PATRIA POTESTAS (Lat.). In Civil Law. The paternal power; the authority which the law vests in the father over ,the persons and property of his legitimate children.
In the early period of the Roman history, the paternal authority was unlimited: the father had the absolute control over his children, and might even, as the domestic magistrate of his family, con demn them to death. They could acquire nothing except for the benefit of the pater-familiaa; and they were, even liable to be sold and ?educed to slavery by the author of their existence. But In the progress of civilization this stern rule was gradually relaxed.
There are several instances given in which the emperors interfered to moderate the severity of fathers, and the power to kill the child was re stricted and finally abolished during the empire. The father could originally abandon his male child to relieve himself of responsibility for it, but this was forbidden by the institutes. Inst. 4, 8, 7. Over the property of the child the rights of the father were as absolute as over that of the slave; but this power was also moderated under the emperora until in the time of Justinian it was practically destroyed. The power of the paterfamilias extend ed to all descendants in the male line, and it was not lost even over those who held the highest fices in the state or became victorioua generale. The children of a daughter were not aubject to the paternal authority of her own father but en tered into the family of her husband. The paternal
power was never exercised by a woman, gven if she were herself awl iuris. It is for this reason, Ulpian observes, that the family of which a wo man, sui furls, was the head, mater-familias, com menced and ended with her: mulier autem familice sum et caput et finis est. I Ortolan 191.
See PATERFAMILIAS; PECULIUM.
The modern civil law has hardly preserved any features of the old Roman jurisprudence concern ing the paternal power.
The Louisiana code provides that a child owes honor, respect, and obedience to the parents, but even the power of correction ceases with the age of puberty, and boys at fourteen and girls at twelve years of age may leave the paternal roof in opposi tion to the will of their parents. By modern law the paternal authority is vested in both parents, but usually' exercised by the father alone. During the marriage the parents are entitled to the property M their minor children, subject to the obligation of support and education, paying taxes, repairs, etc. The paternal power ceases with the death of one spouse and is succeeded by tutorship, which, how ever, uaually devolves upon the surviving parent, who can also at death appoint a testamentary tutor.