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[German version] can in a legal context be any communication made to another person, orally or in writing, in pursuit of a legal objective. The person making the declaration and the person receiving it do not have to be private individuals but can also be office-holders or even the curule aediles' edict (Dig. 21,1,37). If such a communication is addressed to someone who is absent, it is termed detestatio (Dig. 50,39,2). The denuntiatio can have an informative or communicative character, as for example the requisite (in late antiquity, threefold) notification of a pr…

[German version] In general civil law the specific designation of a thing or person (Dig. 6,1,6). This term lies at the origin of the interpretative formula falsa demonstratio non nocet (‘a wrong expression does not affect the matter's validity’), which was used by the Romans mainly when interpreting a will (Inst. Ius. 2,20,30) and which is still current today. In the context of civil proceedings demonstratio, set out at the beginning of a large number of legal arguments, refers to the concise exposition of the circumstances of the disputed issue (Gai. Inst. …

[German version] The PB (confiscation of goods) was practiced at Rome as a consequence of a conviction from time immemorial (cf. Liv. 2,5,2; 2,8,2; 3,55,7). The PB originally surrendered the culprit and his assets as a consecratio (dedication) to the deity in the sense of a proscription (probably destruction of belongings, perhaps also transfer to temple property). In the later Republican period (probably from 169 BC, cf. Liv. 43,16,10), it developed into a (mandatory) supplementary punishment in case of convict…

[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] I. In civil law Defensor is not a technical legal term for the defence counsel (but probably nevertheless thus in Quint. Inst. 5,3,13), but rather had various meanings, especially as the sponsor of the defendant primarily in a civil case, and here particularly of the absent defendant ( indefensus). To take on such a defence was the duty of a friend (Dig. 4,6,22 pr.). Termed defensor civitatis, he is also the judicial representative of corporations ( universitates, Dig. 3,4,1,3), above all of statutory public bodies (e.g. communities, provinces; cf. CIL X,1201 and passim)…

[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…

[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] ( surety, bail). A legal transaction agreed in a stipulatio , by which one party in a Roman formulary procedure (Procedural law IV.) commits itself to appear at a certain location in order to enable legal proceedings to take place. This self-committal replaced the practice of providing guarantors ( vades) as had been the practice in the legis actio . A distinction was made between different kinds of vadimonium. The voluntary summoning vadimonium consisted of the promise (regularly sanctioned by fines) to appear near the law court for a final attempt a…

[German version] The attestation of a legal transaction (for its validity) or another action (as evidence in a trial) according to Roman law. The enforceability of legal positions has always been dependent on the possibility of proving the conditions for their coming into existence. The importance of witnesses for criminal proceedings is evident; however, it was no less so for civil trials. Although documentary evidence surpassed the evidence of witnesses for the latter branch of law toward the en…

[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] [1] (rhetoric) v. Actio [1] (rhetoric) v. Actio [1] Paulus, Christoph Georg (Berlin) [German version] [2] (legal) Declaration (legal). Literally 'declaration', pronuntiatio in Roman law meant any ruling made by the judge on the matter at issue (e.g. Dig. 42,1,1). The narrower sense arose from the peculiarity of Roman procedural law in strictly permitting only a condemnatio pecuniaria ('pecuniary condemnation', i.e. sentence to payment of a monetary sum). Notwithstanding this, there were particular actions which cou…

[German version] [1] Public announcement by magistrates Edictum (from edicere) is a binding public announcement by Roman office bearers (  magistratus ), which presented either concrete orders or a ‘governmental agenda’ [1. 58] for the coming term of office. The word suggests an originally oral announcement [2. 178], but the historically documented form is a recording on an   album (‘white wooden plate’) at the magistrate's office. Literary tradition refers to edicts by   consules ,   aediles ,   praetores , provincial governors, tribuni plebis (  tribunus ),   censores …

[German version] In a general legal sense, restitutio means 'restoration'. In the area of Roman criminal law, it refers to the full or partial revocation of a legally binding conviction, as a result of which the condemned is restored to his former status (cf. Cod. Iust 9,51). In Roman civil and civil action law, a distinction must be made between a material and a formal restitutio. In certain actions, the material restitutio is the desired outcome, thus above all in actions in rem such as the rei vindicatio (action for the restitution of goods by the owner): in …

[German version] A lawsuit brought before the praetor concerning credited money or some other res certa could be concluded before the   litis contestatio if the plaintiff made the defendant take an oath on the validity of the claim involved in the suit. The defendant hereupon had the choice of paying or denying the claim; the latter is the abiuratio (Isid. Orig. 5,26,21). If he abjured, the plaintiff's   actio was denied; sometimes instead of this the defendant was granted an exceptio iurisiurandi (Dig. 12,2,9 pr.), if, for instance, the existence and content of the oath gave…

in Latin referred both to an order (e.g. the marching order or that of a legal process) as well as to groups or corporations, into which several or many persons were organized (also in the plural ordines), e.g. the Roman equites ( ordo equester). [German version] I. Procedural law In a procedural context the term ordo is traditionally used in the composition of the ' ordo iudiciorum' (Cod. Iust. 7,45,4). It signified the proper types of legal procedure (cf. still today: 'proper' jurisdiction) both of the formulary procedure ( formula ) as well as of the actions at law proceedings ( legis actio …

[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] [1] Guarantor in Roman procedural law A vindex, (probably with the same etymology as vindicta ) was a guarantor in Roman procedural law. He played a role in two parts of the trial--in the summoning and in the execution, each time in the context of the manus iniectio (the physical bringing forward of the defendant). According to the Twelve Tables (tab. 1,1; tabulae duodecim ), the latter was permitted when the defendant did not voluntarily follow the order of the plaintiff to appear in front of the court magistrate ( vocatio in ius ). The defendant co…

[German version] A criminal offence that corresponds with modern obstruction of evidence and so implies a more or less definite obstruction of evidence in Roman civil procedure. Tabulae are written notes that served, e.g., to safeguard evidence; as such they belong to the evidence classified by Quintilian ( instrumenta, Inst. 5,5,1ff.). Paulus, Christoph Georg (Berlin) Bibliography G. Klingenberg, Das Beweisproblem beim Urkundendiebstahl, in: ZRG 96, 1979, 229-257 C. Paulus, Die Beweisvereitelung in der Struktur des dt. Zivilprozesses, in: Archiv für die civil…

[German version] ‘Laying on hand’ occurs twice in connection with the most ancient type of Roman trial, the legis actio : first, anyone wishing to accuse another may, if the defendant refuses to attend, force him to appear before the praetor by manus iniectio, i.e. the use of force. The defendant may escape only by means of a vindex (a person who guarantees the appearance of the defendant at a fixed later date; see lex XII tab. 1-4). The second context for this a measure of compulsion - also involving a vindex - was that of the enforcement of a confirmed debt ( legis actio per manus iniectionem, lex X…

[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.