Definition
A ce is a Law French phrase meaning "for this purpose" or "for this reason." It appears in early legal texts and glossaries as a connective expression used to indicate the purpose or cause underlying a legal act, obligation, or proceeding. The phrase is closely associated with the related form a causa de cy, carrying the same essential meaning.
As a standalone term, a ce functions as a prepositional phrase rather than a term of art with independent legal weight. Its significance lies in its appearance within maxims, pleading formulae, and early common law instruments, where it signals the operative reason or occasion for a legal act.
The entry in Burrill also serves as a gateway to the maxim A communi observantia non est recedendum — "From common observance there should be no departure" — which courts applied to ancient and established forms of pleading and conveyancing. Though distinct from a ce itself, the two appear together in the historical record, and researchers encountering one are likely to need the other.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "A ce" is not a standard entry in modern English. The French phrase a ce translates roughly as "to this" or "for this," functioning as a prepositional phrase in ordinary French usage.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not recorded as an English entry. Webster's 1913 does not include a ce as an independent word or phrase.
The gap here is not between common and legal meaning but between modern readers and a defunct legal dialect. Law French terms like a ce were never part of ordinary English — they belonged to the specialized register of English common law courts and legal instruments from roughly the Norman Conquest through the seventeenth century. A modern reader encountering a ce in a primary source will not find it in any general English dictionary, which is precisely why historical legal dictionaries remain essential for this class of term.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in medieval and early modern English legal sources — Year Books, plea rolls, early equity proceedings, conveyancing forms — will encounter Law French phrases without translation or gloss. A ce and a causa de cy are among the shorter, easily overlooked connective phrases that can alter the reading of a clause. Mistaking the phrase for a proper name, a case citation shorthand, or a typographical artifact is a genuine risk in transcription-based research.
The pairing of a ce with the maxim A communi observantia non est recedendum in Burrill reflects a common editorial practice in nineteenth-century legal dictionaries: clustering related Law French terms and Latin maxims under a single alphabetical heading. Researchers should not assume that everything under a single Burrill entry constitutes a single legal concept. The maxim about common observance is substantively independent and has its own doctrinal history in pleading and conveyancing law.
The maxim A communi observantia non est recedendum is cited in the Reports of Sir Edward Coke (2 Co. 74) and Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 186a, 229b, 365a), as well as in Wingate's Maxims (max. 203). These are real, traceable sources and provide the primary authority for the maxim's application to court practice. Researchers tracking the maxim should go directly to those sources rather than relying on Burrill's compressed summary.
For corpus researchers in Law Mind, a ce is most likely to appear as a connective element in reproduced historical instruments or in maxim collections rather than as a standalone doctrinal term. Its research value is primarily philological and contextual.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole source for this entry in the Law Mind corpus, and Burrill's treatment is brief. He defines a ce as "for this purpose" with a citation to Kelham's Law French dictionary, then moves immediately to a causa de cy and then to the Latin maxim A communi observantia non est recedendum.
Kelham's Glossary of Norman and Old French Law Terms (1779) is the underlying philological authority Burrill relies on for Law French definitions. Researchers who need more than Burrill's gloss should consult Kelham directly.
No other major historical legal dictionaries in common circulation — not Jacob's Law Dictionary, not Tomlin's, not Black's early editions — give a ce a separate entry, which confirms its status as a minor connective phrase rather than a term of independent doctrinal significance.
The maxim A communi observantia non est recedendum, by contrast, receives treatment across multiple maxim collections and appears repeatedly in Coke's writings. That maxim's doctrine — that courts should not depart from established forms and usages — had genuine procedural force in the development of common law pleading. It should be distinguished from the mere transitional phrase a ce with which it shares a dictionary entry in Burrill.