The Roman Origin

The chapter deals with the issue of the Roman origin of the common law trust. It discusses the development of Roman legal institutions: the fideicommissum, the fiducia cum amico, and the fiducia cum creditore. Special attention is paid to the mancipatio familiae—a possible predecessor of the testamentum per aes et libram, which was akin to the fiducia, whose one type, the fiducia cum amico (contracta), was based on a transfer of property to the amicus. At the end of the chapter, a possible link between fiducia (fiducia cum amico (contracta)) and the use/trust is discussed.