Legal Speak Made Easy

The“Aedilitian Remedies”

A common sense principle inherited from early Roman law is that the buyer of an item discovering a latent (hidden) defect in it after the sale has a choice of remedies: either cancel the sale and return the item to the seller for a full refund under the actio redhibitoria (“action for returning the thing sold”), or keep the item and claim a reduction in price under theactio quanti minor is(“action for the lesser amount”).

If you hear lawyers talking learnedly about them as “aedilitian remedies”, that’s because both were originally developed by the curule aediles, the high-ranking Roman magistrates tasked with regulating markets and sales. Back then you would most likely see the actions applied in disputes over the sale of slaves and livestock, but these days immovable properties and high-value movables are more likely to be at stake.

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