Institutio Oratoria

If, on the other hand, the point of law is disputed, either one party or both in turn will argue the point. Take the following case as an example.

A father shall be empowered to arrest his son, and a patron to arrest his freedman. Freedmen shall be transferred to their patron's heir. A certain man appointed the son of a freedman as his heir. The son of the freedman and the freedman himself both claim the right to arrest the other.

Here the father claims his right over the son, while the son, in virtue of his new position as patron, denies that his father possessed the rights of a father, because he was in the power of his patron.

Laws containing two provisions may conflict with themselves in exactly the same way as two laws may conflict. The following will serve as an illustration.

The bastard born before a legitimate son shall rank as legitimate, the bastard born after the legitimate son shall only rank as a citizen.

[*](See III. vi. 96.) All that I have said about laws will also apply to decrees of the senate. If decrees of the senate conflict with one another or with the laws, the basis will be the same as if laws only were concerned.