Essence of the Stipulation in the Roman Private Law

Abstract

Introduction. The issues of stipulation were widely covered in the ancient Roman Law sources of knowledge. Throughout the history of Roman Law, the institution of stipulation has undergone some changes. The stipulation arose in the archaic period and got the greatest development in the classical era. Within the Roman Private Law course, which is obligatory for substantial study of the Law curriculum, the special place is allocated to the topic of stipulation. The aim of the present study is to provide the scientific analysis of the Roman Law sources of knowledge with regard to the subject matter of the institute of stipulation in the Roman Private Law, finding out its structural features, origin and evolvement in the historical perspective.Materials and Methods. The legal, organisational, worldview, methodological and other aspects of studying the stipulation within the Roman Private Law have been considered by applying the methods of scientific cognition generally accepted in Russia: general scientific (dialectical) and specific scientific (analysis, synthesis, historical case specific, logical, etc.) methods.Results. The stipulation is an unilateral agreement (contract) used in the Roman Law, concluded orally (verbally) between the parties (debtor and creditor) in the form of solemn declarations regarding the proprietary rights of the Roman citizens and foreigners. The mandatory attributes of the stipulation are: the grounds, the subject, the parties, the form and classification. Various juridical factors used to be the grounds for arising the stipulation. Alongside, according to the Roman Law School, the provided obligation was referred to the range of conventional (contractual) ones, was unilateral and had an abstract nature. Any obligation comprising the ownership right as well as the right of possession could constitute the subject of the stipulation. The provisions on monetary assessment timeframe of an object of obligation, various conditions for terminating the stipulation, circumstances excluding the defense's claims in the lawsuit based on the stipulation, and mandatory requirements for making a deal have been considered in the article. The parties to the agreement were both Roman citizens and foreigners. The deal could be made for the benefit of a creditor as well as his heirs. The obligations within the stipulation and the features of slaves’ participation in the agreement have been considered. In such agreements the parties were represented by: guardians, adstipulators, donators. The timeframe for fulfilling an obligation should have been indicated as a condition for concluding an agreement, and the period for claims in the lawsuit began from the moment of detecting the violations of an obligation, which took place during the factual happening of an event in the frame of the agreement. The potential perspective has been highlighted during studying the history of obligations within the stipulation on the territory of the Bosporan kingdom, being the part of the Roman protectorate. The examples of the institution of stipulation acceptance in the current Law of Obligations have been considered.Discussion and Conclusions. The conducted research has theoretical and practical value and is targeted at the educators providing professional training to future lawyers. Thus, one of the topics proposed for including into the Study Module “Roman Private Law” is the stipulation, which is traditionally studied within the Roman Law of Obligations.