial law in the classical age. In the case of Dacian sales documents we can see the outstanding role of paying the purchase price in the real fulfilment of mancipatio, which also confirms that the sale by mancipatio – deriving from the characteristics of the act – could require the performance of pretium even in the case of transferring res nec mancipi. Thus, it can be stated that in Roman law the performance of purchase price having an effect on the transfer of ownership – similarly to the regulation by modern codifications of private law – was brought to an issue in everyday practice.

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