Protocol
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia · John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
A record or register. Among the Romans, protocollum was a writing at the head of the first page of the paper used by the notaries or tabelliones.
Nov. 44.
In France the minutes of notarial acts were formerly transcribed on registers, which were called protocols. Toullier, Dr. Civ. Fr. liv.
3, t. 3, c. 6, s. 1, n. 413.
By the German law it signifies the minutes of any transaction. Encyc. Amer. In the latter sense the word has of late been received into international law. Id. In International Law it is a diplomatic expression which signifies the register on which the deliberations of a conference, etc., are inscribed, whence the word comes to signify the deliberations themselves.
1 Halleck, Int. L. 298, note.
It is used to indicate a preliminary treaty, as the instrument of August 12, 1898, entered into between the United States and Spain.