ASSESSOR
ASSESSOR or
ADSESSOR. The consuls, praetors,
governors of provinces, and the judices were often imperfectly acquainted
with the law and the forms of procedure, and it was necessary that they
should have the aid of those who had made the law their study (
Cic. de Orat. 1.37;
in
Verrem, 2.19). Such advisers, who sat in court near or by the
side of the functionary who was administering justice, were called
assessores. This custom continued under the Empire
(
Plin. Ep. 20,
6.11, 10.19; Gellius,
1.22). The
praefectus praetorio, praefectus urbi, and
other civil and military functionaries had their assessors. An instance is
mentioned by Tac. (
Ann. 1.75) of the Emperor Tiberius
assisting at the judicia (
judiciis assidebat),
and taking his seat at the corner of the tribunal, nominally in the capacity
of assessor.
No magistrate was allowed to sit without one or more assessors, learned in
the law (
juris studiosi). The Emperor Alexander
Severus gave
assessores a regular salary
(Lampr.
Alex. Sev. 46). The assessor was chosen by the
magistrate whom he was called in to advise, and persons could not act as
assessors in the province to which they belonged.
Infames were incapable of serving the office. The jurist Paulus,
who wrote a special work,
de Officio
Adsessoris, thus sums up the duties of the office: “Omne
judicium adsessoris, quo juris studiosi partibus suis funguntur, in his
fere causis constat: in cognitionibus, postulationibus, libellis,
edictis, decretis, epistulis” (
Dig. 1,
tit. 22, s. 1). The magistrate was often the mere mouthpiece of his
assessor. If the latter gave improper advice, he, and not the magistrate,
was responsible.
[p. 1.212]
Under the later empire assessors seem to have heard causes on behalf of the
magistrate in his absence. According to the conjecture of Savigny
(
Geschichte des Röm. Rechts im Mittelalter, vol.
i. p. 79), as the formulary system gradually declined the
assessores took the place of the
judices.
The work of assessor was regarded as good preparation for high independent
office (Spart.
Pesc. Nig. 7). In the later writers assessors
are mentioned under the various names of
odsessores,
πάρεδροι,
Consiliarii, juris studiosi, comites. The
juris studiosi mentioned by Gellius,
12.13, as assistants to the judices (
quos adhibere in consilium judicaturi solent) were
assessores. (Bethmann-Hollweg,
Der
römische Civil-Prozess, § 141, vol. 3.129.)
[
E.A.W]
