Definition
A Latin term from old English practice meaning "to be advised" — that is, to deliberate, examine, and consider before rendering judgment. Used most commonly in the formula curia advisari vult (often abbreviated c.a.v.), meaning "the court wishes to be advised," signifying that the court will reserve its decision rather than rule from the bench immediately. When a court advisari vult, it takes the matter under advisement, suspending pronouncement of judgment until further deliberation has occurred.
The term does not describe a substantive legal right or doctrine but rather a procedural posture: an announcement by the court that it is not yet prepared to decide and requires additional time for examination.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering advisari in historical records should recognize it almost exclusively as a fragment of the phrase curia advisari vult. It rarely appears in isolation. In Year Books, plea rolls, and early common law reporters, the abbreviation c.a.v. or the full Latin formula signals the end of argument and the suspension of judgment — functionally equivalent to a modern court "reserving decision" or "taking the matter under submission."
The practical significance for corpus research: entries reading advisari vult or et quia curia advisari vult mark a procedural moment, not a substantive ruling. These entries often appear mid-record, indicating the case continues in a later term or session. Researchers tracing the outcome of a historical case must search forward in the record — advisari is a placeholder, not a terminus.
Because the phrase was so formulaic, it sometimes appears in heavily abbreviated or corrupted form in manuscript sources and early printed reporters. Variant spellings (avisari, advisare) and truncations are common. Researchers should not assume a different meaning from variant spellings; they are scribal or typographic artifacts of the same standard formula.
The term has no meaningful life in modern American or English legal writing as a standalone word. It survives in current practice only through curia advisari vult, which itself is largely ceremonial in Commonwealth jurisdictions and essentially absent from American usage, where "taken under advisement" or "submitted" has replaced it entirely.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the authoritative historical account of this term within the Law Mind corpus. Burrill correctly identifies advisari as Latin practice vocabulary meaning "to be advised" and situates it primarily within the curia advisari vult formula. He supplies two illustrative fragments from Keilwey's Reports: the general formula curia advisari vult and the individualized form et quia dictus Justiciarius advisari vult, showing that the formula applied both to courts collectively and to individual justices reserving personal deliberation. The partial quotation — et quia curia hic de judicio super praemissis in hac parte — is a typical plea roll formula introducing the court's deferral of judgment on the premises before it.
Burrill's treatment is adequate for identification purposes but thin on procedural context. It does not address how long advisari vult periods typically lasted, what procedural steps followed, or how the formula interacted with term structure in the old common law calendar. Researchers needing that procedural depth should look beyond the dictionary shelf to historical treatises on common law procedure and the Year Book literature directly.
No meaningful divergence exists across sources because the Law Mind corpus contains only Burrill's entry for this term. The definition is stable and uncontested.
Jurisdictional Note
Advisari as a standalone term is confined to historical English common law practice and appears in early American courts only as inherited English procedure. It has no current statutory or regulatory life in any jurisdiction. Curia advisari vult retains vestigial usage in some Commonwealth courts as a formal announcement, but its operative content — reserving judgment — is handled by local procedural vocabulary everywhere else.