COLLOQUIUM - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

COLLOQUIUMAuthored

The Law Mind • 1100 words

Definition

In the law of defamation pleading, the colloquium is the averment within a declaration or complaint asserting that the defamatory words at issue were spoken "of and concerning" the plaintiff. Its function is to connect the alleged publication to the plaintiff specifically, and to link the defamatory words to any extrinsic facts previously alleged in the pleading (the inducement). Where the words are not defamatory on their face — that is, where they require context to reveal their injurious meaning — the colloquium also ties those words to the explanatory circumstances already set out. Without a proper colloquium, the plaintiff fails to show that the defendant's words targeted them rather than some other person or matter.

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Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A colloquium is an academic meeting or seminar, typically featuring a different speaker and topic at each session; also, any formal meeting for discussion.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A conversation; a dialogue; specifically, a written dialogue on a learned or formal subject.

The gap between common and legal meaning is significant and counterintuitive. In ordinary and academic usage, "colloquium" describes a structured conversation or formal gathering. In pleading, it is not a conversation at all — it is a discrete written averment in a legal complaint, a technical allegation performing a connecting function. A researcher encountering "colloquium" in a historical pleading or a treatise on slander should not interpret it as a reference to any meeting or dialogue; it is a term of art describing a required element of the pleader's declaration.

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Common Confusion

The colloquium is one of several formal components of a defamation declaration in common law pleading, and it is frequently confused with adjacent parts of that declaration:

- The INDUCEMENT sets out the extrinsic facts needed to show that facially innocent words are actually defamatory (e.g., that the plaintiff was a merchant, so that words questioning his credit carry meaning).
- The INNUENDO explains the defamatory meaning of the words in light of those extrinsic facts.
- The COLLOQUIUM connects the words to the plaintiff and to the facts stated in the inducement.

Each part performs a distinct function. A missing or defective colloquium does not fail the same pleading requirement as a missing innuendo. Researchers working with historical pleading manuals or opinions that assess the sufficiency of a declaration should be attentive to which element is at issue.

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Core Elements

A proper colloquium in a slander or libel declaration requires:

1. Identification: An averment that the words were spoken or published "of and concerning" the plaintiff (or a sufficiently identified person who is the plaintiff).
2. Connection to extrinsic matter: Where an inducement has been pleaded, the colloquium must assert that the words were also "of and concerning" those previously alleged extrinsic facts.
3. Specificity sufficient to exclude ambiguity: Where the defamatory words do not name the plaintiff directly, the colloquium must supply the necessary identification so that the reader of the declaration understands who was targeted.

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Why It Matters in Research

The colloquium is primarily a historical pleading concept, but it surfaces in several research contexts that deserve care.

First, the term appears with regularity in nineteenth-century American and English defamation opinions assessing whether a declaration was sufficient on demurrer. Courts examining whether a colloquium was adequate asked whether a reasonable reader of the declaration could tell that the defendant's words targeted the plaintiff. Researchers reading these opinions should understand that a ruling on the colloquium is a ruling about pleading sufficiency, not about the merits of whether the words were in fact defamatory.

Second, modern defamation law has absorbed the substance of the colloquium into the "of and concerning" element of a prima facie defamation claim, but has abandoned the formal pleading structure. A researcher tracing the "of and concerning" requirement in contemporary cases will find that requirement's historical roots in the colloquium, though modern opinions rarely use the word.

Third, the Bouvier's entry in the Law Mind corpus includes garbled text — the relevant Bouvier definition is partially interrupted by an unrelated passage concerning admiralty procedure. Researchers should treat that entry with caution and rely on the Burrill and Black's entries for accurate content.

Fourth, the term "colloquium" appears in Latin form (in quodam colloquio — "in a certain discourse or conversation") in older English and colonial-era pleadings. Burrill preserves this usage. A researcher encountering the Latin phrase in a historical document is seeing the colloquium in its original pleading form, not a reference to any actual conversation.

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Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries converge on the core definition with reasonable consistency. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier agree that the colloquium is a general averment connecting defamatory words to the plaintiff and to the inducement, and that its office is to link the publication to the prior pleading context. Burrill adds useful texture by preserving the Latin formulation and noting that the term literally means conversation or discourse — a reminder that the word originally described the conversational setting in which the slander occurred, before it became the technical label for the connecting averment itself.

Anderson's entry is unreliable for this term. The Anderson's text in the corpus conflates the colloquium entry with unrelated material concerning electoral college procedure and admiralty, rendering it useless as a primary source for this definition. Researchers should disregard the Anderson's entry here.

The Bouvier entry provides the clearest doctrinal statement and cites Greenleaf on Evidence and Starkie on Slander — both standard nineteenth-century treatise authorities — signaling that the doctrine was well-settled by the mid-1800s.

None of the historical dictionaries address the modern transformation of the colloquium into the "of and concerning" element of contemporary defamation doctrine. That evolution requires consulting twentieth-century treatises and case law rather than the shelf dictionaries.

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Jurisdictional Note

The colloquium as a formal pleading requirement belonged to the common law system of code pleading and is not a live procedural requirement in most American jurisdictions today, which operate under notice pleading standards. The underlying substantive requirement — that the plaintiff show the defamatory statement was "of and concerning" them — survives across jurisdictions, but practitioners and researchers should not expect to find "colloquium" as a term of art in modern American pleading practice outside of historical materials or academic commentary.

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COLLOQUIUMmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

One of the usual parts of the declaration in an action for slander. It is a general averment that the words com- plained of were spoken "of and concerning the plaintiff," or concerning the extrinsic matters alleged in the inducement, and its office is to connect the whole publication with the previous statement. An averment that the words in question are spoken of or concerning some usage, re- port, or fact which gives to words otherwise indifferent the peculiar defamatory meaning assigned to them. 16 Pick. 6. G H J K

COLLOQUIUMmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

In the United States courts it is commenced by the filling of a libel and the arrest of the vessel to the mismanagement or fault of which the injury is Imputed. In In the English admiralty the suit is com- menced by the arrest of the vessel and the filing of a petition. In England, the judge is usually assisted at the hearing of the cause by two of the Masters or Elder Brethren of Trinity House, or other ex- perienced shipmasters, whose opinions upon all questions of professional skill involved in the issue are usually adopted by the court; 1 W. Rob. 471; 2 id. 225; 2 Chit. Genl. Pr. 514. In the American courts of admiralty, the judge usually decides without the aid or advice of experi- enced shipmasters acting as assessors or advisers of the court; but the evidence of such shipmasters, as experts, is sometimes received in reference to questions of professional skill or nautical usage. Such evidence is not, however, admissible to estab- lish a usage in direct violation of those general rules of navigation which have been sanctioned and established by repeated decisions; 2 Curt. C. C. 141, 363. When a party sets up circumstances as the basis of exceptions to the general rules of navigation, he is held to strict proof; 1 W. Rob. 157, 182, 478; 6 Thornt. 607; 5 id. 170; 3 Hagg. Adm. 321; and courts of ad- miralty lean against such exceptions; 11 Ν. Y. Leg. Obs. 353, 355. The admissions of a master of one of the colliding vessels sub- sequently to the collision are admissible in evidence; 5 E. L. & Eq. 556; and the masters and crew are admissible as wit- nesses; 2 Dods. 83; 2 Hagg. Adm. 145;8 id. 321, 325; 1 Conkl. 384. As to the burden of proof in collision cases, see 9 Jur. 282, 670; 2 W. Rob. 30, 244, 504; 12 id. 131, 371; 2 Hagg. Adm. 356; 4 Thornt. Adm. 161, 356; 1 Conkl. 382; 1 How. 28; 18 id. 570; Olc. 132; 55 Fed. Rep. 338; [1892] Prob. 419. The general rules in regard to costs in col- lision cases, in the admiralty courts, are that if only one party is to blame, he pays the costs of both; if neither is to blame, and the party prosecuting had apparent cause for proceeding, each party pays his own costs, but in the absence of apparent or prob- able cause the libel will be dismissed with costs; if both parties are to blame, the costs of both are equally divided, or, more gener- ally, each party is left to pay his own costs. But costs in admiralty are always in the discretion of the court, and will be given or withheld in particular cases without re- gard to these general rules, if the equity of the case requires a departure from them; 2 W. Rob. 213, 244; 5 Jur. 1067; 2 Conkl. 438. Consult 2 Pars. Mar. Law, 187; Conkl. Adm. 370-426; Fland. Mar. Law, c. 9; Abb. Shipp. Story & Perkins's notes; Marsden; Preble Spence, Collisions.

COLLOQUIUMmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

In Pleading. A general averment in an action for slander connecting the whole publication with the previous statement. 1 Stark. Sl. 431; Heard, Lib. & Sl. 228; or stating that the whole publication applies to the plaintiff, and to the extrinsic matters alleged in his declara- tion. 1 Greenl. Ev. § 417. An averment that the words were spoken "of or concerning" the plaintiff, where the words are actionable in themselves. 6 Term 162; 16 Pick. 132; Cro. Jac. 674; Heard, Lib. & Sl. § 212; 1 Greenl. Ev. § 417; or where the injurious meaning which the plaintiff assigns to the words results from some extrinsic matter, or of and concern- ing, or with reference to, such matter. 2 Pick. 328; 16 id. 1; Heard, Lib. & Sl. §§ 212, 217; 11 M. & W. 287. An averment that the words in question are spoken of or concerning some usage, report, or fact which gives to words other- wise indifferent the peculiar defamatory meaning assigned to them. Shaw, C. J., 16 Pick. 6.

colloquiumnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

A colloquy; a meeting for discussion. | An academic meeting or seminar usually led by a different lecturer and on a different topic at each meeting. | An address to an academic meeting or seminar. | That part of the complaint or declaration in an action for defamation which shows that the words complained of were spoken concerning the plaintiff. | A collection of scripted dialogues written as a textbook, or a set of exercises, to help students to practice and improve their Latin or Ancient Greek. See: Colloquy

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