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Ancient Roman law
A lex Julia (plural: leges Juliae) was an ancient Roman law that was introduced by any member of the gens Julia. Most often, "Julian laws", lex Julia or leges Juliae refer to moral legislation introduced by Augustus in 23 BC, or to a law related to Julius Caesar.

During the Social War, a conflict between the Italians and the Romans over the withholding of Italian citizenship, the consul Lucius Julius Caesar passed a law to grant all Italians not under arms citizenship. At the instruction of the Senate, Lucius Caesar proposed a law providing that each Italian community would decide as to whether they would take Roman citizenship and establish new tribes – possibly eight – in the Tribal Assembly for the new citizens. This grant to citizenship had the effect of almost tripling the number of Roman citizens and annexing large swathes of Italy into the republic proper. The offer would be open to all Italian towns which were not under arms or who would lay those arms down within a short period. The main purpose of the law was to prevent those who had not risen up against Roman rule from doing so. It also had the effect of weakening the Italian war effort by making acceptable compromises. The next year, the Romans introduced the lex Plautia Papiria de civitate, granting citizenship to more allies under rebellion – the main exceptions were the Samnites and Lucanians – in an attempt to further stem rebellion.

Julius Caesar passed two pieces of agrarian legislation in 59 BC during his first consulship. They were two pieces of related legislation: a lex Julia agraria and a lex Julia de agro Campano. The first law was related to the distribution of public (both existing and purchased from willing sellers) lands to the urban poor and Pompey's veterans; the latter added public lands in Campania for distribution. The passage of the first law was troubled. Caesar started his consulship by introducing it; it immediately met a filibuster from Cato the Younger. After being blocked in the senate, Caesar brought the bill before the popular assemblies. Inviting Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, his co consul and political opponent, to debate the bill, he won a political victory when he forced Bibulus to admit that he had few reasons for opposing the bill while publicly expressing senseless and obstinate opposition: "You will not have this law this year, not even should you all want it!". With the support of Pompey and Crassus, two influential senators with which Caesar was cooperating in a then secret alliance, popular support for the bill grew. Bibulus resorted instead to obstruction tactics by declaring negative omens on every day the bill could be voted on; one day, when moving to declare those omens, he – along with his political ally Cato – was attacked in the street by a mob (almost certainly organised by Caesar and his allies), forcing him to return home. In the absence of an announcement of negative omens, Caesar carried the bill in the assembly. Added to the law was then the requirement that senators swear an oath to uphold the law. Cato and an ally refused until intercession by Cicero, arguing that it would be better for Rome if Cato swore and remained than withdrew to exile. In the face of obstructive tactics from Cato's allies, Caesar brought the bill expanding the public lands subject to redistribution straight to the assembly, bypassing the senate.

This law may have set regulations for Italian municipalities. The question of whether Julius Caesar was responsible for this law is "fiercely debated".

Under Augustus, the leges Juliae of 18–17 BC attempted to elevate both the morals and the numbers of the upper classes in Rome and to increase the population by encouraging marriage and having children (lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus). They also established adultery as a private and public crime (lex Julia de adulteriis). To encourage population expansion, the leges Juliae offered inducements to marriage and imposed penalties upon the celibate. Augustus instituted the "Law of the three sons" which held those in high regard who produced three male offspring. Marrying age celibates and young widows who would not marry were prohibited from receiving inheritances and from attending public games.

Lex Julia de ambitu (18 BC): Penalising bribery when acquiring political offices. Lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus (18 BC): Requiring (likely) all citizens to marry. Also limiting marriage across social class boundaries (and thus seen as an indirect foundation of Roman concubinage (concubinatus), later regulated by Justinian, see also below). Lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis (17 BC): This law punished adultery with banishment. The two guilty parties were sent to different islands ("dummodo in diversas insulas relegentur"), and part of their property was confiscated. Fathers were permitted to kill daughters and their partners in adultery. Husbands could kill the partners under certain circumstances and were required to divorce adulterous wives.

The extracts below are from later legal codes and textbooks, but are also valuable in the sense that they are based on, and frequently quote from, the actual text of Augustus' laws.