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 {{AncientRome-law-stub