Legal Term: PLACITUM

Definition: A plea. This word is nomen generalissimum, and refers to all the pleas in the case. 1 Saund. 388, n. 6; Skinn. 554; S. C. earth. 834; Yelv. 65. By placitum is also understood the subdivisions in abridgments and other works, where the point decided in a case is set down, separately, and generally numbered. In citing, it is abbreviated as follows: Vin. Ab. Abatement, pl. 3.

2. Placita, is the style of the English courts at the beginning of the record of Nisi Prius; in this sense, placita are divided into pleas of the crown, and common pleas.

3. The word is used by continental writers to signify jurisdictions, judgments, or assemblies for discussing causes. It occurs frequently in the laws of tae Longobards, in which there is a title de his qui ad, placitum venire coguntur. The word, it has been suggested, is derived from the German platz, which signifies the same as area facta. See Const. Car. Mag. Cap. IX. Hine-mar s Epist. 227 and 197. The common formula in most of the capitularies is "Placuit atque convenit inter Francos et corum proceres," and hence, says Dupin, the laws themselves are often called placita. Dupin, Notions sur le Droit, p. 73.

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