A CONSILIIS

Definition

A consiliis (from Latin consilium, meaning advice or counsel) is a Latin designation for a counsellor — a person whose office is to give advice or legal counsel, particularly in a formal or official capacity. The term describes one who stands in an advisory role to another, whether a private party, a magistrate, or an ecclesiastical authority. In civil law usage, some writers employed a consiliis interchangeably with a responsis, referring to one who provides authoritative responses or opinions when consulted on legal questions. In ecclesiastical law, the term was historically applied to an advocate or responsalis — an official who gave formal answers or counsel on behalf of an authority when legal or administrative questions were put to them.

Common Language

This is pure Latin legal jargon with no meaningful counterpart in ordinary English usage. The COMMON LANGUAGE section is omitted.

Why It Matters in Research

This term surfaces almost exclusively in historical legal texts drawing on Roman civil law and ecclesiastical law traditions. Researchers encountering a consiliis in primary sources should be alert to two distinct contexts: (1) the civil law tradition, where it functions as a near-synonym for a responsis and describes a jurisconsult or legal adviser whose formal opinions carried weight; and (2) the ecclesiastical context, where it attaches to an advocate or responsalis operating within church administrative structures. The term rarely appears in Anglo-American common law sources, which is a meaningful navigational signal. Its presence in a document generally indicates a civil law or canon law influence — either a document drafted within the Roman law tradition, a treatise drawing on continental sources, or a text with ecclesiastical provenance. Researchers working in early American or English common law contexts who encounter this term should treat it as a marker pointing toward the civil law shelf of the corpus. Note the Burrill entry contains apparent typographical or transcription corruption ("A A (2)" and fragments referencing collateral heirs), suggesting the entry was conflated with or interrupted by adjacent material in the source. Researchers relying on Burrill for this term should treat that entry with caution and cross-reference Black's for the cleaner definition. The Spelman reference (Spelman, "Apocrisarius") cited in both Black's editions points to Sir Henry Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum, a real and historically significant glossary of archaic legal terms. This is a useful breadcrumb for researchers seeking deeper primary source grounding.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's Law Dictionary (both the primary edition and the Second Edition Supplemental) and Burrill's Law Dictionary agree on the core meaning: a consiliis denotes a counsellor or legal adviser. All three sources trace the term to the Latin consilium (advice). The dictionaries diverge slightly in emphasis. Black's foregrounds the civil law usage and the equivalence with a responsis — a term describing one who gives formal legal responses when consulted. Burrill expands somewhat into the ecclesiastical context, describing the role as that of an advocate or responsalis within church structures. Burrill also gestures toward the formal nature of the office ("whose office is to give counsel"), framing it as a defined institutional role rather than simply a description of function. None of the historical sources offer significant treatment of how the term was applied in practice, what authority attached to opinions given a consiliis, or how the role related to other advisory designations in the civil or canon law traditions. For researchers needing that depth, Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum and continental civil law treatises are the more productive resources.

Jurisdictional Note

A consiliis is a term of Roman civil law and ecclesiastical law origin. It has no operative role in American or English common law. Its relevance in the Law Mind corpus is primarily historical and comparative — appearing in treatises, glossaries, and documents with civil law or canon law influence rather than in common law pleadings or statutes.

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