Senatus Consultum
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
Ordained of the senate. In the earlier periods of Romau history, laws were enacted by popular vote; but when the number of the people had grown so large that they could not be assembled to pass laws, a practice arose of consulting the senate, instead of the people; and to any law thus passed, the name senatus consultum was applied. Hunt. Rom. L. xlvii; Trayn. Max. Historians differ as to the power of the senate to enact laws during the republic; but this power was one of the principal sources of new enactments during the empire.