Definition
To enlarge, extend, or expand. Ampliare appears in two distinct legal contexts, both rooted in Roman and early English jurisprudence:
1. Roman law: The act of a court or magistrate granting additional time for deliberation in a case presenting obscurity or doubt. Where a matter could not be decided on the evidence or law then available, the tribunal declared non liquet — the matter is not clear — and ampliare allowed the proceeding to be continued rather than forced to a premature resolution.
2. Old English law (particularly Chancery): The expansive or liberal exercise of judicial authority, especially remedial jurisdiction. The maxim Boni est judicis ampliare jurisdictionem — it is the part of a good judge to enlarge his remedial authority — expresses a judicial philosophy that equity courts invoked to justify extending relief beyond narrow common law boundaries.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter ampliare primarily in two places: discussions of Roman civil procedure and early Chancery jurisprudence. These two uses, while sharing a root meaning of extension, operate in different procedural worlds and should not be conflated.
In Roman law sources, ampliare is tightly linked to the formula non liquet and to the procedural mechanisms by which Roman judges avoided unjust or premature verdicts. If you are tracing the history of judicial continuances, adjournment doctrine, or the civil law treatment of uncertainty, ampliare is the Latin term to track across the civil law commentators.
In English Chancery materials, ampliare appears most often embedded in the maxim Boni est judicis ampliare jurisdictionem. This maxim had significant practical force during periods when equity courts were asserting and defending their jurisdiction against common law rivals. Researchers working on the history of equitable jurisdiction, the expansion of Chancery's remedial powers in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, or the theoretical foundations of equity will encounter this phrase in judicial opinions, treatises, and parliamentary debates. Be aware that the maxim was both invoked approvingly by equity courts and cited critically by common law judges who viewed jurisdictional expansion with suspicion.
Because ampliare is a Latin term of art appearing without translation in many historical sources, full-text searches in digitized legal materials may miss instances where it appears in Latinized passages. Search for the maxim in full as well as the isolated term.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill provides the fullest treatment, tracing ampliare through both its Roman law and English Chancery applications and supplying the maxim with translation. Anderson's entry is derivative, directing readers to JUDEX and the Boni est judicis formulation rather than defining ampliare independently — a reminder that Anderson functions more as a cross-referencing tool than an original source for terms of this vintage.
Neither dictionary addresses the tension inherent in the Chancery maxim: that judicial enlargement of jurisdiction was simultaneously a valued equitable principle and a persistent source of constitutional friction between the courts of equity and the common law courts. For that history, the dictionaries must be supplemented with treatises on equity jurisprudence. Neither source situates ampliare within the broader non liquet doctrine with any depth, treating it as a procedural footnote rather than a substantive concept.