Summary proceedings in Roman law using maintenance obligation as an example

Abstract

Maintenance obligations and corresponding maintenance claims are closely linked to the person of the obligor and the creditor. Not only is the maintenance creditor protected against the risk of being deprived of his or her means of subsistence following the introduction of his or her maintenance claim, but he or she also enjoys considerable facilities for claiming and enforcing the maintenance awarded. This was already the case in Roman law, where the assertion of a maintenance claim was subject to significant simplification, under the so-called summatim cognoscere. Proceedings for the establishment and realisation of the maintenance obligation took place without actio and iudicium, before a state judge (consul) who, after causa cognitio, issued a judgment and enforced it. Furthermore, a dispute over the fulfilment of a maintenance claim could also end with the conclusion of a settlement (transactio), ending the dispute without a judgment.