Legal fictions before the age of reform

Before the era of reform, the common law was replete with fictions. The procedure by which litigation commenced in the common law courts was premised on fictions, while litigants also used fictions to enable themselves to avail themselves of convenient remedies. In allowing litigants to make false statements of facts, the courts allowed the law to develop in new directions, while disguising the fact that it was changing. However, there were also other kinds of fictions, which operated more like rules of law. They included ‘metaphysical’ fictions (as where something which no longer existed was deemed still to be in existence) as well as ‘fictions’ which were in effect metaphors or analogies. This chapter explores the operation of these fictions, as well as the criticisms and defences made of fictions before their nineteenth century reform.