Pactions

In international law. Contracts between nations which are to be performed by a single act, and of which execution is at an end at once.

1 Bouv. Inst, note 100.

PACTIS PRIVATORUM JURI PUBLICO non derogatur. Private contracts do not derogate from public law.

Broom, Leg. Max. (3d London Ed.) 621; per Dr. Lushington, Arg. 4 Clark & P. 241; Arg. 3 Clark & F. 621.

PACTITiOUS

Settled or governed by agreement. PACTO ALIQUOD LICiTUIVI EST, QUID sine pacto non admittitur. By a contract, something is permitted, which, without it, could not be admitted.

Co. Litt. 166.

PACTUiVI (Lat.) In the civil law. A pact; an agreement or convention vrithout specific name, and without consideration, which, however, might, in its nature produce a civil obligation.

Heinec.

Elem. Jur. Civ. lib.

3, tit. 14, § 775.

A pact was distinguished from a contract {contractus), which had a specific name or present consideration, and carried vdth it a civil obligation, both being a species of conventio (convention) _ which was the general term. Do ut des, I give that PACTUM CONSTITUTAE PECUNIAE (hat) In civil law. An agreement by which a person appointed to his creditor a certain day, or a certain time, at which he promised to pay; or it may be defined simply an agreement by which a person promises a creditor to pay him. When a person by this pact promises his own creditor to pay him, there arises a new obligation, which does not destroy the former by which he was already bound, but which is accessory to it; and by this multiplicity of obligations the right of the creditor is strengthened. Poth. Obi. pt.

2, c. 6, § 9.

There is a striking confbrmity between the pactum constitutae pecuniae, as above defined, and our indebitatus assumpsit. The pactum constitutae pecuniae was a promise to pay a subsisting debt, whether natural or civil, made in such a manner as not to extinguish the preceding debt, and introduced by the praetor to obviate some formal difficulties. The action of indebitatus assumpsit was brought upon a promise for the payment of a debt. It was not subject to the wager of law and other technical difficulties of the regular action of debt, but by such promise the right to the action of debt was not extinguished nor varied.

4 Coke, 91, 95. See 1 H. Bl. 550-555, 850; Doug. 6, 7; 3 Wood, Inst. 168, 169, note (c); 1 Viner, Abr. 270; Brooke, Abr. "Action sur le Case" (pi. 7, 69, 72); Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 94 (a), note (a), 145 (g); 4 Bos. & P. 295; 1 Chit. PL 89; Tou Uier, Dr. Civ. lib. 3, tit. 3, c. 4, notes 388, 396.

PACTUM DE NON PETANDO (Lat.) In civil law. An agreement made between a creditor and his debtor that the former will not demand from the latter the debt due. By this agreement, the debtor is freed from his obligation. This is not unlike the "covenant not to sue," of the common law. •Wolflf.

Dr. Nat. § 755.

PACTUM DE QUOTA LITIS (Lat.) In civil law. An agreement by which a creditor of a sum difficult to recover promises a portion — for example, one-third — to the person who will undertake to recover it. In general, attorneys will abstain from making such a contract, yet it is not un.> lawful at common law.