Jus Vita Necisque

In Roman Law. The right of life and death. Originally a father, or his pater-familias if he was himself in domestic subjection, could decide — not arbitrarily, but judicially — whether or not to rear his child; and while this right became subject to certain restrictions, yet when the child had grown up, the father, in the exercise of his domestic jurisdiction, might visit his son’s misconduct, both in private and public life, with such punishment as he thought fit, even banishment, slavery, or death. In the early Empire these rights became relaxed, and they disappeared in the Justinian law. Mnlrhead, Roman Law, 28, 346, 417. See Patbia Potbstas.