“[T]hese heirs came also to be protected by the praetor, viz. by the jus or beneficium abstinendi. Provided they took care not to act as heir in any kind of way, then, whether they formally demanded the privilege or not, their own property could not be made liable for their ancestor’s debts.” R.W. Leage, Roman Private Law 220 (C.H. Ziegler ed., 2d ed. 1930).
beneficium abstinendi
beneficium abstinendi (ben-[schwa]-fish-ee-[schwa]m ab-sti-nen-dI). [Latin “privilege of abstaining”] Roman law. The right of an heir to refuse an inheritance and thus avoid liability for the testator’s debts.
