FICTIO

fictio (fik-shee-oh), n.[Latin fr. fingere “to feign”] Roman law. A legal fiction; a legal

assumption or supposition (such as that the plaintiff was a citizen) necessary to achieve certain

legal results that otherwise would not be obtained. • Legal fictions allowed Roman magistrates

(praetors) to expand the law beyond what was strictly allowed by the jus civile. This practice also

occurred in English law — for example, the action of common recovery, which allowed a

landowner to convey land that by law could not be alienated (such as land held in fee tail). Pl.

fictiones (fik-shee-oh-neez).[Blacks Law 8th]