ASSIZE
assize (<<schwa>>-sIz), n.1. A session of a court or council.
maiden assize.Hist. 1.An assize in which no prisoner is sentenced to death. 2. An assize in
which the sheriff presents the judges with white gloves because there are no prisoners to try. • This
practice stemmed from a custom in which a prisoner who was convicted of murder but pardoned
by the Crown presented gloves to the judges as a fee.
- A law enacted by such a body, usu. one setting the measure, weight, or price of a thing.
Assize of Arms.An 1181 statute requiring every man to keep arms suitable to his station in
life. See ASSISA ARMORUM.
Assize of Clarendon (klar-<<schwa>>n-d<<schwa>>n).Hist. A decree issued in 1166 by
Henry II to the justices in eyre and sheriffs concerning criminal procedure. • The Assize expanded
the reach of the king’s courts by asserting royal jurisdiction over serious crimes. See
CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON.
Assize of Northampton.Hist. A decree issued in 1176 by Henry II as an expansion and reissue
of the Assize of Clarendon, instructing judges esp. on questions of tenure, relief, and dower.
- The procedure provided for by such an enactment. 4. The court that hears cases involving
that procedure. 5. A jury.
grand assize.(often cap.) A sworn panel summoned by judicial writ to resolve disputes
concerning real property. • Henry II instituted the Grand Assize in the 12th century as an
alternative to trial by battle. — Also termed magna assisa.
petite assize.A jury convened to decide questions of possession. 6. A jury trial.
assize of mort d’ancestor (mor[t] dan-ses-t<<schwa>>r). An action for the recovery of land
belonging to the claimant’s ancestor. • Mort d’ancestor was abolished in the early 19th century. —
Also termed assisa mortis d’ancestoris; assisa de morte antecessoris.
judicial assize.An assize begun by judicial writ and deriving from pleas of gage, mort
d’ancestor, and darrein presentment.
petty assize.An assize begun by an original writ. • Petty assizes were characterized by the
form of the writ, which specified the questions to be put to the panel, and ordered that a panel be
assembled. The petty assizes were novel disseisin, mort d’ancestor, utrum, and darrein
presentment.
“The word ‘Assisa’ means originally the sitting of a court or assembly. It then comes to
denote the things done, the enactments passed, at such a court or assembly. Thus we speak of the
Assize of Clarendon, or the Assize of Northampton. Certain of these enactments in Henry II’s
reign introduced a new procedure for the trial of questions as to the ownership or possession of
lands held by free tenure. The Grand Assize introduced this new procedure for the determination
of questions of ownership; the possessory assizes for the determination of question of possession.”
1 William Holdsworth, A History of English Law 275 (7th ed. 1956).
- A jury’s finding. 8. A writ. — Also spelled assise; assisa.
assize of darrein presentment (dar-ayn pri-zent-m<<schwa>>nt), n.[fr. French dernier
présentation “last pre-sentment”] Hist. A writ allowing a person with a right of advowson that had
been disturbed by another claimant to have a jury determine who had last presented a clerk to a
benefice and then to allow that person to present again and to recover damages for interference. •
This was abolished by the Real Property Limitation Act of 1833 and was replaced by the quare
impedit action. — Also termed darreign presentment; assize of last presentation; assisa ultimae
praesentationis; assize de ultima presentatione. — Also spelled darreign. See ADVOWSON;
QUARE IMPEDIT.
“An assise of darrein presentment, or last presentation, lies when a man, or his ancestors,
under whom he claims, have presented a clerk to a benefice, who is instituted; and afterwards
upon the next avoidance a stranger presents a clerk, and thereby disturbs him that is the real patron.
In which case the patron shall have this writ, directed to the sheriff to summon an assise or jury, to
enquire who was the last patron that presented to the church now vacant, of which the plaintiff
complains that he is deforced by the defendant: and, according as the assise determines that
question, a writ shall issue to the bishop; to institute the clerk of that patron, in whose favour the
determination is made, and also to give damages ….” 3 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the
Laws of England 245 (1768).
“[A]t some time or another during his reign Henry gave a possessory action, the assize of
darrein presentment … which stands to the writ of right of advowson in somewhat the same
relation as that in which the novel disseisin stands to the writ of right for land. If the church is
vacant and two persons are quarrelling about the advowson, it is very necessary that some
provisional, some possessory judgment should be given …. The principle of the new assize is,
simply stated, this: ‘He who presented last time, let him present this time also; but this without
prejudice to any question of right.’ An inquest of neighbours is summoned to declare who it was
that presented the last parson.” 1 Frederick Pollock & Frederic W. Maitland, The History of
English Law Before the Time of Edward I 148–49 (2d ed. 1898).
assize of fresh force.Hist. A writ available in urban areas to disseise another’s land. • This writ
is so called because it was available only within the first 40 days after title accrued to the person
seeking it. — Also termed assisa friscae fortiae.
assize of novel disseisin.Hist. A writ for a tenant who has been disseised of lands and
tenements. • This institution of English law flourished for about 300 years — from the 12th
century to the 15th. It had become wholly obsolete by the mid-17th century. — Also termed assisa
novae disseysinae.
“[Up to the 15th century,] ‘assize of novel disseisin’ was a series of perfectly plain words, as
plain as the words ‘proceeding in recent ejectment,’ which translate them into modern English,
would be to us. Even to humble contemporaries whose linguistic horizons did not extend beyond
English, the institution itself apart from its name was perfectly straightforward. It meant that if a
freeholder of land was ejected from his property he could require the sheriff to set up a jury of
twelve, have them go look at the land, and bring them before the king’s justices when they next
came to hold court in the county. The justices asked the jurors whether the freeholder had been
illegally put out of his holding, as he complained, and if they said that he had then the court would
restore the land to him at once.” Donald W. Sutherland, The Assize of Novel Disseisin 1–2 (1973).
assize of nuisance.Hist. A writ available to a landowner suffering from a nuisance on
another’s land; a writ to abate a nuisance. • This writ also entitled a successful plaintiff to damages.
— Also termed assisa de nocumento.
“The assize of nuisance. — This was supplementary to the famous assize of novel disseisin
which was limited to redressing any act of the defendant that interfered with the plaintiff’s seisin
of land. It was therefore useless if the injury to the plaintiff began wholly on the defendant’s land
(e.g., if he erected there a dam which diverted water from the plaintiff’s land), for the injury was
not a disseisin as there was no entry on the plaintiff’s land. This gap was filled by the assize of
nuisance as early as the thirteenth century. It extended both to injuries to servitudes stricto sensu
and to common rights.” P.H. Winfield, A Textbook of the Law of Tort § 130, at 443 (5th ed. 1950).[Blacks Law 8th]