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1st Edition

Individual Will and the Civil Law Tradition Rethinking Lex Privata

Edited By Tommaso dalla Massara Copyright 2026

398 Pages

by Routledge

Description

This volume sets out to explore the relationship between individual will ( voluntas ) and the legal rule. What unfolds in the following pages is a wide-ranging itinerary, moving between past and present, most notably ancient Rome and the contemporary world. The guiding question is as radical as it is enduring: in what way can voluntas (a psychological impulse internal to the individual) come... Read more

Table of Contents

Introduction
Tommaso dalla Massara

Part 1: Hypothesis. Individual Will as a Norm

1. Will and Knowledge
Mauro Orlandi

2. The Contract Between Will and Norm
Fabrizio Piraino

3. Voluntas as lex. The Ancient Roots of a Modern Legal Idea
Sara Galeotti

Part 2: Problems. Individual Will and Decision-Making

4. The Legal Force of the Individual Will: Reflections at the Intersection of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory
Mauro Grondona

5. Voluntas and lex contractus in the Interpretation of Standard Clauses
Edoardo Ferrante

6. Legal voluntas ex machina. The Impossibility of Non-Performance in the Age of Code
Giulia Bazzoni

Part 3: Dynamics. Individual Will in Action

7. Will and Rule in Civil Proceedings
Augusto Chizzini

8. The Will in the per formulas Procedure in Roman Law. The Actio
Federica Bertoldi

Part 4: Pathology. Imperfect Individual Will

9. Error and Contractual Synállagma in Ulpian's Thought
Sara Galeotti

10. Error and Last Will in Ulpian's Thought
Marta Beghini

11. The Will in the Performance of the Obligation: Between Coercibility and Spontaneity
Paola Pasquino

12. Omissive Fraud During Negotiations from the Perspective of Contractual Liability
Silvia Romanò

Part 5: Absence. Fragile Dimensions of Individual Will

13. Invitus. The Unwilling Between State of Mind and Declaration
Margherita Scognamiglio

14. The Absent Voluntas: Roman Semantics and Modern Dogmatics
Carlo De Cristofaro

15. Free Will and Remedies Against Violence in Roman Provinces. Cases and Issues in Epigraphic and Papyrological Sources
Alessio Guasco

16. Invitus and Legal Practice. Technical Language as Imperative
Maria Vittoria Bramante

Part 6: Arbitrium beyond Individual Will

17. The Determinative Will of Contractual Content: The Russian Roulette Clauses
Francesco Castronovo

18. Limits to the Will of a Party, Between Arbitrariness and Potestativity: The Case of the Russian Roulette Clause
Martina D'Onofrio

Editor(s)

Biography

Tommaso dalla Massara is Full Professor of Law at Roma Tre University. His research has long focused on the foundations and models of the European civil law tradition; he is author of numerous monographs and essays in Roman law and private law. He also serves as editor of academic book series with leading publish-ers and sits on the editorial boards of several distinguished international journals.

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