Definition
In civil law procedure, apostoli are the formal letters or certificates issued by an inferior court or judge to a superior court when a cause is removed by appeal. They serve as the official transmission documents by which the lower tribunal acknowledges the appeal and directs the matter to the appellate authority. The term is sometimes rendered in the singular as apostolus.
The function is essentially administrative and procedural: once an appeal is interposed, the judge from whom the appeal is taken issues these letters to the court that will hear the appeal, formally releasing jurisdiction over the matter and certifying the basis of the transfer. Burrill captures this precisely — the letters are given "by him from whom the appeal is taken, to him who is to judge of the appeal."
The term also carries a secondary, less procedural meaning: as a general designation for a messenger, ambassador, legate, or nuncio, drawn from the root sense of "one sent." This usage appears in Bouvier and Spelman's Glossary but is peripheral to the term's legal function.
Common Confusion
Apostoli should not be confused with APOSTLES as used in admiralty practice. In English admiralty courts, "apostles" referred to a similar but distinct instrument — the documents delivered by the lower court to the superior court upon appeal in maritime causes. The terms are historically related and often cross-referenced in the dictionaries, but apostoli belongs specifically to the civil law tradition (Roman and continental), while apostles carries the admiralty connotation more familiar in English legal sources. Researchers should not treat the two terms as interchangeable without confirming context.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is essentially archaic in American practice and will not appear in modern procedural rules or contemporary case law. Researchers encountering apostoli are almost certainly working in one of three contexts: (1) Roman law sources and the Digest, particularly Digest 49.6, which is the primary classical source; (2) civil law jurisdictions and their historical procedural texts; or (3) English ecclesiastical or admiralty court records, where the related term apostles appears with overlapping meaning.
The risk of confusion is real. Historical legal dictionaries uniformly cross-reference apostoli with apostles, and researchers unfamiliar with the distinction may conflate civil law appeal certificates with admiralty letters dismissory. Both involve transmitting a cause upward on appeal, but the procedural frameworks differ significantly.
For researchers in Louisiana or other mixed civil law jurisdictions, apostoli may appear in older treatises or historical court records as a term of art for appeal documentation predating modern procedural codes. The term's currency in American sources is essentially historical, not operational.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry is the most expansive, connecting apostoli to "letters dismissory or missive" and cross-referencing apostolus as messenger or ambassador — a useful reminder that the procedural and diplomatic meanings traveled together in the civil law tradition.
Historical Dictionary Support
The five source dictionaries are broadly in agreement on the core definition: apostoli are certificates or letters from an inferior judge directed to the superior court upon appeal. All sources anchor the definition to Digest 49.6.
Burrill's is the most substantive entry. It provides the Latin text from the Digest and translates it directly, making explicit that the letters are issued after the appeal is interposed and are directed to the reviewing tribunal. Burrill also uses the phrase "letters dismissory or missive," which Rapalje & Lawrence echoes — a formulation that helpfully distinguishes apostoli as a releasing or forwarding instrument rather than a substantive ruling.
Bouvier adds the secondary sense (messengers, from Spelman) that the other dictionaries omit or subordinate. Black's in both editions is brief and derivative, essentially restating the Digest reference without expansion.
None of the historical sources discuss the term's application in American courts, which reflects its status as a learned civil law term rather than a term of active Anglo-American practice.