Under the republic the praetor urbanus became the chief magistrate for the administration of justice, and in this respect his office was the most important in the state. lie was ono of the magistrates who bad the Jus Edicendi (Gaius, i. 2), or of publishing edicta, which were the foundation of a body of law known under the names of Jus Honora rium or Pnctorium. The praetor peregrinus had also the Jus Edi cendi : and the edicts of these two praetors formed the largest body of this edictal law. The edicts of the praetor urbanus were published generally ou entering on his office, and occasionally during its con tinuance. It is difficult to describe the edicts in exact terms, but they had reference only to civil actions, and their object was generally to provide for eases unprovided for by the existing laws, and mainly by introducing new kinds of actions (actiones utiles) when the actions of the old law (netionee directse) did not apply, and fixing the mode of procednre. They often adapted a new form to an existing right, and they contrived by various legal fictions to accommodate the limited provisions of the old laws to the existing wants of society ; but in all these proceedings we clearly discern a rectitude of intention and singleness of purpose as the.characteristic of the edict. The prietor also interfered in a summary way by his Interdict, particularly in matters of possession (POLOESSION ), in the case of a man who was of unsound mind and incompetent to manage his property, or a prodigal who was wasting his substance; in which cases the praetor appointed a curator, when the laws of the Twelve Tables had not provided for one. He also gave relief in cases of fraud whenever the law had made no provision (' Dig: 4, tit. 3), generally by the doh cxceptio and the in integrum reatitutio, in the Mlle of minors, be act aside fraudu lent transactions. (Savigny,' Von dem Schutz der 31inderjiihrigen; Zeitechrift x. 2e1.) It is stated that the praetors would sometimes vary their edicts in the course of the year, till this was forbidden by a decree of the senate, and finally by a lex Cornelia (u.c. C7). This gave
to the edict a character of greater stability. It seems that the edicts of his predecessors, though not absolutely binding on an actual praetor, were frequently adopted by him. indeed we cannot conceive that the practorium jua could have acquired that stability and consistency which at. undoubtedly had acquired, even in the time of Cicero (` Leg: I. 5), if the chief rules that were established by the prxtora were not observed by their successors. The Roman jurists found ample matter for comment in the praetors' edicts, and a large part of their writings bad for their object the exposition of the legal principles contained in them. Under the emperor Hadrian the edicts of the praetors were collected and arranged by Salvia% Julianne, a distinguished jurist, under the name of Eelictum Perpetuum, and from this time the pro. grenade° development of the Roman law by the practons' edict ceased.
The constitutions and reacripta of the emperors sopplied the place of the edict ; the importance of the functions of the praetors was greatly diminished ; but they still presided in qutestionea, or judicial inquiries into crimes, or that class of offences which were the subject of judicia publica. Sometimes persons (qtnesitores or qurestores) were appointed on special occasions to preside at such tried.. After the number of praetors had been increased to six, the praetor urbanus and peregrinus exercised their usual jurisdiction, and the other four presided in puestiones as to repetundie, peculates, majeatas, and ambitua. These queestiones were called perpetsue Brut,' 102), Apparently because the praetors exercised the functions of quaestores during the whole year of office, and not, as was the old practice, on the particular occa sion only of their appointment as qua:stores. Still extraordinary puesteres might be appointed. Stalls, by various leges, added to the number of queestionea perpetume, and at the same time made two additional prmtors, and when their criminal jurisdiction was with. drawn, their functions were little more than formal.