Ius civile vigilantibus scriptum est

In its original form, the adage means that private law is written for those persons who are vigilant in pursuing their interests and diligently care for their own affairs. Many variants of it are known: In American and Australian law is used and introduced as a principle of equity (). In this variation the principle translates to "[e]quity assists the vigilant, not those who sleep upon their rights". A similar variant – – is known in public international law and means that "[t]he laws serve those who are vigilant, not those who are sleeping." The adage here relates to the equity doctrine of laches and connotes that a claimant who unreasonably delays the bringing of their claim may lose it if the delay unfairly prejudices the respondent. Another common variation is meaning that "[t]he law supports the waking, not the sleeping." This iteration of the maxim emphasizes that claimants should not sleep on their claims but diligently enforce them in a timely manner. Aaron X. Fellmeth and Maurice Horwitz point out that "" is from time-to-time substituted by "", "", "" or "" without a change in the meaning.'''''' == History ==

The adage can be traced back to the Roman jurist Quintus Cervidius Scaevola, who lived in the 2nd century AD and was during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He used it in his , a volume on publicly debated legal issues. It has been codified in the Digests of Justinian as D. 42.8.24, title D. 42.8 dealing with malicious transactions to third parties with the intention to reduce a debtor's estate. The codified fragment in its second part concerns a case in the field of creditor protection law. It more specifically notes that a claim collected by a single (vigilant) creditor shortly before the opening of bankruptcy proceedings () should stay in place and not be subject to an . The remaining (less vigilant) creditors should only be able to satisfy themselves from the remaining (reduced) assets of the debtor. The may be seen in the consideration that those who act diligently in their own affairs and make a debtor pay before the onset of insolvency proceedings are not acting unlawfully in relation to their co-creditors. In this fragment in the Digests the phrase is laid down for the first time. D. 42.8.24 reads: == Modern usage ==

The adage is to this day used by courts in many different jurisdictions, including civil and common law courts. It has, for example, been used in American, European, German and Lesothan courts: Usage in the European Union A variation of the brocard has been used in opinions of advocates general of the Court of Justice of the European Union. For example, in 1973, wrote: Niilo Jääskinen used a similar variant in a 2011 opinion: Usage by American courts Circuit judge Paul V. Niemeyer used yet another variation of the adage in a footnote to a 2001 opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (243 F.3d 789) and linked it with the common law doctrine of laches: Usage by German courts In 2015, the German Landgericht Nürnberg-Fürth applied the principle and argued that it was a fundamental part of German private law. Usage by Lesotho courts In a 2006 opinion of the Labour Court of Lesotho ([2006] LSLC 7) the adage was also put to use: Literary use The brocard has been used by Walter Benjamin in his work Toward the Critique of Violence. == References ==