Termination of Potestas
(1) Death of the Paterfamilias
The death of the paterfamilias terminated hispotestas over his agnatic descendants. The effect of this differed, though, depending on the situation of the surviving descendants.
Anyone with no surviving agnatic ascendants would now become sui iuris. This meant primarily the deceased’s children, but also included for example any agnatic grandchild whose father had predeceased the paterfamilias or whose father had been emancipated by the paterfamilias. Anyone who did have such an ascendant would remain alieni iuris·, but would now have a new paterfamilias. For example, suppose that the family consists of a grandfather, his son, and the son’s children. The son and his children have the grandfather as their paterfamilias. If the grandfather dies, their father becomes their paterfamilias. It is only when their father dies that they become sui iuris.(2) Emancipation
The paterfamilias could release a person from his potestas through a process known as emancipation. Until Justinian introduced a simplified procedure, involving the parties appearing before a magistrate,[580] the emancipation process was very similar to that for adoptio. As we have seen above, this involved a triple conveyance of the filiusfamilias (or a single conveyance for a filiafamilias). In emancipation, though, the child would be released at the end of the process, and would thereafter be sui iuris. The consent (or at least acquiescence) of the child was necessary, certainly in later law, and possibly earlier.[581] Unless the paterfamilias was emancipating the child as a punishment, usually the child took any peculium that had been accrued, and this would be implied unless expressly withheld.[582]
What if an emancipated son had children of his own? Were they emancipated as well? The answer is that this was up to the paterfamilias. He could choose, for example, to emancipate his son, but to keep that son’s own children in his potestas.[583]
D.