testamenti factio

Meanings

1. The legal capacity to participate in a testamentum (will), be it as a testator, a heres (heir), or a signator (witness).
2. The legal capacity to compose a testamentum as a testator, available to any Roman citizen sui juris who had attained puberty (i.e. males of fourteen years or older and females of twelve years or older).
3. The legal capacity to receive a legatum (bequest) as a heres, unavailable to unenlisted peregrini (foreigners and Roman free provincial subjects) or, following the Lex Junia Norbana of AD 19, to Latini Juniani (freedmen whose manumissions had failed to satisfy the conditions of the Lex Aelia Sentia of AD 4).
4. The legal capacity to witness a testamentum as a signator, unavailable to women.
5. The legal capacity to make a will (under Scots law, anyone may be a beneficiary under a testator’s settlement).

Etymology

From Latin testāmentī factiō (“right of participating in a will”).