Some Remarks on the Issue of Suicide in Roman Criminal Law

Abstract

This paper analyses the issue of suicide in the sources of Roman law, primarily criminal law. In the course of that, it will focus on the following key points: after a few introductory remarks outlining the Roman custom of committing suicide, first, it will discuss the judgement of suicide in criminal law in general; then, it will examine the appearance of the culprit’s suicide as grounds for exclusion of culpability (and the limits thereof) in sources in imperial law; finally, it will briefly analyse the legal position of suicide in military criminal law.