Ch 12 · Lesson 6Latin · Chapter 12 · Lesson 6 · Grammar primer

Legal Latin: verbs and prepositions

, affidavit, mandamus: verbs that became the names of documents. Then , in camera, : the prepositions and their cases.

The short version

is a subjunctive with a writ attached

- that you have the body

a subjunctive of habeo, addressed to the gaoler

Why?

The most famous phrase in English law is second-person subjunctive: that you should have the body. Affidavit is a perfect tense pretending to be a noun (he has sworn), a jussive (let him beware), and rea plain adjective agreement. The law never stopped speaking Latin; it just stopped parsing it.

Legal Latin is not vocabulary. Each term is a fragment of a Latin sentence, and the ending it still wears is the meaning. Forty terms fall into seven patterns:

ablativeaccusativegenitivemasculinefemininethe verb endingWhat do the colours mean?

Pattern	Example	Literally
a verb form		you are to have the body
prep. + ablative		from the fact
prep. + accusative		beyond the powers
bare ablative		at first appearance
agreement	`rea`, `reus`	guilty mind, guilty act
genitive		friend of the court
whole sentence		the thing speaks for itself

Lawyers write j where classical texts write i: jure is , the same words.

Verbs that name documents

accusativethe verb endingWhat do the colours mean?

The oldest trick in legal Latin: the key word of a writ becomes the name of the document.

Term	Literally	The verb
	you are to have the body	subjunctive of
`affidavit`	he/she has sworn	perfect of `affido`
`mandamus`	we order	present of `mando`
	let him/her beware	subjunctive of
	let it be done	subjunctive of
`certiorari`	to be informed more fully	passive infinitive
`prosequi`	to be unwilling to prosecute	two infinitives

and are jussive subjunctives: the subjunctive on its own in a main clause, ordering someone who is not being spoken to. emptor, let the buyer beware, has emptor in the nominative as the subject. English then made the verb a noun, so contracts have caveats.

is the same mood one person over, a formal instruction to the gaoler. Mandamus is the royal "we": we command. Affidavit is medieval Latin, from affido, to pledge one's faith, to swear.

England and Wales retired two of these names in 2000, when Part 54 of the Civil Procedure Rules renamed certiorari a quashing order and mandamus a mandatory order. The United States and older English case law keep them.

Prepositions with the ablative

ablativegenitiveWhat do the colours mean?

, and put their noun in the ablative, and so do and for where a thing is.

Term	Literally	Note
	from the fact	in practice
`jure`	from the law	by right
	for the good	short for
	from one side	one party heard
`camera`	in the chamber	a room, not a device
`absentia`	in absence	the accused not there
	in the place of a parent	genitive
`judice`	under a judge	not yet decided
`rata`	by the reckoned share	`rata`
`flagrante delicto`	in the blazing offence	caught in the act
`subpoena`	under penalty	, fused

camera means in the judge's private room; camera is simply a vaulted room, and the photographic camera got its name from it by way of the camera obscura, the dark room.

flagrante delicto is mid-offence: flagrante is a present participle, blazing, agreeing with delicto. It applies perfectly well to a burglary.

Prepositions with the accusative

accusativeneuterWhat do the colours mean?

, , and take the accusative.

Term	Literally	The noun
	for the lawsuit	, a dispute
	for this	, neuter
	among other things	, neuter plural
	by itself	, the reflexive pronoun
	beyond the powers	, plural of
	turned towards, against	participle of

is neuter plural: among other things. Among other people is .

A guardian is appointed for this lawsuit only. is an act beyond the powers an authority has; its opposite, , within the powers, is heard mostly when a court rejects an challenge.

Going further: Bare ablatives and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.

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What do the colours mean?