Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 1 - Old Fictions

  • Liron Shmilovits, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Legal Fictions in Private Law
    Published online:
    11 January 2022
    Print publication:
    06 January 2022, pp 5-47

  • Summary

    This chapter tells the history of legal fictions from the emergence of the common law in the twelfth century until the abolition of the forms of action in 1852. It begins with an overview of the procedural framework which allowed, and encouraged, fictions. It then considers eleven old fictions: (i) dominus remisit curiam; (ii) vi et armis; (iii) geographical fictions; (iv) bill of Middlesex; (v) the writ of quominus; (vi) benefit of clergy; (vii) pleading the belly; (viii) common recovery; (ix) trover; (x) ejectment; and (xi) quasi-contract. For each fiction, I identify the reason for its existence, its development, its manner of operation and its effect on the law. Importantly, the fictions are classified in a way which explains their survival or extinction. This Effect Classification distinguishes between Jurisdictional, Auxiliary and Essential Fictions. The Effect Classification plays a central role in the Acceptance Test, which is the thesis of the book.