in the civil law, is the father's excluding his sons from inheriting his estate.

There are fourteen causes of exheredation, expressed in Justinian's Novelle, without some one of which he declares the exheredation null, and the testament inofficious, as the civilians express it. Indeed, by the ancient Roman law, the father might pronounce exheredation without any cause; but the rigour of this law was restrained and moderated by Justinian.