ADOPTION. The act by which a person takes the child of another into his family, and treats him as his own.
A juridical act creating between two per sons certain relations, purely civil, of pater nity and filiation. 6 Demolombe, 1.
Adoption was practised in the remotest antiqnity, 1 and was established to console those who had no children of their own. Cicero asks, "Quod eet jue adoptionie7 nempe ut is adoptit, qei neque procre are jam Isiberoe poesit, et cum potuerit, sit expertns." At Athens, he who had adopted a son was not at liberty to marry without the permission of the ma gistrates. Gains, Ulpian, and the Institutes of Jus tinian only treat of adoption as an act creating the paternal power. Originally the object of adoption was to introduce a person into the family and to acquire the paternal power over him. The adopted took the came of the adopter, and only preserved his own adjeotively, as Scipio .temilianue ; Cxear Octavianue, &e. According to Cicero, adoptions pro duced the right of succeeding to the name, the pro perty, and the lares "hereditatee naminie, pecunix, eacrorvm eecutw aunt." Pro Dom. i0 13, 35. The first mode of adoption was in the form of a law passed by the convitia curiata. Afterwards, it was effected by the mancipatio, alienatio per tee et libram, and the in jure ceeeio ; by means of the first the paternal authority of the father was dis solved, and by the second the adoption was com pleted. The mancipatio was a solemn sale made to the emptor in presence of five Roman citizens (who represented the five classes of the Roman people), and a libripene, or scalesman, to weigh the piece of oopper which represented the price. By this sale the person sold became subject to the maneipiwne of the purchaser, who then emancipated him; whereupon he fell again under the paternal power; and in order to exhaust it entirely it was neces asry to repeat the mancipatio three times : ei pater Alien ter venum duit, Pius a patre liber eeto. After the paternal power was thus dissolved, the party who desired to adopt the son instituted a fictitious suit against the purchaser who held him in man cipium, alleging that the person belonged to him or was subject to his paternal power; the defendant not denying the fact, the prastor rendered a decree accordingly, which constituted the ceeeio in jure, and completed the adoption. Adoptantur autem, cum a parente in cujue poteetate emit, tertia manci patione in jure ceduntur, atque ab eo, gui adoptat, aped eum aped quern legie actio eat, vindicantur.
Gell. 5. 19.
Towards the end of the Republic another mode of adoption had been introduced by custom. This was by a declaration made by a testator, in his will, that he considered the person whom he wished to adopt as his son: in this manner Julius Cseear adopted Ootavius.
It is said that the adoption of which we have been speaking was limited to persons alieni jurie. But there was another species of adoption, called adrogation, which applied exclusively to persons who were eui jurie. By the adrogation a pater-fami Has, with all who were subject to his patria poteetae, as well as his whole estate, entered into another fa mily, and beoame subject to the paternal authority of the chief of that family. Qum speciee adoptionie dicitur adrogatio, quia et ie gui adoptat rogatur, id eat interrogatur, an velit eum quern adopturue sit, juetum eibi filium ease; et ie, gui adoptatur, rogatur, an id feeri potiatur ; et popelue rogatur an id fieri jubeat. Gales, 1. 99. The formulas of these interrogations are given by Cicero, in his oration pro Domo, 20: "Velitie, jubeatie, Quiritee, uti Lucius Valerie' Lu lio 7ritio tam jure legeque filiue eibi eiet, quam ei ex eo pztre matreque familiae ejus natue eeeet, utyue eo vitae neeieque in eum poteetae eiet uti parien o filio eat; hoc ita ut dixi voe, Quiritee rogo." This puhlio and solemn form of adoption remained unchanged, with regard to adrogation, until the time of Justi nian: up to that period it could only take place populi auctoritats. According to the Institutes, 1. 11. 1, adrogation took place by virtue of a re script of the emperor,—principali reecripta, which only issued cauea cognita; and the ordinary adop tion took place in pursuance of the authorization of the magistrate,—imperio magietratite. The effect of the adoption was also modified in man a manner, that if a son was adopted by a stranger, extranea persona, he preserved all the family rights result ing from his birth, and at the same time acquired all the family rights produced by the adoption.
In the United States, adoption is regu lated by the statutes of the several states. In Louisiana, where the civil law prevails, it was abolished by the Code of 1808, art. 35, p. 50. In many of the continental states of Europe it is still permitted under various re strictions.