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ColumbiaLaw Review Association, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Columbia Law Review This content downloaded from 131.170.6.51 on Fri, 24 Jun 2016 10:45:30 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms TRADE SECRETS AND THE ROMAN LAW; THE ACTIO SERVI CORRUPTI1 The law of unfair competition, that heterogeneous concept of modern law, is relatively recent in origin.2 It is only the last century that has seen any great development of legal principles regarding simulation of goods, communication of trade secrets, disparagement of competitors, etc., that now play such an important factor in legal and business life. Economic and legal historians allege that prior to the Middle Ages the world had known no unfair competition.3 It is denied by scholars, for example, that the Roman state interfered with the competitive practices of private business men.4 As a partial negation of this view, this articleThe most common abbreviations employed are: D. = DIGESTA, In. = INSTITUTIONES, C. = CODEX IUSTINIANUS, three parts of the CORPUS IURIS CIVIus of Justinian. Other legal sources are G. = GAIUS, INSTITUTIONES; P. = PAULUS, SENTENTIAE; C.Th. = CODEX THEODOSIANUS. [ ] = interpolation, an addition to the classical text by the compilators of the Digest; <> = omission, a passage of the classical text omitted by the compilators; -= cumulation, one action concurrently available with another; a? = actio, action. BESELER, BEITRXGE = BESELER, BEITRAGE ZUR KRITIK DER ROMISCHEN RECHTS-QUELLEN, 4 parts (1910-20) ; BUCKLAND, SLAVERY = BUCKLAND, THE ROMAN LAW OF SLAVERY (1908); BULL. = BULLETTINO DELL ISTITUTO DI DIRITTO ROMANO; GUMMERUS, PW = Gummerus, Industrie und Handel (1916) 9 PAULY-WISSOWA-KROLL, REAL ENCYCLOPADIE DER CLASSISCHEN ALTERTUMSWISSENSCHAFT 1439 et seq.; INDEX INTERP. = INDEX INTERPOLATIONUM QUAE IN IUSTINIANI DIGESTIS DICUNTUR,