CONCORDIA

Definition

Latin term used in old English law with two related but distinct meanings: 1. Agreement or concord generally. Concordia denotes a formal agreement between parties — a settlement, compact, or mutual arrangement resolving a dispute or establishing an obligation. The term functions as a near-synonym for concord in the context of medieval English legal instruments. 2. The agreement or unanimity of a jury. In this sense, concordia refers to the collective assent of jurors — their reaching of a common verdict. The phrase compellere ad concordiam (to compel to agreement) appears in Fleta and describes the procedural pressure applied to bring a jury to unanimous resolution.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): In geology and geochronology, concordia refers to a set of plotted data points on a concordia diagram representing rock samples of the same age — a term of scientific art with no connection to legal meaning. Historical common usage: The word derives from Latin concordia meaning harmony, agreement, or concord — a general term for mutual accord between persons or groups. Editorial note: The common English and scientific meanings of concordia share the underlying sense of harmony or alignment, but neither carries the specific legal weight of the term. In legal sources, concordia is a technical instrument or condition — either a documented settlement or the procedural state of jury unanimity — not merely a general state of agreement.

Common Confusion

Concordia and concord are used interchangeably in some historical sources, and the distinction is largely one of form: concordia is the Latin rendering, concord the anglicized equivalent. Researchers encountering either term in medieval or early modern English legal materials should treat them as functionally identical and cross-reference both. Neither should be confused with accord, which in modern contract law carries a more precise technical meaning as part of the accord and satisfaction doctrine.

Why It Matters in Research

Concordia is a term of old English law and will appear almost exclusively in medieval legal records, treatises, and their scholarly commentaries — not in modern case law or statutes. Researchers working in early common law materials should note two navigational points. First, the dual meaning requires context to disambiguate. When concordia appears in connection with parties to a dispute or a fine (a common medieval conveyancing device), it refers to the agreement or settlement. When it appears in connection with jurors or jury process — particularly in the phrase compellere ad concordiam — it refers to the unanimity requirement, which was a procedural cornerstone of early English jury practice. Second, the primary source for both usages in the historical dictionaries is Fleta, a late thirteenth-century Latin treatise on English law. Researchers tracing the concept should go to Fleta directly, bearing in mind that the specific book and chapter references cited (lib. 5, c. 3, § 5 and lib. 4, c. 9, § 2) locate the term within the treatise's treatment of fines and jury procedure respectively. The Black's 2nd edition entry contains a partially corrupted passage — likely a scanning artifact — that appears to blend a separate definition (possibly of composition or arrangement with creditors) into the concordia entry. Researchers should treat that interpolated passage with caution and verify against earlier editions or the source treatise. The corpus connection to concord is direct and important: concordia in the settlement sense is the Latin form of the concord used in the medieval common recovery and fine — a collusive conveyancing procedure that defined land transfer practice for centuries. Understanding concordia in that context requires familiarity with the fine as a legal instrument.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's 1st edition and Burrill's Law Dictionary are in complete agreement, offering identical entries with the same Fleta citations. The two meanings — general agreement and jury unanimity — are presented as coordinate definitions without hierarchy. Both sources treat concordia as a term of purely historical significance, framing it explicitly as "old English law." Black's 2nd edition reproduces the same core content but contains an anomalous passage, apparently garbled in transcription, that introduces language about a debtor paying a proportion of debts and creditors discharging claims in consideration thereof. This passage does not belong to the concordia entry and likely represents a page or column bleed from an adjacent entry — possibly compositio or some form of arrangement. Researchers should disregard it as a source artifact. None of the historical dictionaries develop the jury unanimity meaning beyond the single Fleta citation. This meaning connects to the deep procedural history of the English jury and the mechanisms used to coerce or encourage agreement — a subject more fully treated in historical treatises than in legal dictionaries of any era.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Concord (Fine and Recovery); Jury Unanimity (Historical Development)

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