London HENRY FROWDE AND STEVENS AND SONS, LIMITED [DOMEMINA|| New York MACMILLAN & CO 66 FIFTH AVENUE PREFACE THE text which I have followed is that published by Krueger in his and Mommsen's Edition of the Corpus Juris Civilis (Berlin, 1877). In writing the Introduction, Commentary, and Excursus, I believe I have consulted the best and most recent authorities, and to the names which I mentioned in earlier editions I must add those of Voigt, Sohm, and Cuq; the contribution of the latter to the historical study of the subject is of perhaps greater value than anything since Voigt's Jus Naturale. My constant difficulty, in explaining the text, has been to know where to draw the line between notes, in the ordinary sense of the word, and a more systematic treatment of legal topics. A French or German edition of the Institutes might well have been far shorter, but there the reader can be referred to recognized Institutional treatises upon points which hardly occur in our text; and although since this work first appeared in 1883 the Delegates of the Clarendon Press have published a translation, by Mr. J. C. Ledlie, of Sohm's admirable Institutionen, I have not thought it desirable to largely abbreviate notes which had once been written. The reader will find but few changes in comparing this with the Second Edition. One or two works on the History of Roman Law, which have appeared since 1890, have suggested a few changes in those portions of the book which deal with |