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nexum (nek-sam), n. [Latin] Roman law. A transaction or practice of early Roman law under which a debtor, upon a failure to repay the debt, could be seized and held in bondage until the debt was repaid. This practice was allowed in very early Roman law.

"Nexum. This highly controversial matter will be briefly dealt with as nexum had long been obsolete in classical law. Little is really known of it: it has been doubted whether there ever was such an institution. No text tells us that there was a contract called nexum .... But we have texts which speak of nexum as creative of obligation ... and many literary texts dealing with debtors who were nexi, so that it may be taken as certain that there was such a transaction ... which in some way reduced debtors to a sort of slavery, that great hardships resulted and that a Poetelia ... practically ended this state of things, presumably by requiring an actual judgment before seizure. The effect was not to abolish nexum, but, by depriving it of its chief value, the power of seizure to leave it with no advantages to counterbalance its clumsiness, so that it went out of use." W.W. Buckland, A Text-Book of Roman Law from Augustus to Justinian 429-30 (Peter Stein ad., 3d ed. 1963).

nexus, n. 1. A connection or link, often a causal one <cigarette packages must inform consumers of the nexus between smoking and lung cancer>. Pl. nexuses; nexus. 2. Roman law. (ital.) In very early times, a debtor given in bondage to creditors until the debts have been paid. Pl. nexi. See NEXUM.

nexus test. The standard by which a private person's act is considered state action - and may give rise to liability for violating someone's constitutional rights - if the conduct is so closely related to the government's conduct that the choice to undertake it may fairly be said to be that of the state. While similar to the symbiotic-relationship test, the nexus test focuses on the particular act complained of, instead of on the overall relationship of the parties. Still, some courts use the terms and analyses interchangeably. - Also termed close-nexus test. Cf. SYMBIOTIC-RELATIONSHIP TEST. See JOINT PARTICIPATION; STATE-COMPULSION TEST.

"The complaining party must ... show that there is a sufficiently close nexus between the State and the challenged action of the regulated entity so that the action of the latter may be fairly treated as that of the State itself. The purpose of this requirement is to assure that constitutional standards are invoked only when it can be said that the State is responsible for the specific conduct of which the plaintiff complains.... [O]ur precedents indicate that a State normally can be held responsible for a private decision only when it has exercised coercive power or has provided such significant encouragement, either overt or covert, that the choice must in law be deemed to be that of the State." Blum v. Yaretsky, 457 U.S. 991, 1004, 102 S.Ct. 2777, 2786 (1982).

Blacks Law
[Assembler].