2 - Royal writs and writ procedure
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
‘Praecipio ut juste resaisias’
About A.D. 1200 the main features of the Common Law and the central courts were fixed for many centuries. England would have one national law and not a multitude of local and regional customs; one corps of royal justices, whether sitting at Westminster or travelling in the counties, to administer and develop it; and not Roman or canon but feudal law as its core. It was also clear that the procedure would be by writ, which meant that in order to have access to these courts the complaint had to fit into one of the existing forms of action, i.e. the original writs. The technical term breve originale for a royal commission to try a case, originating judicial proceedings appears in 1203. The original writs issued from the Chancery. Another great class of Common Law writs, the judicial writs, issued from the courts and concerned various other steps and measures connected with litigation. Original writs specified the nature of the complaint, the names of the parties, the object of the plea and other elements concerning summons, impanelling of juries and so on.
These forms of action, collected in the Register of Writs, and real keys to the king's courts, were limited in number, although they could be increased by the Chancellor to meet the demands of legal development. Each governed a separate and distinct procedure, with a particular time limit for bringing the action, specific modes of proof, summons, essoins and means of enforcing judgment, varying according to the circumstances and ideas at the moment of its creation.
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- The Birth of the English Common Law , pp. 29 - 61Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988