Noxal surrender was a provision of
Roman law
Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...
when a
delict
Delict (from Latin ''dēlictum'', past participle of ''dēlinquere'' ‘to be at fault, offend’) is a term in civil and mixed law jurisdictions whose exact meaning varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but is always centered on the notion of ...
was brought against a ''
paterfamilias
The ''pater familias'', also written as ''paterfamilias'' (plural ''patres familias''), was the head of a Roman family. The ''pater familias'' was the oldest living male in a household, and could legally exercise autocratic authority over his ext ...
'' for a wrong committed by a son or slave. The defendant had the option in that instance of surrendering the dependant rather than paying the full damages.
[Alan Watson, ''Roman Law & Comparative Law'' (London: University of Georgia, 1991), 75.]
References
Roman law
Delict
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