Legiosus

Subjected to a course of the law. Cowell. LEGIS ACTl Oe Actio represented a right of the plaintiff not only as against the defendant, but also against the magistrate — a light to have a judicium placed at his disposal or to have a private individual appointed for the purpose of deciding by his judgment the question at issue between him and his adversary. The actio rested in early times on lex or on cnistom with the force of lex, and for this reason it was called legis actio. There were five of the legis actiones: (1) the legis actio Sacramento, (2) the legis actio per fudicis pos~ tulationem, (8) the legis actio per condictionem, (4) the legis actio per manus injectionem, (5) the legis actio per pignoris capionem. Private law granted a legis actio either directly or indirectly, and a private right which was not directly enforceable by the ordinary civil procedure could nevertheless secure a trial or octio by a solemn affirmation or a solemn act of execution, which latter could be either personal or real. The general form of action was actio sacramenti, the other forms being restricted to such cases as were determined by statute (lex) or ancient^ custom with statutory force. The special legis actiones were all modes of enforcing obligatory rights, or, in other words, they were forms of so-called personal actions. But whenever the claim was not personal, but real, the legis actio sacramenti was the sole form available. Sohm, Rom. L. 242. The procedure in these actions was open only to Roman citizens and the parties were almost always obliged to appear personally, but an assertor liberatus could appear to claim the freedom of a person wrcmgfully treated as a slave. The necessity of adherence to the prescribed forms was so rigid that if, in an action for damage to a vineyard, the plaintiff used the word vites instead of the general word arbores employed In the law of the Twelve Tables, he lost his action, and If an action failed, even on the most technical ground, the plaintiff had no LEOIStATION. The act of giving or enacting laws. See Stattttb; CoNSTrrurioNAi.: Lboislative Poweb.

In old records. Litigious, and so subjected to a course of law. Cowell. Legis constructio non facit injuriam. Co. Litt. 183. The construction of law does no injury. Legis interpretatio legis vim obtinet. Ellesm. Postn. 55. The interpretation of law obtains the force of law. Legis minister non tenetur in executione officii sui, fugere aut retrocedere. The minister of the law is bound, in the execution of his office, not to fly nor to retreat. Branch, Princ.