Legal Definitions - fictio

Fictio

In legal terms, fictio refers to a legal fiction. This is an assumption or supposition made by the law that something is true, even if it is not literally or factually true, in order to achieve a just, practical, or necessary legal outcome.

Legal fictions are tools used by courts and legislatures to:

• Adapt existing laws to new situations.
• Expand the reach of the law beyond its strict wording.
• Prevent an injustice or an absurd result that would arise from a rigid application of legal rules.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of a legal fiction:

• Corporate Personhood: The law treats a corporation as a "person" for many legal purposes. While a corporation is an organization, not a living human being, this legal fiction allows it to enter into contracts, own property, sue, and be sued in its own name. Without this assumption, the complex legal and economic activities of businesses would be extremely difficult to manage, as every transaction would need to involve all individual shareholders or members.

  This illustrates fictio because the law pretends a non-human entity is a person to enable it to function effectively within the legal system, achieving practical results that would otherwise be impossible.

• Constructive Notice: In property law, when a document like a deed or mortgage is properly recorded in a public registry, the law assumes that everyone has "constructive notice" of its contents. This means that even if someone has not actually read the document, they are legally treated as if they know about it. This fiction is crucial for the stability of property transactions.

  This demonstrates fictio because the law creates a presumption of knowledge (even in the absence of actual knowledge) to ensure that individuals are responsible for checking public records, thereby providing certainty and order in property ownership.