Equity and the Law of Trusts

The finer and more profound conception of law, on the other hand, which substitutes for outward criteria the motive springs of action within - such as the development of the ideas of offences arising from intention and from carelessness respectively, and of possession entitled to temporary protection - was not yet in existence at the time of the Twelve Tables, but was so in the age of Cicero, and probably owed its elaboration substantially to the present epoch. The reaction of political relations on the development of law has been already indicated on several occasions; it was not always advantageous. By the institution of the tribunal of the Centumviri to deal with inheritance[38], for instance, there was introduced in the law of property a college of jurymen, which, like the criminal authorities, instead of simply applying the law placed itself above it and with its so-called equity undermined the legal institutions; one consequence of which among others was the irrational principle, that any one, whom a relative had passed over in his testament, was at liberty to propose that the testament should be annulled by the court, and the court decided according to its discretion ...»