''Ius strictum'' means "strict law", or law interpreted without any modification and in its utmost rigor. It is a very rare term in the materials of classical

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor ...

. It is really a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...

term, occurring in

Justinian Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

’s

Institutes An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

in reference to the strict actions of the law, primarily describing the rigid limitations of the forms of action available under the law, particularly with older laws. It is often used by later commentators to distinguish it from the moderating influence of the

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...

s, or judges who expanded the law through actions ''

ex fida bona ''Ex fida bona'' is a Latin phrase for the principle of Roman law that a judge is to premise his judgement on "good business norms" and that parties to a contract are to satisfy their contractual obligations, thus permitting the parties to trust ...

'', or what we would now call equity.

References

Black's Law Dictionary (Second Edition 1910) (public domain)
Latin legal terminology {{Italic title

See also

References