The Cognitio Procedure
During the imperial epoch the emperor and his bureaucracy gradually asserted themselves in the field of the administration of justice and introduced a new system of procedure known as cognitio extraordinaria or cognitio extra ordinem.
This procedure could be employed not only in cases involving private disputes, but also in criminal cases and disputes between private citizens and state organs. As the role of the praetor as a judicial magistrate waned, the formulary procedure fell into disuse and the cognitio procedure became the exclusive mode of procedure during the Dominate age.[443] The most significant feature of the cognitio procedure was that the two phases in iure and apud iudicem were abolished and the whole process took place before one official only. This had the effect that litigation could take place in a simpler and more convenient fashion while at the same time most of the judicial and administrative functions of the state fell under a central authority. A further innovation introduced by the cognitio procedure was that a hierarchy of courts came into existence and, consequently, the possibility of appeals, which had not existed under the previous systems, was recognized.
Source:
Mousourakis G.. Roman Law and the Origins of the Civil Law Tradition. Springer,2015. — 339 p.. 2015
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