Edictum Perpetuum (The Praetor's Edict)

Edictum Perpetuum

Roman praetors (definitive redaction by Salvius Julianus) · c. AD 130-138 · Rome (Italy) · law

The annual edict by which each incoming praetor announced the legal remedies his court would enforce evolved over centuries into a standing body of case law that shaped private law more than statute did, until Hadrian had the jurist Salvius Julianus fix its text permanently; the edict itself does not survive independently and is known only through extensive quotation in later juristic commentary preserved in Justinian's Digest.