Note 118 — XIV METHODS OF LAW-MAKING IN ROME AND IN ENGLAND

His declarations did not originally, in strictness of law, bind even himself, and it was found necessary to enact, by a lex Cornelia of B.C. 67, that the Praetor should not depart from the statements of his Edict (‘ut praetores ex edictis suis perpetuis ius dicerent, quae res cunctam gratiam ambitiosis praetoribus qui varie ius dicere solebant, sustulit.’ Ascon. in Cic. Pro Cornelio, 58.)58.)

The Edict regularly issued at the beginning of each year was called Edictum perpetuum, as opposed to Edictum repentinum, one issued for an emergency.