Tracing the roman pactiones et stipulationes as forms of constitution of appurtenant easements in the spanish historical law and specially in the case of catalonia

Abstract

According to Gai. 2, 31, the pactiones et stipulationes were the normal method to constitute servitudes in the roman provinces during the classical epoch. The use of this method of constitution became widespread in the post-classical roman law and, especially, in the Justinian law. From the fall of the Western roman empire until the reception of the Corpus iuris civilis in europe, the destiny of the pactiones et stipulationes is clearly determined by the trajectory of this method of constitution in the post-classical law, but above all, by the complex transformation of the stipulatio, from the classical epoch, through the Justinian compilation, until its reception in late medieval law. The trace left by the pactiones et stipulationes in spanish historical law should be studied starting from the trans formation of stipulatio and the mark left by its transformation, along the centuries, in notarial documental practice.