Formula

In Roman Law. Directions sent by the magistrate to the Judge for the dispositions of cases) with respect to which the legis ac Uones (established actions, or, more accurately according to English legal idiom, forms of action) were inadequate. Sand. Just. Introd. Ixvili. of dvU process, and they were In turn succeeded by an equally radical change. These periods have been designated as three great epochs. First, was the system of the legis actiones, defined as “certain hard, sharply defined forms which a rude civilization prescribed for all proceedings.” These, as civilization advanced, were necessarily replaced by more convenient forms of action, and were finally practically suppressed. The new system of formulw was a very flexible form of organizing the proceedings adopted by the prmtors, by which they were “enabled to give a means enforcing every right which the more enlarged views of an advancing civilization pronounced to be founded on equity.” The prjetors (in the provinces, prsefects) sat as magistrates. From them the directions were sent to the judge in formal shape for each case; and the different forms in which these directions were given were expressed by the formulce. They were binding on the judge, but no form was binding on the magistrate, who could avail hira.self “of any equitable doctrine, which a more refined jurisprudence or his own sense of what was right suggested to him,” and so, “vary the formula, so as to render substantial justice.” “These formulce (which were preserved and collected), so flexible in their general character, yet couched in terms always precise and simple, furnish one of many admirable instances of the power of the Romans to express correctly the subtlest legal ideas; and it was by this machinery that the praitors principally introduced their great legal changes.” The formula ordinarily consisted of these three parts: The demonstratio or statement of the fact or facts which the plaintiff alleges as the ground of his case. The intentio, the really important part of the formula, a precise statement of the demand which the plaintiff made against (tendehat in) his adversary. It was necessary that it should exactly meet the law which would govern the facts alleged by the plaintiff if true. The condcmnatio, the direction to condemn or absolve according to the true circumstances of the case. In three actions, — ^to divide a family inheritance, or property held in common, or settle boundaries, the judge was required to adjudicate. This was termed the adjudicatio. In these actions, therefore, the parts of the formula would be four — demonstratio, intentio, adfudicatio, and condcmnatio, in case, as might happen, the judge should order a payment in money by some of the parties to equalize the division; the condemnatio, under this system, being always pecuniary. This system finally gave place to that judiola, by which, under the later emperors, the supreme authority took the whole conduct of the proceeding into its own hands, and arrived at what seemed to it to be just, in as direct and speedy a manner as It found possible.” See a clear and satisfactory statement of the Roman system of civil process during these three periods; Sand. Just. Introd. IxL See also Mackeld. Rom. Law § 204.