Use and Abuse of the Law: The Emulative Acts

Abstract

Summary Living honestly, civilizing, behaving without harming others, alterum not laedere, were needs strongly felt in the Roman juridical experience. In neighbourhood relations, aequitas and utilitas criteria played a special role in considering the exercise of a right as normal and lawful. In these pages we try to verify if the Romans ever elaborated a theory on the abuse of the law, or if the forms of reaction to unfair behaviour, and to the socially unwelcome ones simply fell within the rules of good neighbourliness.