Definition
A Latin term from Roman civil law meaning "to act," "to do," or, more specifically in procedural contexts, to act through legal process — to bring an action, institute a suit, or proceed against another party at law. In its procedural sense, *agere* describes the capacity and act of suing or prosecuting a claim before a tribunal.
The term carries two related but distinct senses in the sources:
1. General sense: To act or to do, in the broadest behavioral meaning — the performance of an act or conduct generally.
2. Procedural sense: To act at law (*agere lege*); to bring an action; to sue. From this usage derive key formulations: *agere potest* (he can sue; he has capacity to bring an action) and *agere non potest* (he cannot sue; he lacks capacity or standing). *Agitur* functions as a passive form: a suit is brought, or an action is pending.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): In current informal English, "agere" appears only as a clipping of "age regression" or "age regressor" — entirely unrelated to its legal meaning.
Historical common usage: The term has no entry in Webster's 1913 as a common English word. It remained a term of Latin legal art rather than entering ordinary English usage.
Editorial note: Because *agere* never crossed from Latin legal vocabulary into general English, the risk is not confusion between legal and common meaning — it is the risk that a researcher encountering the term in a legal or historical source will treat it as opaque rather than as a term with a precise, recoverable meaning in Roman civil procedure.
Common Confusion
*Agere* is distinguished in Roman law from two closely related Latin terms: *facere* (to make or to do, in a more physical or constructive sense) and *gerere* (to carry on, to conduct, or to manage — often used in the context of business or administration). The three terms overlap in English translation (all can render as "to do" or "to act") but describe meaningfully different categories of legal conduct in classical sources. Conflating them when working in Roman law texts or in treatises that rely on civil law foundations — particularly in the law of obligations and procedure — will produce misreadings.
Why It Matters in Research
*Agere* appears most frequently in two contexts in the Law Mind corpus: (1) digests and commentaries on Roman civil procedure, particularly discussions of capacity to sue (*agere potest / agere non potest*), and (2) early common law and equity treatises that borrowed Roman procedural vocabulary to describe the initiation of actions.
The procedural formula *agere potest / agere non potest* is a critical shorthand in sources touching on legal capacity, disability, and standing. A researcher tracing the historical development of standing doctrine, or examining who could and could not initiate legal proceedings in various periods, will encounter this pairing repeatedly — sometimes without translation — in Burrill, Calvinus, and sources drawing on the Institutes and the Digest.
The distinction between *agere*, *facere*, and *gerere* matters most in contexts involving the law of obligations, agency, and quasi-contract. Treatises on negotiorum gestio, for example, turn substantially on the distinction between *gerere* and *agere*. Researchers working in those areas should not rely on English translations alone when the Latin is available.
Because *agere* in its procedural sense encompasses the idea of capacity to bring suit, it connects historically to questions of legal personality — who counts as a legal actor capable of invoking the law. This makes it relevant background for research into legal capacity of corporations, women, minors, and persons under disability across historical periods.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary gives the fullest treatment available in the shelf sources. Burrill correctly identifies the dual character of the term — general (to act or do) and procedural (to sue, to proceed at law) — and distinguishes it from *facere* and *gerere* by reference to Calvinus's *Lexicon Juridicum*. Burrill's citations to the Digest (50.16.19) and the Institutes (2.20.6; 4.6.2; 4.10) are reliable anchors for researchers who want to trace the term to its primary sources. His illustrative forms (*agere potest*, *agere non potest*, *si agat quis*, *agitur*) represent the actual vocabulary a researcher will encounter in Roman law materials and in later civil-law-influenced writing.
No other shelf source in the current corpus provides an independent entry for *agere*. The term is treated briefly or not at all in common law dictionaries, reflecting the fact that it was never naturalized into English legal vocabulary the way some Roman terms were. Researchers should not expect to find meaningful treatment in Bouvier, Black's early editions, or similar common law references without cross-checking against civil law glossaries.
Jurisdictional Note
*Agere* as an operative legal term is confined to Roman law and civil law traditions. It does not appear as a term of art in common law jurisdictions except in historical and comparative contexts. Researchers working in Louisiana, Quebec, or other mixed jurisdictions may encounter it in older civil law commentary.