Interdictum de homine libero exhibendo

In Roman law, the Interdictum de homine libero exhibendo was a popular form of interdictum ordering a man who unlawfully holds a free man as a slave to produce this man in court.

The Favian law (lex Fabi) made the purchase, sale, donation, or acceptance of a freeman, if done wittingly, a capital crime; and the pecuniary penalty provided by that law having fallen out of practice, those guilty of "plagiary", or man-stealing (which appears to have been a common offence, both as regarded slaves and freemen) were condemned to the mines for the delictum, a fine of twenty aurei, amputation of the hand, etc.^[1] The Salic law provided that nobles guilty of plagiary should be scourged and imprisoned, slaves and liberti exposed to the beasts, and freemen decapitated.^[2]

In Roman Dutch law (applied, e.g., in South Africa), the interdictum de homine libero exhibendo is the equivalent of a writ of habeas corpus in English law.

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]

External links

• Encyclopedic dictionary of Roman law By Adolf Berger