Glossary of Legal Terms

Appeals de pace et plagis:  In the early En­glish law persons wronged by

crime could initiate a private proceeding for redress known as an appeal.
When the charge concerned a breach of the peace and wounding the appeal
was known as an appeal “de pace et plagis.”

Assize and jurata:  By legislation of Henry II, certain important proprietary

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actions were henceforth to be tried by assize—by a sworn inquest responsible

for the decision of de­fined and designated issues. The jurata, by contrast, was
the body of men summoned to decide questions of fact which might inci-
dentally arise in the course of the trial of a nonproprietary action. With time,
the assize was swallowed up, as it were, in the jurata. It is to the latter that the
origin of the jury may be traced.

Commodatum:  By this term the Roman law described the transaction by

which a gratuitous loan of a spe­cific chattel to be used by the transferee was
effected. See also Depositum; Pignus.

Depositum:  By this term the Roman law described the gratuitous transac-

373

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 374 GLOSSARY OF LEGAL TERMS

tion by which an owner of movable property, for his own bene­fit alone,
transferred it to the care of another.

Hereditas jacens:  By the Roman law certain heirs could refuse their inheri-
tance. During the time which passed before they decided whether to accept
or reject the inheritance the goods were described as an “hereditas jacens”—
a vacant inheritance. To this estate the law ascribed an incomplete personifi-
cation.

Lex Aquilia:  This law, of uncertain date, contained two important provi-
sions for a civil remedy for damage to property. One provided that whoever
killed another’s slave or beast should pay the owner the highest value which
the property had within the previous year. The other dealt with unlawful
damage done to property not within the clas­si­fi­ca­tion of the first provision.

Noxae deditio:  By the Roman law the noxal actions (Noxales Actiones) were
made available to persons who had been injured by another’s slave or an-
other’s son. The proceeding was against the owner or the father, and if suc-
cessful, concluded with the surrender (deditio) of the slave or son to the in-
jured person or the payment of all damages. Another class of noxal action
was permitted when injury was done by an animal.

Pignus:  A pledge or security for a debt or demand. As distinguished from

another security device, the hypotheca, the pignus required a transfer of the
property to the pledgee.

Salic Law:  The Lex Salica, one of the earliest extant statements of Germanic
custom, dating from the fifth century, consisted largely of a tariff of offenses
Copyright © 2009. Harvard University Press. All rights reserved.

and atonements.

Secta:  It was a requirement of the early En­glish law that the plaintiff in a
civil action should produce a body of witnesses—the secta—who would tes-
tify, not to the facts in issue, but to the genuineness of the plaintiff ’s cause of
complaint.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr., et al. The Common Law, Harvard University Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/UNICAF/detail.action?docID=3300809.
Created from UNICAF on 2022-04-18 08:00:59.