PRZYCZYNY NIEGODNOŚCI DZIEDZICZENIA W PRAWIE RZYMSKIM
GROUNDS FOR UNWORTHINESS TO INHERIT IN ROMAN LAW

Summary/Abstract: The subject matter of the present article is an analysis of the causes of unworthiness of inheritance in Roman inheritance law. It presents the legal nature of indignitatis and puts forward the thesis that unworthiness of inheritance in Roman law did not always lead to the confiscation of the inherited property by the imperial treasury. Various cases of unworthiness of inheritance were analysed and they were grouped into seven sets of causes: causing the death of the testator; failing to avenge the testator's death; violating the testator's freedom to testate; contesting the will; showing disrespect to the deceased testator; violating the testamentary obligations, the law, or decency; and changing the will of the testator. The Roman indignitas was an instrument for correcting the inheritance law that appealed to justice. The origins of unworthiness were marked by ethical considerations. In classical law, the expansion of reasons for unworthiness of inheritance was motivated by fiscal considerations; in post-classical law, a partial return to axiological roots occurred. The catalogue of reasons for

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