by word of
mouth, or take any testamentary benefit under a document defective in
point of law. And there are numerous rescripts of the Emperors Severus
and Antoninus to the same purpose: 'for though,' they say, 'the laws do
not bind us, yet we live in obedience to them.'

TITLE XVIII. OF AN UNDUTEOUS WILL

Inasmuch as the disinherison or omission by parents of their children
has generally no good reason, those children who complain that they have
been wrongfully disinherited or passed over have been allowed to bring
an action impeaching the will as unduteous, under the pretext that the
testator was of unsound mind at the time of its execution. This does
not mean that he was really insane, but that the will, though legally
executed, bears no mark of that affection to which a child is entitled
from a parent: for if a testator is really insane, his will is void.

1 Parents may impeach the wills of their children as unduteous, as well
as children those of their parents. Brothers and sisters of the testator
are by imperial constitutions preferred to infamous persons who are
instituted to their exclusion, so that it is in these cases only that
they can bring this action. Persons related to the testator in a further
degree than as brothers or sisters can in no case bring the action, or
at any rate succeed in it when brought.

2 Children fully adopted, in accordance with the distinction drawn in
our constitution, can bring this action as well as natural children, but
neither can do so unless there is no other mode in which they can obtain
the property of the deceased: for those who can obtain the inheritance
wholly or in part by any other title are barred from attacking a will as
unduteous. Afterborn children too can employ this remedy, if they can by
no other means recover the inheritance.

3 That they may bring the action must be understood to mean, that
they may bring it only if absolutely nothing has been left them by the
testator in his will: a restriction introduced by our constitution out
of respect for a father's natural rights. If, however, a part of the
inheritance, however small, or even a single thing is left them, the
will cannot be impeached, but the heir must, if necessary, make up what
is given them to a fourth of what they would have taken had the testator
died intestate, even though the will does not direct that this fourth is
to be made up by the assessment of an honest and reliable man.

4 If a g