ANNUS ET DIES

Definition

Annus et dies (Latin: "a year and a day") is a fixed period of time recognized in medieval and early modern English law as legally significant across several distinct contexts. The phrase operates as a term of art rather than a mere description of duration — "a year and a day" carried specific legal consequences that attached automatically once the period elapsed. The rule appeared in at least three principal applications in historical English law: 1. Felony forfeitures. Following a felony conviction, the Crown was entitled to hold the condemned person's lands for a year and a day, after which the lands escheated to the lord. Magna Carta (9 Hen. III, c. 22) expressly limited this Crown holding to the annus et dies period. 2. Wreck of the sea. Personal property cast ashore from a shipwreck remained subject to the original owner's claim for a year and a day. If no owner appeared within that period, the property vested in the Crown or the lord of the manor holding franchise rights over wreck. 3. Year-and-a-day rule in homicide. At common law, a death was not attributable to a defendant's act unless it occurred within a year and a day of the injury inflicted. This was a causation limit, not a statute of limitations: if the victim survived beyond the period, the actor could not be convicted of homicide regardless of the connection between the wound and the eventual death.

Common Confusion

The annus et dies concept surfaces in research under at least three distinct legal rules that share the same time period but operate entirely differently. The felony-forfeiture rule concerns Crown rights in land. The wreck rule concerns property acquisition by lapse of claim. The homicide causation rule is a criminal law doctrine. Researchers who locate one application of the phrase should not assume it controls the others. Black's entry (which references only the maxim annus inceptus pro completo habetur) and Burrill's entry (which leads with the Magna Carta forfeiture context before gesturing toward wreck) each capture only part of the picture.

Why It Matters in Research

The year-and-a-day rule in homicide is the application most likely to appear in modern legal research, because it survived into twentieth-century American common law and became a point of active reform. Many U.S. jurisdictions abolished it by statute or judicial decision in the latter half of the twentieth century, typically as advances in medicine made prolonged survival after injury more common. Researchers working in criminal law sources should note whether the jurisdiction had abolished the rule at the time of the case in question — the rule's survival or abrogation is itself jurisdiction-specific and era-specific. For property and feudal law research, the annus et dies period in wreck and forfeiture contexts appears almost exclusively in historical English sources. Researchers using Burrill will find the Magna Carta reference a useful anchor, but should consult Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 254b, cited by Burrill) for fuller treatment of the forfeiture mechanics. The maxim annus inceptus pro completo habetur — a year begun is held as completed — is a separate but related principle sometimes encountered alongside annus et dies. The two should not be conflated: the maxim concerns how a partial year is counted in certain legal calculations, while annus et dies designates the full period itself. When searching historical corpus sources, researchers should look for both the Latin form (annus et dies) and the Law French equivalent (an et jour), which Burrill notes explicitly. Pleadings and Year Books may use either formulation depending on period and context.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's entry is a single-sentence gloss that defines the term and appends the related maxim without elaborating on the rule's substantive applications. It is essentially a translation entry. Burrill provides more contextual depth, quoting the Magna Carta provision in Latin and identifying wreck as an application domain. His entry is the stronger research starting point of the two, though it remains incomplete by omitting the homicide causation rule entirely — the application with the longest doctrinal life in Anglo-American law. Neither dictionary addresses the abolition of the year-and-a-day homicide rule, which is an expected gap given their publication dates. Researchers relying solely on these sources will have a foundation in the feudal property applications but will need to supplement with modern criminal law materials for any contemporary or late-twentieth-century research question.

Jurisdictional Note

The year-and-a-day homicide rule was recognized at common law across American jurisdictions but has been abolished in many states and at the federal level, either by statute or judicial decision. The forfeiture and wreck applications are primarily of historical significance and do not have operative force in modern American law. English law formally abolished the year-and-a-day homicide rule by the Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996.

Related Terms