Lex Julia

Lex Julia DE BONIS CEDENDIS. Up to nearly the end of the Republic an insolvent debtor was unable to escape from the two severe forms of bankruptcy execution (manus injectio and bonorum emptio or venditio) by a voluntary composition. This statute (whether due to Julius or Augustus Caesar is uncertain) enabled him, at any moment before his creditors took steps to have him adjudged a bankrupt, to make a cessio bonorum to them, though the right could not be exercised if his insolvency was due entirely to his own fault (Cod. 7, 71, 8, pr.). He surrendered his property, which was dealt with in much the same way as if the procedure had been by bonorum emptio; but he escaped infamia and the liability to personal arrest, and was entitled to the beneficium competentiae: i.e. his creditors were bound to let him retain so much of his means as was sufficient to provide him with the necessaries of life. The provisions of the statute, originally intended to benefit cives only, were extended to the provinces by imperial constitutions, Cod. 7, 71, 4 (Caes. Civ. 3.1; Sueton. Jul. 42; Tac. Ann. 6.16; D. C. 58.21; Gaius, 3.78).