mixtum imperium

Latin

Alternative forms

• imperium mixtum

Etymology

Literally “mixed” or “composite power”, “composite authority”. According to Ulpian, mixtum denotes a mixture of imperium and iūrisdictiō.

Noun

mixtum imperium n (genitive mixtī imperiī or mixtī imperī); second declension (law)

1. (Ancient Rome) The delegable authority of a judge to execute penalties, primarily in civil cases.
2. (Medieval Latin) The authority of lower magistrates, especially over private matters; a subsidiary form of authority dependent on the higher merum imperium.

Usage notes

In the Middle Ages, often found in the collocation merum et mixtum imperium to denote unconstrained independence or legislative sovereignty.

Related terms

• merum imperium

References

• Mayer, Thomas F. (1995) “On the road to 1534: the occupation of Tournai and Henry VIII’s theory of sovereignty”, in Dale Hoak, editor, Tudor Political Culture, →ISBN, page 18
• Maiolo, Francesco (2007) Medieval Sovereignty: Marsilius of Padua and Bartolus of Saxoferrato, Eburon, →ISBN, pages 155–56
• Lee, Daniel (2016) Popular Sovereignty in Early Modern Constitutional Thought, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 79–87