from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
FIDEI-COMMISSUM, civil law. A gift which a man makes to another, through the
agency of a third person, who is requested to perform the desire of the
giver. For example, when a testator writes, "I institute for my heir, Lucius
Titius," he may add, "I pray my heir, Lucius Titius, to deliver, as soon as
he shall be able, my succession to Caius Seius: cum igitur aliquis
scripserit Lucius Tilius heres esto; potest ajicere, rogo te Luci Titi, ut
cum poteris hereditatem meam adire, eam Caio Sceio reddas, restituas. Inst.
2, 23, 2; vide Code 6, 42.
2. Fidei-commissa were abolished in Louisiana by the code. 5 N. S. 302.
3. The uses of the common law, it is said, were borrowed from the Roman
fidei-commissum. 1 Cru. Dig. 388; Bac. Read. 19; 1 Madd. Ch. 446-7.
4. The fidei-commissa of the civil law, have been supposed to resemble
entails, though some writers have declared that the Roman law was a stranger
to entails. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1708.