stipulation
    n 1: (law) an agreement or concession made by parties in a
         judicial proceeding (or by their attorneys) relating to the
         business before the court; must be in writing unless they
         are part of the court record; "a stipulation of fact was
         made in order to avoid delay" [syn: stipulation,
         judicial admission]
    2: an assumption on which rests the validity or effect of
       something else [syn: condition, precondition,
       stipulation]
    3: a restriction that is insisted upon as a condition for an
       agreement [syn: stipulation, specification]

Stipulation \Stip`u*la"tion\, n. [See Stipule.] (Bot.)
   The situation, arrangement, and structure of the stipules.
   [1913 Webster]

Stipulation \Stip`u*la"tion\, n. [L. stipulatio: cf. F.
   stipulation.]
   1. The act of stipulating; a contracting or bargaining; an
      agreement.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. That which is stipulated, or agreed upon; that which is
      definitely arranged or contracted; an agreement; a
      covenant; a contract or bargain; also, any particular
      article, item, or condition, in a mutual agreement; as,
      the stipulations of the allied powers to furnish each his
      contingent of troops.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Law) A material article of an agreement; an undertaking
      in the nature of bail taken in the admiralty courts; a
      bargain. --Bouvier. Wharton.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Agreement; contract; engagement. See Covenant.
        [1913 Webster]

STIPULATION, contracts. In the Roman law, the contract of stipulation was 
made in the following manner, namely; the person to whom the promise was to 
be made, proposed a question to him from whom it was to proceed, fully 
expressing tho nature and extent of the engagement and, the question so 
proposed being answered in the affirmative, the obligation was complete. 
     2. It was essentially necessary that both parties should speak, (so 
that a dumb man could not enter into a stipulation) that the person making 
the promise should answer conformably to the specific question, proposed, 
without any material interval of time, and with the intention of contracting 
an obligation. 
     3. From the general use of this mode of contracting, the term 
stipulation has been introduced into common parlance, and, in modern 
language, frequently refer's to any thing which forms a material article of 
an agreement; though it is applied more correctly and more conformably to 
its original meaning to denote the insisting upon and requiring any 
particular engagement. 2 Evans' Poth. on Oblig. 19. 
     4. In this contract the Roman law dispensed with an actual 
consideration. See, generally, Pothier, Oblig. P. 1, c. 1, s. 1, art. 5. 
     5. In the admiralty courts, the first process is frequently to arrest 
the defendant, and then they take the recognizances or stipulation of 
certain fide jussors in the nature of bail. 3 Bl. Comm. 108; vide Dunlap's 
Adm. Practice, Index, h.t. 
     6. These stipulations are of three sorts, namely: l. Judicatum solvi, 
by which the party is absolutely bound to pay such sum as may be adjudged by 
the court. 2 De judico sisti, by which he is bound to appear from time to 
time, during the pendency of the suit, and to abide the sentence. 3. De 
ratio, or De rato, by which he engages to ratify the acts of his proctor: 
this stipulation is not usual in the admiralty courts of the United States. 
     7. The securities are taken in the following manner, namely: 1. Cautio 
fide jussoria, by sureties. 2. Pignoratitia; by deposit. 3. Juratoria, by 
oath: this security is given when the party is too poor to find sureties, at 
the discretion of the court. 4. Aude promissoria, by bare promise: this 
security is unknown in the admiralty courts of the United States. Hall's 
Adm. Pr. 12; Dunl. Adm. Pr. 150, 151. See 17 Am. Jur. 51.