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[German version] In criminal proceedings the sentencing of the accused (Cic. Verr. 2,75). In civil proceedings the condemnatio is according to Gai. Inst. 4,43 that part of the proceeding formula that grants a private judge in the context of the suit brought forward (  intentio ) and the statement of facts (  demonstratio ) the power to sentence or acquit ( qua iudici condemnandi absolvendive potestas permittitur). It is only required in payment suits. Gai. Inst. 4,48ff. further states that condemnatio relates to a sum of money ( condemnatio pecuniaria). This restriction (which was o…

[German version] (lit. 'prior legal proceedings'). Already under Roman law, the fact that different law-courts had different jurisdictions could in certain circumstances prevent the final resolution of a case until the legal question at issue had been clarified by the competent court. Examples of such questions might include the allocation of inheritances, the ownership of a piece of land or the existence of a capital offence. There was, however, no general precedence of the iudicia publica ( iudicium ) over actiones privatae. To resolve the tensions between the as yet unres…

[German version] In most of the lawsuit formulae reported by Gaius (but also by others, e.g. Dig. 46,4,18,1) the blanket name Aulus Agerius (= is qui agit), stands for the plaintiff, where the actual name is to be inserted in the specific case (expressly the l. Rubria: CIL I 205), while the defendant is called Numerius Negidius (= is a quo numeratio postulatur et qui negat). However, all four names can be applicable in individual cases.  Formula Paulus, Christoph Georg (Berlin) Bibliography W. Kunkel, Röm. Rechtsgesch., 91980, 84.

[German version] Literally, ‘one who dispenses justice’, i.e. ‘judge’. Usually, this means the individual judge in Roman law ( iudex privatus; iudex unus) who in a separate stage of the proceeding that usually ended a legal dispute ( apud iudicem) conducts the deliberation of the evidence and passes a judgement roughly suggested by the  praetor in the first proceeding stage ( in iure,   ius ). While the term iudex was already exchangeable with that of   arbiter at the time of the Law of the Twelve Tables (5th cent. BC), the   recuperatores and   centumviri constitute sep…

[German version] From re-capere, literally 'to obtain back', for which purpose the recuperatores were originally appointed in support of Roman citizens within the framework of international legal relationships (Fest. 342 L.: reciperatio): they were meant to help the citizens get back what they had lost (probably above all in war) or had had illegally taken away from them. They then also came to a decision in the repetundae process ( repetundarum crimen ), in which it was a matter of the return of goods which the Roman magistrates had extorted in o…

[German version] The term editio is derived from the verb edere (‘to present, to show, to announce’) and has several meanings within the legal realm: (1) The editio actionis (Dig. 2,13) refers to the announcement required, in order for a trial to be sub judice in the formulary procedure, from the plaintiff towards the defendant, stating the type of charge(-formula) the plaintiff intends to initiate against the defendant. As long as the defendant accepts the formula ( accipere iudicium), the   litis contestatio (attestation of conflict) is established. For a…

[German version] [1] Aphorism, v. Gnome [1] II A; Proverbs Aphorism, v. Gnome [1] II A; Proverbs Paulus, Christoph Georg (Berlin) [German version] [2] Legal verdict Literally etymologically derived from the root sin, the sense of something uttered; in Roman legal terminology, e.g. the sense of a private legal action (cf. e.g. Dig. 28,1,1 on a testament) or a law (cf. Dig. 23,2,44,5). Sententia in particular meant the verdict, in civil or criminal law, delivered by a judge ( iudex , arbiter ). In this sense, sententia was already used for the process of the legis actio …

[German version] is the formalised notice of a witness, associated with a tweak of the ear (Plin. HN 11,103), before the permitted use of force by the plaintiff against a defendant who does not comply with the in ius vocatio and does not offer any vindex. Antestatio is attested for the Twelve Tables (1. 1); it became superfluous, and yet was apparently retained, on introduction of the standard procedural   litis denuntiatio . -- Antestatus is a mancipatio witness, CIL 6.10239.  Vocatio in ius;  Denuntiatio Paulus, Christoph Georg (Berlin) Bibliography Wieacker, RRG, 448.

[German version] describes according to Gai. Inst. 4,15 an agreement of the parties to appear on the day after next before a iudex (Fest. 355,1; Prob. 4,9: in diem tertium sive perendinum; for Roman calculations of court dates cf. Gell. NA 10,24,9), as had already been provided for in the Twelve Tables. It did not require the form of a stipulation because the consequences of missing it were considered sufficient as a sanction. How the transition from the procedure in iure to apud iudicem specifically came about in the formular procedure is unclear, because the comperendinatio is no longer…

[German version] The principle of sentencing to a fine associated with formulary procedure (Gai. Inst. 4,48) made it necessary in civil procedure for all actions not aimed at a fixed sum to be expressed in money value. Both process and result of the estimate required for this are called aestimatio litis.; it was carried out by the judge, or sometimes by the plaintiff ( iusiurandum in litem, estimate under oath of the amount involved). If the defendant refused to meet his duty of payment in kind, but instead paid the sum of the fine, the plaintiff finally lost …

[German version] (literally: ‘death of a lawsuit’). According to Gai. Inst. 4,104 a means introduced by the l. Iulia iudiciorum privatorum specially for the iudicium legitimum ( iudicium ), to limit the duration of lawsuits. Whereas all other lawsuits were limited by the period in office of the magistrates who appointed judges, ML was what happened when after 18 months there had been no judgment. From the lex Irnitana (ch. 91, l.2) it followed that this regulation was transferred - evidently by pretending that the municipal process was identical to the iudicium legitimum - also to this…

[German version] A court orator who appears in court as a champion of a party. Whilst Cic. De or. 1,202 uses the term in an obviously derogatory sense as being distinct from a true orator, and whilst a similar evaluation is evident in Gai. Dig. 1,2,1 ( causas dicentibus), causidicus is later applied in inscriptions (CIL 5,5894) and constitutions as a neutral vocational title alongside (Cod. Iust. 2,6,6) or identical (Cod. Theod. 2,10,5) to   advocatus . As such, a causidicus belonged to the state controlled professional association (Cod. Iust. 2,7,11, 1) of orators appearin…

[German version] In contrast to the right to have recourse to a court that is guaranteed by modern constitutional law, the judge in (Classical) Roman antiquity was allowed to declare that he considered himself unable to come to a decision: rem sibi non liquere (Gell. NA 14,2,25) when he could not condemn or acquit according to procedural formula ( formula ). If he swore an oath to this effect, the parties could have the same legal dispute heard by another judge. The same applied to an arbiter (Dig. 4,8,13,3) appointed by a private arbitration agreement and to c…

[German version] Literally ‘speaking law’. Where iurisdictio was split into various stages of procedure (in particular in iure, apud iudicem), it means the sovereign powers conferred on a Roman court magistrate for observing judicial practice. This term was originally used for private judicial practice, but in the 2nd cent. AD it was also extended to criminal judicial practice and to the procedure of cognition (  cognitio ), in the context of which iurisdictio describes the official judicial competences as a whole - in other words also the authority to pass judgemen…

[German version] Literally probably (from secare, 'to divide') a neutral person independent of the parties. According to the late Classical Roman jurist Modestinus (3rd cent. AD), sequester is the person to whom several entrust an item that is the subject of a dispute (Dig. 50,16,110). Until this period, the parties generally deposited the item whose replevy they disputed voluntarily and out of court. In occasional cases, e.g. Dig. 43,30,3,6 (custody of a child), however, the praetor could also make an official order for…

[German version] with the meaning of ‘receive, obtain’ (cf. Dig. 50,16,71pr.) characterizes several juristically relevant processes: as accipere hereditatem for instance (Dig. 28,5,77) the actual receipt of a legacy; as accipere censum the acceptance of a ‘tax declaration’ from the person liable to tax (Dig. 50,4,1,2); as accipere iudicem in more ancient times the acceptance of a judge appointed by a magistrate, later replaced by the meaning of a judge agreed between the parties. The meaning ‘accept’ refers for instance to accipere legem the acceptance of a law by the people; accipere…

[German version] The legis actio (LA) was the earliest form of Roman civil procedure and, therefore, characterized by considerable formality. It owed its name to a law from which the suit received its immutability but which Gaius (Inst. 4,11) was already at a loss to explain entirely. The formalities that had to be observed in this type of proceeding, which was reserved for Roman citizens and included precise repetition of certain formulas as well as correctly performing the required actions (Gai. I…

[German version] (‘Dispute announcement’) is a form of the Roman procedural opening that was in use for a relatively short time (essentially in the 4th cent. AD) but then stopped being practised because of its ponderousness. Its characteristic feature is that the litis denuntiatio (LD) addressed by the plaintiff to the defendant in written form is served upon the latter not directly and immediately but on the basis of a statement of claim application ( postulatio simplex) with the permission or even with the help of the court. This form of opening therefore represents a…

[German version] As a counter-exception, the replicatio was the means in the Roman civil formula procedure for the claimant to rebut an exception ( exceptio ) of the respondent. The latter then had recourse to a duplicatio, the former then to a triplicatio, etc. All these objections were incorporated into the trial formula ( formula ) and thus constituted the dispute presentation debated and substantiated before the iudex . An example of the replicatio is shown in Dig. 44,2,9,1, where the claimant is enabled to reply to the objection of legal force to the effect that …

[German version] is derived from cognoscere and means an investigation or decision carried out when acting as a judge. In criminal proceedings, this term covers the investigation of a crime including the establishment of the facts (Dig. 47,20,3 pr.), as well as the interrogation of a person in remand (Dig. 1,16,6 pr.). In civil proceedings, causae cognito usually means a summary examination by a magistrate; as a form of proceedings, the cognito changes from an extraordinary type of proceedings ( extraordinaria c.) to the exclusive type of trial (so-called cognition trial/pro…