ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the formulary procedure, since it was the procedural system that enabled and fostered the development of Roman jurisprudence. Three different systems of procedure conducted Roman civil trials over the course of Roman legal history: the system of legal actions, the formulary system, and the extraordinary cognition. Legal capacity for submitting to arbitration was broader than legal capacity for litigation under the formulary procedure. Older than the Twelve Tables and marked by unreasonable archaism and enormous formalism, the system of the legis actiones was the earliest form of Roman legal procedure. The formulary procedure encompassed the ordinary civil proceedings during the classical period. During the preliminary hearings, the praetor exercised a conciliatory function. Full representation was gradually extended to the procurator so that, in Late Antiquity, the difference between procurator and cognitor lost its relevance. Each legal action was based on a proper and precise written formal statement in which the issue was exactly defined and pleaded.
