Self-sale ad actum gerendum in Classical Roman Law.
Durnovo Maksim V.
Ulpian (Ad Sab. 10: D. 28. 3. 6. 5) mentions self-sale ad actum gerendum (‘in order to become a manager’) along with self-sale ad pretium participandum (‘in order to share the price’) as causa servitutis which led the Roman to the loss of citizenship. The author argues that the self-sale ad actum gerendum as well as ad pretium participandum was a special fraudulent scheme according to which a free man who allowed himself to be sold as a slave was enriched at the expense of a deceived buyer (his putative master after purchasing) – the pretended slave appropriated the money which he had made secretly taking advantage of his responsible manager position and then won in a legal case concerning freedom (causa liberalis). Bringing an action against the deceiver could not provide effective protection of the buyer in that case. In order to prevent the realization of the fraudulent scheme and to punish the wrongdoer the putative master as a defendant in the causa liberalis was given the opportunity to raise the special defence emptionis atque actus administrati, which led to denegatio proclamationis of the alleged slave, i. e. he was barred from claiming his liberty, and thus he became a ‘slave de facto’ who was equated to a true slave.
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