Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Citations, Law of

Roman law. An A.D. 426 decree of Emperor Valentinian listing Papinian, Paul, Gaius, Ulpian, and Modestinus as the only juristic writers who could be cited authoritatively in court. ( If a majority of the writers agreed on an issue, the judge was bound to follow the majority view. The Law of Citations allowed the judge to use discretion only if the writers were equally divided and Papinian (whose view prevailed in a tie) was silent on the issue."In 426 came the famous lax de responsis prudentium -the Law of Citations .... This law lessened the difficulties of the courts in dealing with juristic literature. It excluded a huge mass of conflicting doctrine, the relative value of which had not been