libellary

From Latin libellus (“petition”) + Latin adjective suffixes -aris and -arius.

libellary (comparative more libellary, superlative most libellary)

1. (law) Pertaining to the Roman form of law in which the plaintiff files a formal petition.
   • 1942, South African Law Journal - Volume 59, page 16:

     Towards the end of the formulary period, during the libellary period and especially at the time of the Justinian compilation the word condictio conveyed a purely juridical notion and was equivalent to reptitio, repetere.

   • 1954, The Catholic University of America Law Review - Volumes 4-5, page 90:

     Chancery pleading and practice, like the Roman adjective law, in its third or libellary stage, were essentially unitary in character.

   • 1974, David Daube, Alan Watson, Daube noster: essays in legal history for David Daube, page 194:

     In 1930 Steinwenter, in a study devoted to the nature of commencement of trial (litis contestatio) in the so-called libellary procedure of the later Empire, made the first reference to P. Thead. 16 and P. Lips. 41 from a procedural point of view.

   • 2008, John T. Cross, Leslie W. Abramson, Ellen E. Deason, Civil procedure: cases, problems and exercises, page 269:

     But we do find a general similarity between the English equity system and the Roman libellary procedure in the absence of a separate body for the trial of facts and hence the absence of emphasis upon the formation of an issue.

2. (by extension) Formally recorded by the court.
   • 1938, Mediaeval Germany, 911-1250 - Volume 2, page 56:

     Any type of investiture would serve this purpose, and in fact we read in the authorities of churches which were granted to clerks in the form of a libellary contract, métayage or Teilpacht, a precaria, and even for the duration of a number of lives.

   • 1967, Soviet Studies in History - Volumes 6-7, page 42:

     It was the censive in France, the peasant libellary contract in Italy during the 13th and 14th centuries, i.e., the relationship between feudal lord and peasant in which economic elements were overwhelmingly predominant and extra-economic compulsion in the form of personal dependence was generally absent.

   • 2008, Saint Possidius, The Life of Saint Augustine, page 18:

     And since the illustrious Bishop Augustine firmly insisted on it, both the bishops of Calama met for discussion and for the third time they met in conflict concerning their different communions, while a great multitude of Christians at Carthage and througout all Africa awaited the result of the case; and Crispinus was pronounced a hertic by proconsular and libellary sentence.

• liberally