英文法律词典 P-1

PACE. A measure of length containing two feet and a half; the geometrical pace is five feet long. The common pace is the length of a step; the geometrical is the length of two steps, or the whole space passed over by the same foot from one step to another.

PACIFICATION¹. The act of making peace between two countries which have teen at war; the restoration of public tranquillity².

TO PACK. To deceive by false appearance; to counterfeit³; to delude⁴; as packing a jury. (q. v.) Bac. Ab. Juries, M; 12 Conn. R. 262. PACT⁵, civil law. An agreement made by two or more persons on the same subject in order to form some engagement, or to dissolve or modify, one already made, conventio est duorum in idem placitum consensus⁶ de re solvenda, id. est facienda vel praestanda. Dig. 2, 14; Clef des Lois Rom. h. t.; Ayl. Pand. 558; Merl, Rep. Pacte, h. t.

PACTIONS, International law. When contracts between nations are to be performed by a single act, and their execution is at an end at once, they are not called treaties, but agreements, conventions or pactions. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 100.

PACTUM CONSTITUTAE PECUNIAE, civil law. An agreement by which a person appointed to his creditor⁷, a certain day, or a certain time, at which he pro-mised to pay; or it maybe defined, simply. an agreement by which a person promises a creditor to pay him.

2. When a person by this pact promises his own creditor to pay him, there arises a new obligation which does not destroy the former by which he was already bound, but which is accessory to it; and by this multiplicity of obligations the right of the creditor is strengthened. Poth. Ob. Pt. 2, c. 6, s. 9.

3. There is a striking conformity⁸ between the pactum constitutae pecuniae, as above defined, and our indebitatus assumpsit. The pactum constitutae pecuniae was a promise to pay a subsisting⁹ debt whether natural or civil; made in such a manner as not to extinguish the preceding debt, and introduced by the praetor to obviate¹⁰ some formal difficulties. The action of indebitalus assumpsit was brought upon a promise for the payment of a debt, it was not subject to the wager¹¹ of law and other technical difficulties of the regular action of debt; but by such promise, the right to the action of debt was not extinguished nor varied¹². 4 Rep. 91 to 95; see 1 H. Bl. 550 to 655; Doug. 6, 7; 3 Wood. 168, 169, n. c; 1 Vin. Abr. 270; Bro. Abr. Action sur le case, pl. 7, 69, 72; Fitzh. N. B. 94, A, n. a, 145 G; 1 New Rep. 295; Bl. Rep. 850; 1 Chit. Pl. 89; Toull. Dr. Civ. Fr. liv. 3, t. 3, c. 4, u. 388, 396.

PACTUM DE NON PETANDO, civil law. An agreement made, between a creditor and his debtor¹³ that the former will not demand, from the latter the debt due. By this agreement the debtor is freed from his obligation. This is not unlike the covenant¹⁴ not to sue, (q. v.) of the common law. Wolff, Dr. de la Nat. §755.

PACTUM DE QUOTA¹⁵ LITIS. An agreement by which a creditor of a sum difficult to recover, promises a portion, for example, one-third, to the person who will undertake to recover it. In general, attorneys will abstain¹⁶ from, making such a contract, yet it is not unlawful.

PAGODA¹⁷, comm. law. A denomination¹⁸ of money in Bengal. In the computation of ad valorem duties, it is valued at one dollar and ninety-four cent's. Act of March 2, 1799, s. 61, 1 Story's L. U. S. 626. Vide Foreign Coins.