Questioni di giurisdizione alla luce della lex Irnitana: per una rilettura d’insieme

The paper offers a reinterpretation of chapter 84 of the lex Irnitana, focusing on two key aspects: the contextualization of the caput within the “procedural section” of the lex municipii and a clause-by-clause exegetical analysis of its text. An examination of the chapter’s complex linguistic and syntactic structure allows for a full reconstruction of its meaning. Although the text underwent several rewritings over time and remains difficult to read, it reveals that the governor’s jurisdiction – at least in the municipia of Baetica during the Flavian period – could be waived by mutual consent of the parties. It is plausible that a more restrictive rule, once applied in the Italian municipia of the Republican age, was modified under the Principate, perhaps already in Augustan times. The provision may have been intended, in most colonies and municipia of the Roman West, to relieve the governor’s judicial workload by delegating such functions to members of the local elites.