ABSTRACT
The development in favour of cognate relationship, which had begun in the classical period, was completed for the eastern half of the empire when Novels 118 and 127 based the Law of Inheritance solely on proximity in blood and on the degree of affection which that presupposes. This is the inorganic system of the modern inorganic family, and the gradual acceptance of Justinian's Law in the West caused it to triumph there too and obliterate the last remaining traces of agnate relationship. Henceforward cognatio was either natural, i.e. the result of birth, under whatever conditions so long as the filiation was established, or else purely legal, as in the case of adoption and sometimes of acknowledgment. 1
