Exceptio metus

The exceptio metus (also: exceptio quod metus causa ; objection of an induced predicament ) was a Roman legal remedy that was directed against legal transactions that the defendant had entered into due to a predicament experienced at the conclusion of the transaction ( metus ). The objection went back to the republican praetor (and later consul ) Octavius , who put it in an edict .

If a legal transaction was forced, the legal consequences that resulted from it should be able to be eliminated by restoring the legal case to its previous status (before the predicament arose) ( restitutio in integrum ). The edict, later called Formula Octaviana by the lawyers , had for the first time created a criminal offense that regulated the elimination of a "fear experienced by a predicament". The factual prerequisite was that a “superior” business partner violated morality by threatening a sensitive evil ( adversus bonos mores ) if the “inferior” business partner refused to conclude a contract. Because of his fear that the prospect of disadvantages would materialize, the defendant closed the deal.

Anyone who did not use the defense as defensive protection, but went on the offensive and complained , sought the actio quod metus causa . The metus law originally served to ensure that those displaced from their estates during the civil war could regain their rightful property.

Already in recent empire that went exceptio metus in originally for Arglisteinreden created exceptio doli on.

literature

Herbert Hausmaninger , Walter Selb : Roman private law (= Böhlau study books. Basics of study. ). Böhlau, Vienna et al. 1981, ISBN 3-205-07171-9 , p. 287 f.

Individual evidence

↑ mentioned (with weak sources) in the digest fragment D 44.4.4.33; from D 4.2.14.9 it can be seen that Labeo already knew them.
^ Heinrich Honsell : Roman law. 5th, supplemented edition. Springer, Berlin et al. 2001, ISBN 3-540-42455-5 , p. 176.
^ Sebastian Martens : Lack of will caused by third parties (= studies on foreign and international private law. 190). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149498-7 , pp. 36-41, (also: Regensburg, University, dissertation, 2007).
^ The late classical lawyer Ulpian in Dig. 44.4.4.27−32.

[1] tioned (with weak sources) in the digest fragment D 44.4.4.33; from D 4.2.14.9 it can be seen that Labeo already knew them.

[2] Heinrich Honsell : Roman law. 5th, supplemented edition. Springer, Berlin et al. 2001, ISBN 3-540-42455-5 , p. 176.

[3] Sebastian Martens : Lack of will caused by third parties (= studies on foreign and international private law. 190). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149498-7 , pp. 36-41, (also: Regensburg, University, dissertation, 2007).

[4] The late classical lawyer Ulpian in Dig. 44.4.4.27−32.