RESPONSA PRUDENTUM, civil law. Opinions given by Roman lawyers. Before the time of Augustus, every lawyer was authorized¹ de jure, to answer questions put to him, and all such answers, response prudentum had equal authority, which had not the force of law, but the opinion of a lawyer. Augustus was the first prince who gave to certain distinguished² jurisconsults the particular privi-lege of answering in his name; and from that period their answers required greater authority. Adrian determined³ in a more precise manner the degree of authority which these answers should have, by enacting⁴ that the opinions of such authorized jurisconsults, when unanimously given, should have the force of law (legis vicenz,) and should be followed by the judges; and that when they were divided, the judge was allowed to adopt that which to him appeared the most equitable⁵.

2. The opinions of other lawyers held the same place they had before, they were considered merely as the opinions of learned men. Mackel. Man. Intro. §43; Mackel. Hist. du Dr. Rom. SSSS 40, 49; Hugo, Hist. du Dr. Rom. §313; Inst. 1, 2, 8,; Institutes Expliquees, n. 39.

RESPONSALIS, old Eng. law., One who appeared for another in court. Fleta, lib. 6, c., 21. In the ecclesiastical law, this name is sometimes given to a proctor.

RESPONSIBILITY. The obligation to answer for an act done, and to repair any injury it may have caused.

2. This obligation arises without any contract, either on the part of the party bound to repair the injury, or of the party injured. The law gives to the person who has suffered loss, a compensation in damages.

3. it is a general rule that no one is answerable for the acts of another unless he has, by some act of his own, concurred⁶ in them. But when he has sanctioned those acts, either explicitly⁷ or by implication, he is responsible. An innkeeper in general, civilly liable for the acts of his servants towards his guests, for anything done in their capacity of servants. The owner of a carriage is also, civilly responsible to a passenger for any injury done by the driver as such. See Driver.

4. There are cases where persons are made civilly responsible for the acts of others by particular laws and statutory provisions, when they have not done anything by which they might be considered as participating in such acts. The responsibility which the hundred (q. v.) in England formerly⁸ incurred⁹ to make good any robbery committed within its precincts, may be mentioned as an instance. A somewhat similar liability is incurred now in some places in this country by a county, when property has been destroyed by a mob.

5. Penal¹⁰ responsibility is always personal, and no one can be punished for the commission of a crime but the person who has committed it or his accomplice¹¹. Vide Damages; Injury; Loss.