The importance of age in the Roman criminal process

Abstract

In Roman law there were institutions whose application and, above all, their effects depended on the attainment of a numerically specified age by the subject of the law. Age limits presented in Roman law literature are usually associated with civil law – personal law, and more specifically to the scope of legal capacity, although, of course, a number of other powers exercised under other branches of law were also connected with this capacity. The purpose of this article is to present the results of the research conducted on the juridical sources of Roman law, which revealed texts relating to the problem of age on the grounds of the Roman criminal process. Research conducted on Roman law sources showed that three categories of age were important in the criminal process: 14 years, 20 years and 25 years.