Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "according to the form of the statute." Used in historical common law pleading and in the formal language of indictments, informations, and civil actions to indicate that the proceeding is brought pursuant to the authority, requirements, and prescriptions of a particular statute rather than at common law. The phrase typically appeared in the concluding clause of an indictment or declaration, signaling that the offense charged or the remedy sought derived from statutory rather than judge-made law.
Common Confusion
FORMAM STATUTI should not be confused with CONTRA FORMAM STATUTI, which means "against the form of the statute" and operates as an accusatory conclusion — asserting that the defendant's conduct violated the statute. FORMAM STATUTI, used alone or in phrases like IN FORMAM STATUTI ("in the form of the statute"), signals procedural compliance and statutory grounding rather than the charge of violation itself. The two phrases work together in pleading practice but serve distinct functions: one frames the authority and form of the action; the other frames the offense.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in pre-modern English pleading records, early American criminal indictments, or colonial-era court documents will encounter this phrase as a standard formal marker. Its presence signals several things worth noting:
First, it tells you the action was statutory in origin. If the underlying statute can be identified, the phrase acts as a pointer to the enabling legislation — often a penal statute creating a new cause of action or modifying a common law remedy. Tracing back through the pleading to identify which statute is referenced is frequently necessary to understand the scope of the charge or action.
Second, its absence in an otherwise parallel pleading can be significant. Historical courts scrutinized whether an indictment or declaration properly alleged statutory authority when required. Failure to include the requisite form language was sometimes grounds for demurrer or arrest of judgment, making this phrase a checkpoint for procedural validity rather than mere ornamentation.
Third, researchers should be aware that the exact phrasing varied across time and jurisdiction. English precedent books and form books from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries employed slight variations — IN FORMAM STATUTI, SECUNDUM FORMAM STATUTI, AD FORMAM STATUTI — all meaning essentially the same thing. When searching manuscript court records or early printed reports, searching only one variant may cause you to miss related documents.
Fourth, as American jurisdictions moved toward code pleading in the mid-to-late nineteenth century (following the Field Code of 1848 and its successors), formal Latin pleading language fell away. The phrase effectively disappears from American practice after pleading reform. Researchers studying the transition period may see it in early American sources but should not expect it in post-reform materials.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary provides the core gloss — "according to the form of the statute" — which is accurate as far as it goes but sparse. The phrase's practical function in pleading, its relationship to CONTRA FORMAM STATUTI, and its role as a formal validity marker are all left unstated in the historical dictionaries. No meaningful divergence exists among historical sources on the bare translation; the substantive gap is in contextual application, which the dictionaries consistently underserve for Latin pleading terms of this kind.
Older English form books and pleading treatises — Chitty's Pleading, for example — provide the fuller picture of how the phrase was deployed and what its omission risked. Researchers needing to understand the operative weight of the phrase in a specific historical document should consult period-appropriate pleading manuals rather than rely on dictionary definitions alone.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase originates in English common law pleading practice and was carried into early American colonial and post-colonial courts. Its use was never uniform across American jurisdictions, and its obsolescence arrived at different times depending on when a given state adopted code pleading. English practitioners encountered it through a longer period. It has no operative role in modern pleading in any common law jurisdiction.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Statutory Construction
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Pleading (Historical)
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Latin Maxims and Legal Phrases