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assize

 
Dictionary: as·size   (ə-sīz') pronunciation
n.
    1. A session of a court.
    2. A decree or edict rendered at such a session.
    1. An ordinance regulating weights and measures and the weights and prices of articles of consumption.
    2. The standards so established.
  1. Law. A judicial inquest, the writ by which it is instituted, or the verdict of the jurors.
  2. assizes
    1. One of the periodic court sessions formerly held in each of the counties of England and Wales for the trial of civil or criminal cases.
    2. The time or place of such sessions.

[Middle English assise, from Old French, from past participle of asseoir, to seat, from Latin assidēre, to sit beside. See assiduous.]


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Wordsmith Words: assize
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(uh-SYZ)

noun
A session of a court or a verdict made at such a session.

Etymology
From Middle English assise, from Old French, from asseoir (to seat), from Latin assidere (to sit), from ad- + sedere (to sit}.

Usage
"Did Miss Dunbar admit writing it?" "Yes, sir." "What was her explanation?" "Her defence was reserved for the Assizes. She would say nothing." — Arthur Conan Doyle, The Problem of Thor Bridge, 1922.



In law, a session, or sitting, of a court. It originally referred to a judicial inquest in which a panel of men conducted an investigation. It was later applied to special sessions of high courts in England and France. Assize courts were abolished in most countries in the 20th century, but in France they are still the courts of first instance in the handling of serious crimes.

For more information on assize, visit Britannica.com.

Thesaurus: assize
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noun

    The formal product of a legislative or judicial body: act, bill, enactment, law, legislation, lex, measure, statute. See law.

British History: assizes
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The word has a number of different meanings in legal history. It was used to describe

(a) a session of an official body, especially the king's council (e.g. the Assize of Clarendon 1166);
(b) the edicts or enactments made at such sessions;
(c) the forms of action or procedures instituted by such edicts;
(d) the system of travelling courts which became part of English life from the reign of Henry II until 1971.

In the 13th cent. the term ‘assize’ came to be the general term applied to the visits of the judges on circuit. After 1340 the justices of assize were required to be justices of the Court of Common Pleas or King's Bench or serjeants at law. The assizes continued until 1971 on the circuits ordained by Henry II, the assize towns being visited periodically by assize judges, who would hear serious criminal and important civil cases. Although the Courts Act 1971 abolished the assizes, senior judges still go ‘on circuit’ to hear cases in important modern centres of population.

Architecture: assize
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1. A cylindrical block of stone forming one unit in a column.
2. A course of stonework.


Law Encyclopedia: Assize, or Assise
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This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

A judicial procedure in early England whereby a certain number of men in a community were called together to hear and decide a dispute; a type of court. A type of writ, commanding the convening of such a tribunal in order to determine disputed rights to possess land. An edict or statute issued by an ancient assembly.

For example, the Assize of Clarendon was a statute, or ordinance, passed in the tenth year of the reign of King Henry II (1164). It proclaimed that those who were accused of a heinous crime and were unable to exonerate themselves had forty days to gather provisions from friends to provide for their sustenance before they were sent into exile.

The word assize comes from the Latin assideo, which describes the fact that the men taking action sat together. An assize could be a number of citizens, eventually settled at the number twelve, called to hear cases. They decided on the basis of information they had or could gather in the community. This group of neighbors was presumed to know the facts well enough to determine who was entitled to possession of disputed lands. A writ of assize could be issued on behalf of the king to commission this body of twelve to hear a dispute.

Eventually, the writs gave birth to forms of action for lawsuits concerning real property. For example, the assize of novel disseisin was a form of action for the recovery of lands after the claimant had been wrongfully dispossessed (disseised). The assize of nuisance was proper to secure the abatement of a nuisance or for monetary damages to compensate for the harm done by the nuisance.

; Henry II of England.

See: Clarendon, Constitutions of.

Wikipedia: Assizes (England and Wales)
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The Courts of Assize, or Assizes, were periodic criminal courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the Quarter Sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The Assizes heard the most serious cases, which were committed to it by the Quarter Sessions (local county courts held four times a year), while the more minor offences were dealt with summarily by Justices of the Peace in petty sessions (also known as Magistrates' Courts).

The word assize refers to the sittings or sessions (Old French assises) of the judges, known as "justices of assize", who were judges of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice who travelled across the seven circuits of England and Wales on commissions of "oyer and terminer", setting up court and summoning juries at the various Assize Towns.

Etymology

Assize > Middle English assise > Old French assize ("session, legal action" – past participle of asseoir, to seat) > Vulgar Latin *assedēre > Latin assidre, to sit beside, assist in the office of a judge > ad- + sedēre to sit.[1]

History

Justices of the Court of King's Bench travelled around the country on five commissions, upon which their jurisdiction depended. Their civil commissions were the commission of assize and the commission of nisi prius. Their criminal commissions were the commission of the peace, the commission of oyer and terminer and the commission of gaol delivery.

By the Assize of Clarendon of 1166, King Henry II established trial by jury by a grand assize of twelve knights in land disputes, and provided for itinerant justices to set up county courts.[2] Prior to the enactment of Magna Carta in 1215, writs of assize had to be tried at Westminster or await trial at the septennial circuit of justices of eyre, but the great charter provided that land disputes should be tried by annual assizes.

An Act passed in the reign of King Edward I provided that writs summoning juries to Westminster were to appoint a time and place for hearing the causes with the county of origin. Thus they were known as writs of nisi prius (Latin "unless before"): the jury would hear the case at Westminster unless the king's justices had assembled a court in the county to deal with the case beforehand. The commission of oyer and terminer, was a general commission to hear and decide cases, while the commission of gaol delivery required the justices to try all prisoners held in the gaols (jails).

Few substantial changes occurred until the nineteenth century. From the 1830s onwards, Wales and the palatine county of Chester, previously served by Court of Grand Session, were merged into the circuit system. The commissions for London and Middlesex were replaced with a Central Criminal Court, serving the whole metropolis, and county courts were established around the country to hear many civil cases previously covered by nisi prius.

The Judicature Act of 1873, which created the Supreme Court of Judicature, transferred the jurisdiction of the commissions of assize (to take the possessory assizes, that is to say, to hear actions relating to the dispossession of land) to the High Court of Justice, and established District Registries of the High Court across the country, further diminishing the civil jurisdiction of the assizes.

In 1956 Crown Courts were set up in Liverpool and Manchester, replacing the Assizes and Quarter Sessions. This was extended nationwide in 1972 following the recommendations of a royal commission.

References

  1. ^ dictionary.com
  2. ^ W.L. Warren, "Henry II," (Berkely and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973)

Translations: Assize
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - assise-ret

Nederlands (Dutch)
(onderwerp van) gerechtelijk onderzoek, oproep tot gerechtelijke zitting, (mv) regelmatige zittingen van rechters (Brits)

Français (French)
n. - (GB, Jur) assisses (npl)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Amtsgericht, Bezirksgericht, Kreisgericht

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - δίκη σε ορκωτό δικαστήριο, (πληθ.) έκτατο ορκωτό δικαστήριο, κακουργιοδικείο

Português (Portuguese)
n. - sessões (f pl) periódicas de um tribunal superior em cada condado da Inglaterra

idioms:

  • county assizes    sessão (f) de tribunal de condado (Jur.)

Русский (Russian)
выездная сессия суда присяжных

idioms:

  • county assizes    выездная сессия суда присяжных в графствах

Español (Spanish)
n. - sesión judicial

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - domstol, förhör

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
巡回审判, 法定标准, 大审, 条令, 法令

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 巡迴審判, 法定標準, 大審, 條令, 法令

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 재판 , 개정 기간, 법령

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 立法府, 法令, 巡回裁判

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) قانون, قانون يحدد الموازين والمكاييل واسعار السلع, جلسه هيئه قضائيه أو اداريه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮ישיבת בית-משפט (מיושן)‬


 
 

 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Law Encyclopedia. West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Assizes (England and Wales)" Read more
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