assizes

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assizes. The word has a number of different meanings in legal history. It was used to describe (a) a session (or sitting) 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 and available as writs to would-be litigants in the royal court (e.g. the Grand Assize and the petty assizes of novel disseisin, mort d'ancestor, and darrein presentment, all introduced by Henry II); (d) the system of travelling courts which became part of English life from the reign of Henry II until 1971. From the time of Henry I, the king's justice was locally administered by justices appointed by the king, sometimes administered by itinerant ‘justices in Eyre’. From Henry II's reign the General Eyre became a familiar institution until its decline in the 14th cent. The country was divided by Henry II into six judicial circuits for the purpose of bringing royal justice to all regions.

The Assizes of Clarendon and Northampton (1166 and 1176) provided that those suspected of serious crime should be presented on oath by twelve men of each hundred to the king's justices, members of the great council and later the judges of the common law courts—who therefore travelled round the country receiving these presentments and, after the abolition of the ordeals in 1215, presiding at trials by jury for serious crime. At first in the General Eyre and later under the commissions of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery, they would hear criminal cases.

When the petty or possessory assizes were instituted by Henry II, the writs which set them in motion called on the sheriff to summon a group of neighbours (the ‘inquest’ or jury) to give an answer under oath, before the royal justices, to a specific question relating to disseisin. The justices were therefore said to ‘take the assizes’; indeed, the barons demanded in Magna Carta that the justices should travel round regularly for this purpose.

So the ‘justices of assize’ travelled round to hear cases of serious crime and at the same time to take the assizes, i.e. receive the verdicts of the inquest jury in the possessory assizes. Increasingly with the growth of royal justice into the common law, and especially after the reign of Edward I, they also in effect heard civil cases under the nisi prius system.

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, which were centres of importance in the Middle Ages, being visited periodically and with considerable ceremony 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.

Maureen Mulholland

assizes of counties, and towns and cities accorded county status, were the primary local courts of criminal trial in Ireland for around 300 years. The assize system consisted of justices of assize, empowered by royal commissions, travelling the country to try both civil and criminal cases. Its origins in Ireland may be traced back to the eyre courts of the 13th and 14th centuries (see courts of law). However, the holding of comprehensive courts of assize was always dependent upon military control, and it was not until after the Flight of the Earls that the goal of regular assizes across the country could be realized. Even then several areas existed as independent liberties under private patronage. By 1614 five assize circuits had been established. The judges of the superior courts were required to travel these circuits as justices of assize, holding an assize for each county jurisdiction subject to the crown. The 17th century saw the circuits consolidated. By 1695 every country was visited twice yearly, in spring and summer. The final provincial palatinate jurisdiction was abolished in 1716, leaving only Co. Dublin outside the system, with its own autonomous courts.

The assizes now formed a regular and comprehensive system of criminal and civil equity across Ireland. In 1796 a sixth circuit was established to reduce the pressure on the courts' staff. As well as their legal functions assizes also fulfilled social, economic, and political roles, for example providing the focus for balls and fairs. Court business was accompanied by a great deal of the work of local government, managed by country grand juries. A number of changes occurred during the 19th century. By 1850 much of the existing civil business of the assizes had been delegated to the quarter sessions (see courts of law). From 1877 a single ‘winter assize’ was held for each province, at a central venue, solely to deal with criminal business. In 1885 the system returned to a five‐circuit structure.

From 1919 the Anglo‐Irish War disrupted all the royal courts. Rival Dáil courts were established, and in many areas the assizes ceased to function. Following partition, the Irish Free State replaced the assizes with essentially similar circuit courts. In Northern Ireland the restructured courts of assize were finally abolished in 1978, and their powers transferred to the new crown courts.

Bibliography

McCavitt, J. , ‘Good Planets in their Several Spheares: The Establishment of the Assize Circuits in Early Seventeenth‐Century Ireland’, Irish Jurist, ns (1989)
McDowell, R. B. , The Irish Administration 1801–1914 (1964)

Neal Garnham

assizes 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.

assizes A procedure introduced into English law in the later 12th century by HENRY II. The Assize of Clarendon (1166), which dealt with criminal trials, and the Assize of Arms (1181), which reorganized local defence and police measures, were enactments made at sessions of the king's council. The assizes of novel disseisin and mort d'ancestor (both relating to tenancy), and the Grand Assize (to determine titles to disputed lands) were introduced by sessions of Henry II's council (1166, 1176, and the late 1170s); these procedures remained important throughout the Middle Ages.

Travelling justices were established in the 13th century; these justices came to be called justices of assize and their sessions were called assizes. A system of such judicial sessions was regularized (1293–1328) and judicial circuits were established that remained in force until a new system of Crown Courts was set up in 1971.