PRINCEPS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

PRINCEPSAuthored

The Law Mind • 997 words

Definition

Latin. In the civil law, *princeps* denotes the emperor — the supreme sovereign authority of Rome, from whose will law derived its binding force. The term carries the literal sense of "first" or "foremost" (from *primus* and *capio*), reflecting the constitutional fiction of the Roman principate under which the emperor was nominally the first citizen rather than an absolute monarch.

In old English law, *princeps* was occasionally used to denote the king. The term does not describe a prince in the modern hereditary sense but rather the paramount ruler — the source of sovereign legal authority.

The term appears in legal literature primarily as a component of foundational maxims of civil and Roman law that bear on the nature of sovereign power, legislative authority, and the relationship between the ruler and positive law.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The title of the Roman emperor during the principate; one who is foremost or original; also used in the bibliographic phrase *editio princeps* (the first printed edition of a text).

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined as an English word; treated as a Latin term meaning "first" or "chief," used in scholarly and historical contexts.

The gap worth noting: in ordinary and scholarly English, *princeps* most often surfaces in the bibliographic sense (*editio princeps*) or as a historical title. In legal sources, the term is almost never bibliographic — it is a term of art embedded in Roman law maxims that carry constitutional weight, and researchers who encounter it in legal texts should treat it as a marker for sovereign authority doctrine, not merely a title.

Common Confusion

*Princeps* is not equivalent to *rex* (king in the monarchical sense) or *dominus* (lord, master). Roman jurists distinguished the *princeps* as operating within — or at least nominally alongside — law, whereas *dominus* carried the connotation of absolute ownership-style dominion. The maxim *Princeps legibus solutus est* (the emperor is not bound by the laws) appears to contradict this, but historical commentators including Hallifax explained it as a statement about the absence of legal compulsion rather than a license for arbitrary rule. Conflating *princeps* with unconstrained despotism misreads both the Roman legal tradition and the way the maxim was received in English law.

Why It Matters in Research

*Princeps* matters in legal research almost exclusively as a gateway term — a signal that the surrounding text is invoking Roman law foundations of sovereign authority. Three contexts demand attention:

First, the maxim *Princeps legibus solutus est* (Digest 1.3.31) was extensively debated in early modern English legal literature as a touchstone for theories of royal prerogative and parliamentary supremacy. Researchers working on prerogative doctrine, early constitutional history, or the reception of Roman law in England will find *princeps* appearing in arguments both for and against absolute royal power. The maxim does not travel alone; it almost always appears alongside its qualifications.

Second, the maxim *Princeps et respublica ex justa causa possunt rem meam auferre* — cited in both Black's editions to 12 Coke — connects directly to takings doctrine and the antecedents of eminent domain. Researchers tracing the intellectual lineage of compulsory acquisition or just compensation will find this formulation significant. The phrase encodes two conditions (a just cause, and the authority of the sovereign together with the commonwealth) that later shaped how common law courts framed the limits of sovereign taking power.

Third, in Fleta and other early English legal treatises, *princeps* was used to denote the king in a Romanized vocabulary. Researchers working in medieval English legal sources should be alert to this usage as distinct from the Roman emperor context; the same term carries different institutional weight depending on the source and era.

A practical trap: historical legal dictionaries quote the maxims in Latin with translations, but the translations vary and some are compressed. Always verify the full maxim against the Digest or Institutes citation rather than relying on a dictionary gloss.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Burrill agree on the core definition: *princeps* means the prince or emperor in civil law, and the king in old English law. The entries converge on the same two foundational maxims — *Princeps legibus solutus est* (Digest 1.3.31) and the taking power formulation cited to 12 Coke — though Black's 2nd edition adds additional maxims (including the preference for domestic soldiers over mercenaries from Co. Litt.) that extend the term's application into military and governmental organization.

Burrill adds the most textually instructive element: the citation to Hallifax's *Analysis of the Civil Law* for an explanation of *Princeps legibus solutus est*, signaling that this maxim was understood by contemporaries to require careful qualification rather than literal reading. This is the only one of the three dictionaries to flag that the maxim has a contested or nuanced explanation — useful for researchers who might otherwise read the bare statement as straightforwardly absolutist.

What the historical dictionaries do not address: none of them discusses the *princeps* in the context of the Roman principate's constitutional structure or traces how the term's meaning shifted from the republic (where *princeps senatus* was a formal but non-sovereign role) to the empire. For purposes of legal research this gap is generally not consequential, but for historians of Roman law or legal philosophy, the dictionaries present a flattened picture.

Jurisdictional Note

*Princeps* is a term of Roman and civil law with no direct operative role in modern common law jurisdictions. Its relevance in Anglo-American legal research is historical and doctrinal — as a source of maxims absorbed into English common law commentary, particularly on prerogative and takings. Civil law jurisdictions inheriting the Roman tradition will have a richer ongoing relationship with the term's conceptual content.

PRINCEPSmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In the civil law. prince; the emperor. The Princeps et respublica ex justa causa possunt rem meam auferre. 12 Coke, 13. The prince and the republic, for a just cause, can take away my property. that is the actor or absolute perpetrator of the crime; and, in the second degree, he who is present, aiding and abetting the fact to be done. 4 Bl. Comm. 34. All persons concerned in the commission of crime, whether it be felony or misdemeanor, and whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, or aid and abet in its commission, though not present, are principals. Pen. Code Dak. § 27. A criminal offender is either a principal or an accessary. A principal is either the actor (i. e., the actual perpetrator of the crime) or else is pres ent, aiding and abetting the fact to be done; an accessary is he who is not the chief actor in the offense, nor yet present at its performance, but is some way concerned therein, either before or after the fact committed. 1 Hale, P. C. 613, 618. In the law of guaranty and surety- ship. The principal is the person primarily liable, and for whose performance of his obligation the guarantor or surety has be- come bound. In the law of agency. The employer or constitutor of an agent; the person who gives authority to an agent or attorney to do some act for him. One who, being competent sui juris to do any act for his own benefit or on his own account, con PRINCIPAL Nades it to another person to do for him. 1 Domat, b. 1., tit. 15. The term also denotes the capital sum of a debt or obligation, as distinguished from in- terest or other additions to it. An heir-loom, mortuary, or corse-present. Wharton. PRINCIPAL CHALLENGE. In prac- tice. A challenge of a juror for a cause P which carries with it, prima facie, evident marks of suspicion either of malice or favor; as that a juror is of kin to either party within the ninth degree; that he has an interest in the cause, etc. 3 Bl. Comm. 363. A species of challenge to the array made on account of partiality or some default in the sheriff or his under-officer who arrayed the panel. PRINCIPAL CONTRACT. One which contains the principal subject-matter of an agreement; one to which another engagement is accessory. PRINCIPAL FACT. In the law of evi- dence. A fact sought and proposed to be proved by evidence of other facts (termed "evidentiary facts") from which it is to be deduced by inference. A fact which is the principal and ultimate object of an inquiry, and respecting the existence of which a defi- nite belief is required to be formed. 3 Benth. Jud. Ev. 3; Burrill, Circ. Ev. 3, 119. PRINCIPAL OBLIGATION. That obligation which arises from the principal object of the engagement which has been contracted between the parties. Poth. Obl. no. 182. One to which is appended an acces- sory or subsidiary obligation.

PRINCEPSmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

Lat. Inthecivillaw. The prince ; the emperor. Princeps et respublica ex justa causa possunt rem meam anferre. 12 Coke, 13. The prince and the republic, for a just cause, can take away my property. Princeps legibus solutus est. The emperor is released from the laws; {is not bound by the laws. Dig. 1, 3, 31. Princeps mavult domesticos milites quam stipendiarios bellicis opponere casibus. Co. Litt. 69. A prince, in the chances of war, bad better employ domestic than stipendiary troops.

PRINCEPSmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870

Lat. In the civil law. The prince; the emperor. Quod principi placuit, legis habet vigorem; the emperor's pleasure has the force of law. Inst. 1. 2.6. Princeps legibus solutus est. The emperor is released from the laws; is not bound by the laws. Dig. 1. 3.31. See an explanation of this rule. Hallifax, Anal. pref. vi. vii. note. Lat. In old English law. The king. Fleta, lib. 1, c. 38, § 26. PrinPRINCIPAL. L. Fr. [from Lat. principalis, from princeps, chief.] Head; chief; principal. Les principals fesours; the principal or chief actors. Britt. c. 5. Le the principal debtor. Id. c. 28. PRINCIPAL. [Lat. principalis, q. v.] In criminal law. A chief actor or perpetrator, as distinguished from an accessory. A principal in the first degree is he that is the actor or absolute perpetrator of the crime; and, in the second degree, he who is present, aiding and abetting the fact to be done. 4 Bl. Com. 34. See Wharton's Am. Crim. Law, §§ 112, 116. In the law of contracts. A chief debtor; one who is liable in the first instance, as distinguished from a surety who is liable for him, in case of his default; or one whose obligation is prior to that of another which is founded on it. In this and the foregoing sense, the word is directly taken from the French, in which both forms of expression, le principal fesour, and le principal dettour, are used in their modern sense. See infra. A chief or head; one who orders or instructs another; one who appoints, directs or employs another to act for him, as distinguished from an agent, or person appointed by him. Otherwise termed a constituent or employer. The word, in this sense, has the meaning of dominus in the civil law. Story on Agency, § 3. See United States Digest, Principal and Agent. PRINCIPAL. [L. Lat. principalium.] In old English law. An heir-loom. Cowell. PRINCIPAL CHALLENGE. In practice. A challenge of a juror for a cause which carries with it, prima facie, evident marks of suspicion either of malice or favor; as that a juror is of kin to either party within the ninth degree; that he has an interest in the cause, &c. 3 Bl. Com. 363. PRINCIPAL FACT. In the law of evidence. A fact sought and proposed to be proved by evidence of other facts (termed evidentiary facts) from which it is to be deduced by inference. Otherwise termed factum probandum. 3 Benth. Jud. Evid.

princepsnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

The title of the Roman emperor during the principate. | One who, or that which, is foremost, original, etc. | The editio princeps, or first edition of a book.

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