ABSTRACT
The system of the forced share, which is to be found in much of Europe and in other regions of the world influenced by the civil-law system of the European continent, entitles children to receive a certain fixed percentage of the family estate. This chapter explores the jurisprudential foundations of the forced share from the origins of this practice through the great codifications of the Emperors Theodosius II and Justinian. It discusses the growth and development of organic conceptions of the family unit. The chapter considers three interrelated concerns: the formation of the legal mechanisms by which the forced share was defined and enforced; the evolution of the vocabulary and range of ideas that explained and justified the forced share; and the conceptions of the family that sustained these legal developments and nourished them. The querela inofficiosi testamenti was a remedy of the Roman Republic to family members omitted from a deceased relative's will.
