La completa reificazione del lavoro: Giustiniano e le operae servorum

Justinian’s authoritative intervention introduces a new right in rem into the Compilation: that over the operae servorum of title D. 7.7. This right differs sharply from that on the usufruct on the servant: in this case, in fact, only the servant’s physical energy is involved, understood as a purely material activity, independent of the person who performs it and, more generally, of any subjective profile. The “block” of labour energy suggests a possible entrepreneurial functionalisation of the right, where unskilled labour represents only a fragment of a much more structured production process.