Si eam rem in urbe Roma ... iudicari iussisset : sulla 'legittimità' dei giudizi nella lex Irnitana

Gaius in his Institutions (4.103 – 109) and his paraphrase in the Fragmenta Augustodunensia (4.99 – 103) are the only sources describing the distinction between iudicia legitima and iudicia imperio continentia. The caput LXXXXI of the Lex Irnitana, XA linn. 53-54 - XB linn. 1-4, permits us to question if this distinction has already lost importance by the end of 1st century A.C. and if it was explained by Gaius only because of historical and pedagogical reasons. Every process which took place in Irni followed the trial rules of the iudicia legitima, as if the praetor had started the trial in Rome between cives romanos by the use of a legal fiction. One has to suppose that this fictio iuris was applied to every process which took place in Irni without the necessity of having some particular formal requisites.