Definition
A Latin adjective meaning "civil," used in Roman and medieval legal texts to distinguish civil matters from criminal ones, and to denote things belonging to the civitas (the state or organized political community). The term appears almost exclusively in legal Latin phrases found in historical sources, particularly in Bracton and Fleta, and is not used as a standalone term in modern legal practice. Its force is entirely contextual — it qualifies the noun it modifies to signal the civil-law character of an action, cause, injury, or legal rule.
Key phrases in which civilis appears:
1. Civilis actio — A civil action, as opposed to a criminal prosecution. The distinction tracks the fundamental division between private disputes seeking remedy for one party and public proceedings seeking punishment on behalf of the state.
2. Civilis causa — A civil cause; a matter heard in civil rather than criminal jurisdiction.
3. Placita civilia — Civil pleas; proceedings in civil courts. Contrasted with pleas of the Crown (placita coronae), which were criminal in character.
4. Injuriae civiles — Civil injuries; wrongs redressable by private action, not by criminal sanction.
5. Jus civile — Civil law; the particular law of a given state or community, as distinguished from jus gentium (the law of nations) or jus naturale (natural law).
Common Confusion
Civilis is sometimes loosely equated with "civilian" or with the civil law tradition (as opposed to common law), but the term carries a narrower, more specific function in its original context. When Bracton or Fleta uses civilis, the contrast is almost always criminal/civil — not common law/Roman law. Researchers reading medieval sources should resist the temptation to read civilis as a marker of Roman legal influence specifically; it is primarily a jurisdictional and procedural descriptor.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in medieval English legal sources — particularly Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae and Fleta — will encounter civilis as a qualifying term in Latin passages. Its meaning is stable across those sources, but the specific phrase matters: civilis actio and civilis causa are procedural markers; jus civile signals a jurisprudential distinction. Conflating these produces misreadings.
The term is essentially invisible in post-medieval English legal writing. By the time English legal literature is written predominantly in English rather than Latin, the underlying concepts have been translated into their English equivalents — civil action, civil cause, civil law — and civilis disappears as a working term. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in primary sources from the 12th through 14th centuries, or in 19th-century dictionary entries that gloss those sources.
One navigational trap: Burrill references Bracton at folios 101b and 102, while Black's (1st and 2nd editions) cite folio 101b (with slight variation in rendering). These refer to the same section of Bracton's treatise. Discrepancies in folio citation across secondary dictionaries are common with Bracton and do not indicate different sources.
Because civilis has no modern operational meaning as a standalone term, it will not appear in modern digests, headnotes, or statutory indexes. Searches for it belong entirely in the realm of Latin legal source reading, paleographic research, and the history of English law's relationship to Roman and canon law traditions.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core definition: civilis means "civil, as distinguished from criminal." Burrill provides the most complete treatment, listing the major compound phrases (civilis actio, civilis causa, placita civilia, injuriae civiles, jus civile) with citations to Bracton and Fleta. Black's (both editions) confines itself to civilis actio and the basic distinction.
Burrill's inclusion of jus civile is the most jurisprudentially significant addition, because it opens onto the broader concept of the civil law as the particular law of a community — distinct from both universal law (jus gentium) and criminal law. This dual valence of civilis — procedural (civil vs. criminal) and jurisprudential (state law vs. universal law) — is present in the historical sources but underdeveloped in all three dictionary entries. No source discusses the tension or relationship between the two meanings. Researchers should be aware that context within the primary source will determine which sense is operative.