Definition
A term from Scots law and practice referring to the records of criminal courts. It appears in two principal usages:
1. Books of Adjournal (historically "bukis of adiornale"): The original manuscript records of criminal trials kept by Scottish courts. Many early books of adjournal have been lost; those that survive are primary sources for the history of Scottish criminal procedure.
2. Act of Adjournal: A formal order of the Court of Justiciary — Scotland's supreme criminal court — entered upon the court's minutes. Acts of adjournal function as procedural rules and standing orders governing criminal practice before that court, and carry binding regulatory authority.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): adjournment; postponement.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Adjournment; postponement" — marked as rare, illustrated by Sir Walter Scott's phrase "an adjournal of the Diet."
The ordinary English sense of adjournal — a simple postponement or recess — gives almost no guidance to the legal researcher. In Scots legal usage, the term is not primarily about delay at all. It designates a category of court record and a species of formal procedural order. A researcher encountering the word in a Scottish legal source should not assume it refers to an adjournment in the common procedural sense.
Common Confusion
Adjournal is frequently read as a variant of adjournment by researchers unfamiliar with Scots law. The confusion is understandable — both share the same Latin root (adjournamentum est ad diem dicere seu diem dare: to appoint a day or give a day), and the ordinary English term adjournal does mean postponement. In Scottish criminal practice, however, adjournal has a distinct institutional meaning tied to the records and orders of the Court of Justiciary, not merely to the scheduling of proceedings.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in Scottish legal materials and will surface in one of two research contexts: (1) historical source work involving pre-modern Scottish criminal trials, where the books of adjournal are among the few surviving primary records; or (2) procedural research involving the Court of Justiciary, where acts of adjournal are the mechanism by which that court promulgates its own procedural rules.
Researchers working in historical Scottish criminal law should be aware that the books of adjournal are incomplete — Burrill explicitly notes that many are lost — and that Pitcairn's Criminal Trials is a key compiled source drawing on surviving records. The phrase "act of adjournal" in a modern Scottish procedural context carries regulatory weight; these acts are not mere scheduling orders but formal court instruments that can amend practice and procedure.
The term does not appear in English law (as distinct from Scots law) and has no counterpart in American legal usage. A researcher encountering it in a non-Scottish source should treat that appearance with skepticism.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both first and second editions) and Burrill's Law Dictionary are in close agreement on this term, all three providing substantially identical definitions. All identify adjournal as a Scots law term, distinguish the books of adjournal from acts of adjournal, and note the loss of early records. Burrill adds the specific citation to Pitcairn's Criminal Trials and to Shaw's Reports (Appendix), which are the only primary source references in the historical dictionary literature on this term — useful anchors for archival research.
None of the historical dictionaries elaborate on the procedural significance of acts of adjournal as a rule-making instrument of the Court of Justiciary, which is an aspect of the term's legal importance that a researcher would need to pursue through Scottish procedural sources directly.
The Latin maxim included in both Black's editions — adjournamentum est ad diem dicere seu diem dare — connects the term etymologically to the broader family of adjournment concepts but does not fully explain why adjournal developed its specialized Scottish meaning.
Jurisdictional Note
Adjournal is specific to Scots law and the jurisdiction of the Court of Justiciary. It has no recognized usage in English, Irish, or American legal systems. Researchers working in comparative common law contexts should treat it as a jurisdiction-specific term without equivalent.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Scottish Criminal Procedure
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Court of Justiciary
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Acts of Sederunt and Adjournal (Scots Procedural Instruments)