Definition
A Latin phrase from Roman law meaning "to call, cite, or summon to court." The related form *in jus vocando* refers to the act of summoning — that is, the process of bringing a person before a tribunal to answer a legal claim. Together, the phrase captures the foundational procedural mechanism by which a defendant was compelled to appear and submit to judicial authority.
In Roman civil procedure, *in jus vocare* was the formal act initiating litigation: a plaintiff would summon the defendant to appear before the magistrate (*in jus*), and the defendant was legally obligated to comply. Refusal or evasion could itself become a legal wrong. The phrase thus denotes not merely an invitation to appear, but a legally operative command embedded in the procedural structure of Roman law.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in historical, Roman law, and comparative law contexts. Researchers will encounter it in primary Roman sources — particularly the Institutes (Inst. 4, 16, 3), the Digest (Dig. 2, 4), and the Code (Cod. 2, 2) — and in treatises that draw on Roman civil procedure to explain the foundations of common law process. Blackstone references *in jus vocando* at 3 Bl. Comm. 279 in his discussion of the commencement of suits, making this a useful bridge term for researchers tracing the lineage of common law summons and service of process back to Roman antecedents.
The phrase does not appear in modern Anglo-American statutory or case law as an operative term. Its research value is almost entirely historical and explanatory: it helps locate the conceptual ancestry of procedural doctrines — particularly service of process, compulsory appearance, and the defendant's obligation to submit to jurisdiction — that are now governed by court rules and statute.
Researchers working in medieval legal history should note that canonist and civilian jurists kept Roman procedural vocabulary alive through the scholastic tradition, so the term may surface in ecclesiastical court records, civilian treatises, and early modern comparative works. When tracing the development of due process or notice requirements, *in jus vocare* is a useful starting point for understanding how the obligation to appear was theorized before the common law developed its own vocabulary.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries — Black's (1st and 2nd editions), Burrill's, and Bouvier's — provide near-identical definitions, which is unsurprising given the term's fixed, technical meaning in Roman law. The consistency reflects the dictionaries' shared reliance on the same Roman sources, particularly Calvin's Lexicon (*Calv. Lex.*), the Institutes, the Digest, and Blackstone.
Burrill's entry is the most complete, adding the Digest reference (Dig. 2, 4) and the Code (Cod. 2, 2) alongside the Institutes and Blackstone, giving researchers a fuller set of primary source pointers. Bouvier's and both Black's editions follow closely but without the additional Roman source citations. None of the historical dictionaries attempt to connect the Roman concept to its functional equivalents in nineteenth-century American practice — a gap that reflects the term's role as a learned citation to antiquity rather than a working term of art in common law courts.
No meaningful divergence exists among the sources on substance; variation is limited to the breadth of citations provided.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Process and Service of Process; Roman Law and Its Influence on Common Law Procedure