FORUM

This term signifies jurisdiction, a court of justice, a tribunal.

The French divide it into for exterieur, which is the authority which human justice exercises on persons and property, to a greater or lesser extent according to the quality of those to whom it is entrusted; and for interieur, which is the moral sense of justice which a correct conscience dictates.

By forum res sitae is meant the tribunal which has authority to decide respecting something in dispute located within its jurisdiction; therefore, if the matter in controversy is land or other immovable property, the judgment pronounced in the forum res sitae is held to be of universal obligation, as to all matters of right and title on which it professes to decide, in relation to such property. And the same principle applies to all other cases of proceedings in rem, where the subject is movable property within the jurisdiction of the court pronouncing the judgment.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.