Imperial Cognitio Process

Abstract

Abstract Legal historians use the term cognitio process with reference to innovations introduced in the Roman system of court procedure during the Imperial epoch. In civil procedure, these innovations concerned the institution of proceedings, the trial procedure, the methods of forced execution, and the appellate review of judgements. The new mechanisms developed gradually and independently of each other. It took several hundred years, until a new and coherent system of civil procedure had formed and taken the place of the old formulary procedure. It is clear that the emergence of the cognitio process is linked to the constitutional changes in the Roman Empire and that some of the new rules enhanced the emperor’s control over the court system. At the same time, some changes in the procedural system tended to make civil justice in the Empire more effective and more accessible for litigants who were not members of the elites.

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