Agrarian Laws

In Roman law. Those laws by which the commonwealth disposed of its public land, or regulated the possession thereof by individuals, were termed "Agrarian Laws." The greater part of the public lands acquired by conquest were laid open to the possession of any citizen, but the state reserved the title and the right to resume possession. The object of many of the agrarian laws was to limit the area of public land of which any one person might take possession. The law of Cassius, B. C. 486, is the most noted of these laws. Until a comparatively recent period, it has been assumed that these laiws were framed to reach private property, as well as to restrict possession of the public domain, and hence the term "agrarian" is, fn legal and political literature, to a great degree fixed with the meaning of a confiscatory law, intended to reduce large estates, and increase the number of landholders. Harrington, in his "Oceana," and the philosophers of the French Revolution, have advocated agrarian laws in this sense. The researches of Heyne (Op. 4, 351), Nlehbuhr (Hist. vol. 2, trans.), and Savigny (Das Recht des Besitzes), have redeemed the Roman word from the burden of this meaning.

In Roman Law. Those laws by which the commonwealth disposed of its public land, or regulated the possession thereof by individuals were termed Agrarian Laws. The greater part of the public lands acquired by conquest were laid open to the possession of any citizen, but the state reserved the title and the right to resume possession. The object of many of the agrarian laws was to limit the area of public land of which any one person might take possession. The law of Cassius, b. c. 486, is the most noted of these laws. It was long assumed that these laws were framed to reach private property as well as to restrict possession of the public domain, and hence the term agrarian is, in legal and political literature, to a great degree fixed with the meaning of a confiscatory law, intended to reduce large estates and increase the number of landholders. Harrington, in his "Oceana," and the philosophers of the French Revolution, have advocated agrarian laws in this sense. The researches of Heyne, Op. 4, 351; Niebuhr, Hist. vol. ii. trans.; and Savigny, Das Recht des Besitzes, have redeemed the Roman word from the burden of this meaning.