Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 308

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Volume 2, Page 308

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Of the power of justices.

[002] ¹Their power is this: once a cause (one or several) is committed to them, though it
[003] is committed simply, their jurisdiction is extended to all matters necessary to
[004] determine the suit,² so far as judgment and the execution of judgment are concerned,
[005] and so if there is an incidental or emergent action preliminary to it. ³[But]
[006] they cannot extend their jurisdiction to other things or other persons, nor take
[007] cognisance of things other than those comprised in their commission, since the
[008] limits of a mandate must be strictly observed.⁴

In what way and when their power and jurisdiction may be determined.

[010] Although some judges are permanent, it is evident that ⁵their jurisdiction may
[011] nevertheless be ended in many ways, for example, by the death of him who
[012] delegated, or the death of him to whom the cause was delegated, personally and by
[013] name. And so if the principal revokes the jurisdiction or gives it to another judge,
[014] the thing as a whole or part of it. Or if the delegate remits the cause to his
[015] principal⁶ or to another delegate, for some reason, [for example], because of the day
[016] and place. ⁷And so when sentence has been given and execution ordered,⁸ for a
[017] judge by rendering judgment is discharged of his office⁹ and the jurors freed from
[018] their oath, unless one says that though judgment has been rendered a judge may
[019] nonetheless recall the jurors to certify¹⁰ or to inquire into a false oath, [provided
[020] that] he is a major justice or a justice in eyre appointed generally to hear all
[021] pleas.¹¹ In truth, ¹²once judgment has been rendered in the proper way the judge
[022] who rendered it cannot thereafter change or modify it, though on the same day on
[023] which it was rendered he may make it effective in matters which concern its consequences.¹³
[024] But this last applies only to those who have been appointed justices
[025] for the taking of assises specially, one, two or several. And finally, note that no
[026] justice so delegated by the king may subdelegate another to himself.¹⁴

How justices to travel from county to county generally ad omnia placita or to hear pleas of a particular kind are to be appointed.

[028] Let us for the present pass over in silence the major justices and those sitting in the
[029] bench.¹⁵ We must see how justices to travel from county to county for the hearing
[030] of all causes generally are to be appointed, [or for the hearing of certain kinds of
[031] causes, or of particular causes, one, two or several,] ¹⁶and then how, after having
[032] taken their oath,¹⁷ they ought to conduct themselves in their eyre.¹⁸ [First] let a
[033] special writ be drawn for each of them individually

Notes

1-2. Tancred, 96-7; Richardson in Traditio, vi, 67

3-4. Ibid. 97-8; infra iv, 279

5-6. Ibid., 98-9; infra iv, 279

7-8. Ibid.

9. D. 42.1.55; infra iv, 279

10. Supra 301, infra iii, 73, 342, iv, 279

11. Infra iv, 279

12-13. Tancred, 275

14. Infra iv, 63, 279; cf. Traditio, vi, 68

15. Redactor's introductory sentence

16. Om: ‘Si autem ... generaliter,’ a connective

17. The oath, infra 309, which now stands between the writ and the sentence that introduces it, belongs here.

18. Infra 317