This essay will aim to outline the status of a minor in Jewish law based on an interesting variation in the Oxford Huntington manuscript of Maimonides’ legal code Mishneh Torah. I will first present the general status of a minor as seen through civil law, followed by an in-depth analysis of various approaches to a minor as found in Jewish law.
Society differentiates between a minor and an adult. In Roman law, as in ancient Chinese and Greek law, children had no rights. In the 18th century work, the Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone on the Laws of England, it states that the father in ancient Roman Law had the power of life and death over his children on the principle that “he who gave had also the power … Read More »