factio testamenti

Noun

testamenti factio (uncountable)

1. (Roman) 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).

   Synonyms:

   testamenti factio activa

2. (Roman) 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).
   • It is clear as has been said above, that the primary purpose of fideicommissa was the making of gifts by will to persons who had not testamenti factio with the testator.1912, William Warwick Buckland, Elementary Principles of the Roman Private Law, Cambridge: at the University Press, § 81: “Fideicommissa”, page 174

   Synonyms:

   testamenti factio passiva

3. (Roman) The legal capacity to witness a testamentum as a signator, unavailable to women.
4. (Scots law) The legal capacity to make a will (under Scots law, anyone may be a beneficiary under a testator’s settlement).