Self-determination of gender in intersexuality for the purpose of d.1,5,10 Paul. 1 ad Sab.

Abstract

With this article we intend to analyze the importance of determining sex. This demand, as a consequence of the limitations on women’s legal capacity and capacity to act, is of special importance, as demonstrated by the texts on succession matters. The previous step is to find out which criterion is most suitable to assign a sex to people with external genital ambiguity. The alternatives, reduced exclusively to the binomial man/woman, are: the coincidence with the normal masculine or feminine appearance or the self-perception that the hermaphrodite has of his-herself. Although not expressly treated in the sources, in Roman law the hermaphroditism raises other controversies, related to the requirement of human form as a requirement of legal personality, and others about its consideration as a disease or physical defect.