ABSTRACT
The most obvious function of a legal formality is, to use Austin’s words, that of providing ‘evidence of the existence and purport of the contract, in case of controversy.’ The need for evidentiary security may be satisfied in a variety of ways: by requiring a writing, or attestation, or the certification of a notary. It may even be satisfied, to some extent, by such a device as the Roman stipulatio, which compelled an oral spelling out of the promise in a manner sufficiently ceremonious to impress its terms on participants and possible bystanders.
