Form of Action

Form Of Action

The forms of action were the different procedures by which a legal claim could be made in the early history of the English common law. While in modern English law, as in most other legal systems, the focus is on the substance underlying an action, such as the existence of a legal right, in the early Middle Ages, the focus was on the procedure that was used, while the substantive law underlying that procedure came second. In other words it is the form of action that was important and not the cause of action as now.