FORUM. At Common Law. A place. A place of jurisdiction. The place where a remedy is sought. Jurisdiction. A court of justice.
Forum actus. The forum of the place where an act was done.
Forum conscientico. The conscience. Forum contentiosum. A court. 3 Bla. Com. 211.
Forum contractus. Place of making a con tract. 2 Kent 463.
Forum domesticum. A domestic court. 1 W. Blackst. 82.
Forum donvioilii. Place of domicil. 2 Kent 463.
Forum ecclesiasticwm. An ecclesiastical court.
Forum ligeantice rei. The forum of the allegiance of the defendant.
Forums orirkiis. The forum of birth. Forum regium, The court of the king. Stat. Westm. 2, c. 43.
Forum rel. This expression is used al ternatively for the forum of the defendant's domicil, in which case it is the genitive of reus, or the forum of the thing in contro versy, when it is the genitive of res.
Forum rei gestce. Place of transaction. 2 Kent 463.
Forum rei sites. The place where the thing is situated.
The tribunal which has authority to decide re specting something in dispute, located within its jurisdiction: therefore, if the matter in controversy is land or other immovable property, the judgment pronounced in the forum rei stitce is held to be of universal obligation, as to all matters of right and title on which it professes to decide, in relation to such property. And the same principle applies to all other cases of proceedings in rem, where the subject is movable property, within the jurisdiction of the court pronouncing judgment. Story, Confl. Laws §§ 532, 545, 551, 591, 592 ; Kaimes, Eq. b. 3, a 8, § 4 ; 1 Greeni. Ey. § 541.
Forums seculare. A secular court.
In Roman Law. The paved open space in cities, particularly in Rome, where were held the solemn business assemblies of the people, the markets, the exchange (whence cedere Toro, to retire from 'change, equiv alent to "to become bankrupt"), and where the magistrates sat to transact the business of their office. It corresponded to the ayopA of the Greeks. Dion. Hal. 1. 3, p. 200. It came afterwards to mean any place where causes were tried, locus exercendarum litium. Isidor. 1. 18, Orig. A court of justice.
The obligation and the right of a person to have his case decided by a particular court.
It is often synonymous with that signification of judicium which corresponds to our word court; in the sense of jurisdiction: e. g., Pro interdicere„ 1. 1, § 13, D. 1, 12; C. 9, § 4 D. 48, 19; fort prcescrip tio, 1. 7, pr. D. 2, 8; 1. 1, C. 3, 24; forum rei ac
cusator sequitur, 1. 6, pr. C. 3, 13. In this sense the forum of a person means both the obligation and the right of that person to have his cause decided by a particular court. 5 Gluck, Pend. 237. What court should have cognizance of -the cause depends, In general, upon the person of the defendant, or upon the person of some one connected with the de fendant.
Jurisdictions depending upon the person of the de fendant. By modern writers upon the Roman law, this sort of jurisdiction is distinguished as that of common right, forum commune, and that of special privilege, forum privilegiatum.
(A.) Forum commune. The jurisdiction of com mon right was either general, forum generale, or special, forum speciale.
(a.) Forum generale. General jurisdiction was of two kinds, the forum originis, which was that of the birthplace of the party, and the forum dom icil*, that of his domicil.- The forum originis was either commune or proprium. The former was that legal status which all free-born subjects of the em pire, wherever residing, had at Rome when they were found there and had not the /us revocandi dornum e., the right of one absent from his domicil of transferring to the forum domicitii a suit instituted against him in the place of his temporary sojourn). L. 2, §§ 3, 4, 5, D. 6, 1; 1. 28, § 4, D. 4, 6 ; 3 Gliick, Pand. 188. After the privi lege of Roman citizenship was conferred by Cara calla upon all free-born subjects of the empire, the city of Rome was considered the common home of all, oommunis omnium patria, end every citizen, no matter where his domicil, could, unless protected by special privilege, be sued at Rome while there present. Noodt, Corn. ad Dig. 5, 1 p. 153; Hofacker, Pr. Jur. Civ. § 4221. The forum originis proprium, or forum origitvis speciale, was the court of that place of which at the time of the party's birth his father was a citizen, though that might possibly be neither his own birthplace nor the actual domicil of his father. Except in particular places, as Del phi and Pontus, where the nativity of the mother conferred the privilege of citizenship upon her son, the birthplace of the father only was regarded. L. 1, § 2, D. 50, 1. The ease of the walifus /thus was also an exception. Such a person having no known father derived his forum originis from the birth place of his mother. L. 9, D. 50, 1.