Definition
A veyer is a Law French phrase meaning "to be seen," "to be observed," or "to be considered." It appears in early English legal records and reports as a directional notation or procedural signal, indicating that a matter, document, or point of law is to be examined or taken into account by the court. The phrase functions less as a substantive legal concept and more as a term of practice or annotation — a flag that something warrants the court's attention or inspection.
---
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering this phrase will most likely find it in Year Books, early English case reporters, or pre-modern plea rolls, where Law French was the working language of the English common law courts. Its appearance in Dyer's Reports — one of the foundational mid-sixteenth-century English reporters — places it squarely in the transitional period when Law French was still in active use but beginning its long decline toward obsolescence.
The primary research trap is treating a veyer as a term of substantive law when it is almost certainly a procedural or notational phrase. It does not name a cause of action, a defense, a writ, or a doctrine. Researchers who encounter it in a primary source should read it as directing attention to adjacent material — the thing to be seen or considered — rather than treating the phrase itself as the operative legal concept.
Because Law French terms were not standardized in spelling, variant forms may appear in manuscript sources and early printed reports. Scribal and typesetting variation was common, and the same phrase may appear hyphenated, run together, or with alternate vowel spellings depending on the source and copyist.
This term has no continuing life in modern legal practice. Its value is purely historical and interpretive: understanding it unlocks the meaning of passages in early English reporters that would otherwise be opaque.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only shelf-source entry for this term, glossing it briefly as "to be seen; to be observed or considered" and citing Dyer 22b, 71. The entry is minimal, consistent with Burrill's treatment of Law French terms that served procedural rather than doctrinal functions — he records the phrase and its authority without elaboration.
No other major historical law dictionaries in the standard reference shelf appear to carry independent entries for a veyer, which itself is informative: the term was sufficiently narrow and context-specific that lexicographers either folded it into related entries or passed over it. Researchers should not interpret its absence from other dictionaries as evidence that the phrase was rare or disputed; it more likely reflects the limited documentary interest in purely notational terms.
The Dyer citation is a useful anchor. Sir James Dyer served as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and his reports, covering cases from roughly 1513 to 1582, are considered reliable primary sources for mid-Tudor common law practice. Finding a veyer in Dyer confirms its use in a serious professional context, not merely antiquarian legal literature.
---
Jurisdictional Note
A veyer is a term of English legal history with no recognized application in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions. Researchers working in non-English legal records will not encounter it outside of sources directly influenced by the English common law tradition and its Law French vocabulary.
---