Historical Notes on Clause 9: Juries and the Assize D'Utrum

Cap. ix. Si calumnia emerserit inter clericum et laicum, vel inter laicum et clericum, de ullo tenemento quod clericus attrahere velit ad elemosinam, laicus vero ad laicum feudum, recognitione duodecim legalium hominum, per capitalis Justitiae regis considerationem terminabitur, utrum tene- mentum sit pertinens ad elemosinam sive ad feudum laicum, coram ipso Justitia regis. Et si recognitum fuerit ad elemosinam pertinere, placitum erit in curia ecclesiastica, si vero ad laicum feudum, nisi ambo de eodem episcopo vel barone advocaverint, erit placitum in curia regia. Sed si uterque advocaverit de feudo illo eundem episcopum vel baronem, erit placitum in curia ipsius ; ita quod propter factam recognitionem saisinam non amittat, qui prior saisitus fuerat, donee per placitum dirationatum fuerit.

Clause 9:If litigation arise between a clerk and a layman or between a layman and a clerk concerning any holding which the clerk would bring to charitable tenure but the layman to lay fee, it shall be determined on the decision of the king's chief justice by the recognition of twelve lawful men in the presence of the king's justice himself whether the holding pertain to charitable tenure or to lay fee. And if the recognition declare it to be charitable tenure, it shall be litigated in the church court, but if lay fee, unless both plead under the same bishop or baron, the litigation shall be in the royal court. But if both plead concerning that fief under the same bishop or baron, it shall be litigated in his court; yet so that he who was first seised lose not his seisin on account of the recognition that was made, until the matter be determined by the plea.

A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgement.

Assize d'Utrum [a petty assize] was the right to summon a jury to a hearing to decide whether a matter of clerical dispute should be tried by the royal or ecclesiastical court.

An Assize: a legal proceeding of the nature of an inquest or trial; a periodical session for the administration of civil and criminal justice.

References

Frankalmoin

The Origins of the Medieval English Jury: Frankish, English, or Scandinavian?

Ralph V. Turner

Journal of British Studies

Vol. 7, No. 2 (May, 1968), pp. 1-10

http://www.jstor.org/stable/175292

The Judicial Aspects of Frank Almoign Tenure

Elisabeth G. Kimball

The English Historical Review

http://www.jstor.org/stable/553457

Case in Edward III's time being decided by a Jury

Alfred J. Horwood; Luke Owen Pike (15 November 2012). Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third. Cambridge University Press. pp. 472–. ISBN 978-1-108-04789-0.

R. C. Caenegem (24 November 1988). The Birth of the English Common Law. Cambridge University Press. pp. 48–. ISBN 978-0-521-35682-4.

George Worthington (1840). An Inquiry Into the Power of Juries to Decide Incidentally on Questions of Law. J. S. Littell. pp. 18–.

George J. Edwards . The Grand Jury. Cosimo, Inc. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-1-60520-730-8.

George J. Edwards- The Grand Jury- Part I  & The Grand Jury

Source problems in English history - Origin of the Jury by White & Notestein

Assize Utrum

John Reeves (1869). John Reeves's History of the English Law, from the Time of the Romans to the End of the Reign of Elizabeth by W. F. Finlason. Reeves & Turner. pp. 374–7.

Constitutions of Clarendon - Assize Utrum

Angevin Reform of the Appeal of Felony
Margaret H. Kerr
Law and History Review
Vol. 13, No. 2 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 351-391
http://www.jstor.org/stable/743863

The Assize "Utrum" and Canon Law in England
Samuel E. Thorne
Columbia Law Review
Vol. 33, No. 3 (Mar., 1933), pp. 428-436
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1115710

Nicholas Statham. "Juris D'Utrum".. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. 786–91. ISBN 978-1-58477-696-3.

Sequence 233 (Page 111r) Statham, Nicholas. [Abridgement of Cases to the End of Henry VI.] [Rouen] Per me. R. Pynson., [1490]