Les «collegia» et le problème de leur représentation

A concept of a legal entity did not actually exist in Ancient Rome and it was generally completely alien to Antiquity. There was not a single Latin term which corresponds to «legal person», although the use of individual constructions, such as «universitas», «corpus» or «collegia», would prove that in private relations property had canned exist without being tied to a Roman citizen as a subject of rights. Indeed, «collegia», «sodalitates», «corpora» were not legal entities in modern sense but were still deemed to be subjects as they could submit a claim to the court or own property. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the professional associations were not capable of directly accomplishing the juridical acts and concluding transactions because of their own nature: to operate, an association needed a physical person who must be considered as body and legal representative of its will. But how ? The institution of personal representation, at least as recognized today, was tendentially alien to Roman law – the Roman citizen empowered with rights had to take up obligations himself in person. This paper aims to shed light on the legal rules and the procedures of the associations’ representation in Ancient Rome. Most importantly, attention is drawn to the fact that Roman attitude towards «collegia» was engendered more by pragmatism than theoretical foundation.