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).
