HYPOBOLUM

4 definitions found across Law Mind sources

HYPOBOLUMAuthored
The Law Mind • 626 words
Definition
In Roman and civil law, a hypobolum is a testamentary gift or legacy made by a husband to his wife, beyond and above what she was entitled to receive as her dowry (dos) upon his death. It was a voluntary bequest — not a legal entitlement — representing whatever additional portion of the estate a husband chose to leave to his wife by will over and above the return of her dower portion. ---
Why It Matters in Research
Hypobolum is a term of classical Roman law that passed into early civil law scholarship and English-language legal dictionaries largely as a technical reference rather than as a term in active common-law or equity practice. Researchers encountering this term should expect it primarily in: — Treatises and commentaries on Roman law, canon law, or the law of continental European systems, particularly pre-19th-century works. — Historical texts on marital property law and the intersection of dower, dowry, and testamentary rights of wives. — Legal dictionaries and glossaries of civil law terms compiled during the 18th and 19th centuries, where it often appears as a direct borrowing from civilian sources such as Calvinus's Lexicon Juridicum (cited by Rapalje & Lawrence). The term has no meaningful presence in Anglo-American common law. Researchers working in common-law marital property — dower, curtesy, separate estate, or elective share — will not encounter it in case law or statutes. Its appearance in English-language legal dictionaries reflects the 18th and 19th century tradition of cataloguing civilian terms for comparative and scholarly purposes, not active domestic legal usage. The connection to dowry (dos) is essential to understanding the term's scope. In Roman law, the dos was the property a wife (or her family) brought to the marriage, which the husband managed during the marriage and was obligated to return upon dissolution. The hypobolum was conceptually separate: it was the husband's own voluntary legacy to the wife from his estate, layered on top of that return obligation. Understanding this distinction matters when reading civilian sources on marital succession, where conflation of the dos and testamentary gifts to the wife can obscure a writer's meaning. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) defines hypobolum identically and briefly: the legacy given by a husband to his wife at his death, above her dowry. Rapalje & Lawrence confirm this definition, citing Calvinus's Lexicon Juridicum — a standard 17th-century reference for civil law terminology — as the underlying authority. This gives the term a traceable civilian pedigree. The Bouvier's Law Dictionary source material provided does not contain a usable entry for hypobolum; the text supplied appears to be a misaligned excerpt concerning hypnosis in a criminal trial, which is unrelated. Researchers should not rely on Bouvier for this term. The historical dictionaries agree on the core definition and reflect a consistent understanding drawn from civilian sources. None of the standard English-language legal dictionaries elaborate on how the hypobolum functioned procedurally in Roman law (whether it required specific testamentary form, what limits applied, or how it interacted with the querela inofficiosi testamenti). For that depth, researchers should consult primary civil law treatises and Romanist scholarship directly. ---
Jurisdictional Note
Hypobolum has no recognized application in common-law jurisdictions. In civil law jurisdictions with Roman-law heritage (Louisiana, Quebec, and European systems), the concept may surface in historical analysis of marital property rules, but modern civilian codes have replaced classical Roman terminology with codified statutory frameworks governing spousal inheritance. ---
Related Terms
Dowry | Dos | Dower | Curtesy | Testamentary bequest | Legacy | Civil law | Marital property | Elective share | Querela inofficiosi testamenti
HYPOBOLUMmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In the civil law. The name of the bequest or legacy given by the husband to his wife, at his death, above her dowry..
HYPOBOLUMmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
In the civil law, a leg- & 288. acy to a wife above her dower.-Calv. Lex.
HYPOBOLUMmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
arguments, or the instructions," and "the only reference, either direct or remote, dur- ing the whole trial that was made to the question of hypnotism," was the remark of counsel for the defence to the jury that "we might almost say that Gray possessed a hypnotic power over McDonald." Mc- Donald as principal and Gray as accessory, being charged with murder, upon a sever- ance, the latter was tried first and con- victed and afterwards the former was ac- quitted on the ground of self-defense: 3 Am. Lawy. 45; 13 Med. Leg. J. 51. The case of Hayward, tried at Minne- apolis for the murder of Katherine Ging, and afterwards hanged, and the case at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in which a young man named Pickens was charged with hypno- tizing two young girls, have both been shown to have no connection with hypno- tism; 18 Crim. L. Mag. 100. The facts of both cases may be found in 13 Med. Leg. J. 241. In a California case of a woman on trial for murder, in whose behalf it was alleged that she was hypnotized by her husband, it was held that evidence that she was told by her husband to commit the act does not tend to show that she was hypnotized, and does not render admissible evidence of the effect of hypnotism on persons subject to its influence; 105 Cal. 166. Notwithstanding the drift of opinion in- dicated above there are writers of author- ity on medico-legal subjects who think differently. In discussing the possibility of rape committed upon a person in the hypnotic state, a late work, after alluding to the lack of attention given to hypnotism in England and America, continues: "Like other theories and investigations received at first with ridicule, hypnotism has been placed on a sure scientific basis, thanks to the labor of Charcot and his successors. It has found a place in French, Austrian, and Hungarian law, and must, sooner or later, creep into the Anglo-Saxon. The great French experts in legal medicine, so far as we know, without an exception (Tardieu, Devergie, Brouardel, Vibert, Tourdes, Tour- ette) recognize the possibility that the will may be entirely abolished under hypnotic influence." It is further asserted that the crime mentioned is not frequent, but that it undoubtedly exists in a small number of au- thentic cases. See 2 Witth. & Beck. Med. Jur. 452, where these cases are narrated, and the authorities given. It will be found that they are all open to the criticism and doubt which affect the question of rape on a sleeping woman, and which are inherent in the nature of the crime. In addition to the authorities herein cited see also 2 Ham. Leg. Med. 212; Tourette, Hypnotisme au Point de Vue Médico-Legal; Etude Méd. Lég. sur les Attentats au Mœurs; N. Y. Med. J., Jan. 26, 1895; Gould, Illustr. Dict. Med. sub. v.; Contemp. Rev. Oct. 1890, "Hypnotism and Crime"; Moll, Hypno- tism; Dessoir, Bibliographie des modernen Hypnotismus. HYPOBOLUM (Lat.). In Civil Law. The bequest or legacy given by the husband to his wife, above her dowry. Tech. Dict.

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