What are the guardianship laws in ancient rome?

Answer 1

Guardianship (tutela) in Roman law had a different function than the modern one. It was aimed at protecting people who were under no potestas (see below) and had property of their own and by reason of their age or sex required protection for their own interest. Tutela was given to impuberes and women.

In Roman families, all family members (including adoptive ones) were under the legal authority (patria potestas, power of the father) of the pater familia (father of the family/head of the household - owner of the family estate) who was the oldest male in a household. Legally, property acquired by family members was acquired for the family estate and the paterfamilias held sole rights to its disposal and sole liability in case of debt default. The male members of the household remained under his patria potestas until his death, upon which they became patres familias of their own families if they had reached puberty (the age of 14). Women became emancipated (free of patria potestas) and went under Tutela mulierum the guardianship for emancipated women, by appointing a guardian.

Women were always required to have a tutela. By law they could nothing without having a tutor who gave her acts a complete legal character. The reason for this was not clear even to the Romans. It seems that it was aimed at protecting her interests and those of her family and preventing the alienation of her property. The guardian (tutor) did not get involved in the administration of her property, which she carried out herself. His role was to give legal authority to her transactions. A tutor could not be compelled, except in certain very special cases, authorize acts which could diminish a woman's property of deprive her of it. The types of tutela for women varied.

When the father died, his children were given tutela. The father could appoint a tutor by will for their children. This was tutela impuberum, which for the males applied only to underage boys (impuberes) and expired when they reached the age of 14. For the daughters it also applied to marriageable girls (nubiles); that is, for girls over the age of 12. In other words, it lasted until they got married (Roman women usually married in their early teens). A male under this tutela was a pupillusand a female was a pupilla.

There were variations in both the status and guardianships of women depending on their kind of marriage. In marriages cum manu, the wife came was passed to the manu (hand) of the husband and came under the potestas of the husband and a member of his family. With marriage sine manu she remained under the potestas of the father and a member of his family. The former form of marriage largely died out by the 1st century BC and women remained under the potestas of their fathers.

A husband could appoint a tutor by will for a wife in manu. Like the tutor appointed by will by the father, this was called tutor dativus. The husband could give his wife the power to choose (optio) a tutor (tutoris optio) and this came in two forms, plena optio (the power to choose a tutor ant number of times) and angusta optio (the power to choose only the number of times fixed by the testator). These rules did not apply to women married sine manu.

People who were not given a tutor by will were given tutores legitimi, who were their agnates (descendants from the same male ancestor). Tutela legitima for women was later repealed.