The last three chapters have been concerned with substantive law: the rules which governed everyday life and its transactions.

But, in the end, the question whether a person enjoys a particular right comes down to whether he or she is able to enforce it in practice. This is where the issue of procedure, of litigation, is important. The first section of this chapter gives a sketch of the workings of the various Roman civil procedures in the classical p ('rind: to a large extent this is confined to the bare facts. The second section then attempts to draw out the significance of the procedural rules for the vindication of rights in practice, and also deals briefly with access to the courts and legal representation.