Definition
Latin. Literally, "to put to a reason" or "to call upon for a reason." A technical expression from the old records of the Exchequer meaning to place a person at the bar and interrogate them as to a charge made against them — in effect, to arraign on a trial. More broadly, the phrase carried the sense of citing or summoning a person to appear and give account of themselves in response to a formal accusation.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is essentially inert in modern law but surfaces with some frequency in historical records from the English Exchequer and early common law proceedings. Researchers encountering it in medieval or early modern English records — particularly Exchequer memoranda from the reign of Edward I — should understand it as a procedural marker indicating the moment of arraignment or formal interrogation, not a substantive legal claim or right.
The term is also noted in early case reporting conventions. Black's first edition records its use in reporters to signal a procedural silence: a point advanced in argument by one party that was not denied or addressed by the other, or an objection raised but not replied to after the court responded. This secondary usage is easy to miss and creates a research trap. When a reader encounters ad rationem ponere in an old report notation — such as a marginal gloss or shorthand — it may not be describing an arraignment at all, but instead flagging an unanswered argument. The two usages are contextually distinct but visually identical on the page.
Researchers working with quo warranto proceedings in the Exchequer will find the phrase in its primary arraignment sense. The Burrill citation to Memoranda in Scaccario from the 20th and 22nd years of Edward I (late 13th century) is among the clearest period examples: posit' ad rationem, confes' quod — "put to answer, confessed that." This formulaic language marks confession after arraignment and is essential to reading these records correctly.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries align on the core procedural meaning — arraignment and interrogation before the bar on a charge — but diverge usefully in emphasis. Bouvier collapses the entry to a single spare line: "to cite a person to appear," which captures the summons function but loses the interrogatory dimension that distinguishes this phrase from a mere citation. Burrill is the most precise, supplying the Latin construction, the procedural sequence (put to the bar, interrogate, arraign), and actual period citations from Exchequer records. Black's second edition tracks Burrill closely and is the most reliable of the Black's treatments for this term.
Black's first edition adds the secondary usage in case reporting — the "not denied" or "not replied to" convention — which none of the other sources address. That addition is historically significant because it reveals how the phrase migrated from a live procedural command in Exchequer practice to a notation in printed law reports, where it served a quite different function. No source offers a clean explanation of when or how that migration occurred, which is a gap researchers should keep in mind.
Jurisdictional Note
This phrase belongs exclusively to the history of English law, specifically to the Exchequer and early common law courts. It has no operative presence in American jurisdictions. Researchers will encounter it only in historical English records and their reprints or translations.