CURRERE

Definition

A Latin term from old English law carrying two closely related operative meanings: 1. To run (of time): In procedural and limitations contexts, currere means for time to "run" — that is, to elapse with legal effect, particularly toward the expiration of a limitation period. A statute of limitations begins to run, runs, and expires; currere captures that progression. 2. To follow (of court procedure): In the phrase "cursus curiae est lex curiae" — the course of the court is the law of the court — currere supplies the root concept of a court's established procedural path or custom. The court's habitual practice, once fixed, has the force of law within that court.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Currere is not a term of modern English. It does not appear as a dictionary entry in current general usage. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed. The term remained confined to legal and ecclesiastical Latin throughout the period Webster's covers. Editorial note: Because currere has no common English counterpart, the COMMON LANGUAGE section applies only to alert the researcher that encountering this term in any historical document signals a Latin legal formula, not borrowed vernacular. Its absence from general dictionaries makes it invisible to non-specialist searchers.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers will encounter currere most often embedded in Latin maxims rather than as a standalone entry. Two distinct contexts demand separate attention: In limitations research, the critical phrase is tempus currit — time runs. The passive construction nullum tempus currit contra regem (no time runs against the king) appears extensively in early English land and crown prerogative materials. Burrill's own entry quotes Bracton directly on this point. Researchers working in early American law should note that the crown prerogative version of this maxim was progressively narrowed or abolished by state statutes; the maxim's authority does not transfer automatically from English to American sources. In procedural and court-practice research, the maxim cursus curiae est lex curiae surfaces in arguments about whether a court's established custom binds it. Lord Brougham's usage in Bell's Appeal Cases illustrates its persistence into nineteenth-century advocacy. Researchers should be careful: this maxim describes internal procedural regularity, not substantive law. Citing it for a proposition about substantive rights is a category error that appears in older briefs and should not be uncritically followed. Corpus connections: Both uses of currere intersect with the broader Law Mind materials on prescription and adverse possession (time running against private parties) and on sovereign immunity and crown prerogative (time not running against the sovereign). A researcher who finds currere in a limitations argument should immediately cross-check whether the sovereign immunity version of the maxim is also present in the source, as the two were sometimes conflated in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century American pleading.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill is the primary shelf source covering this term, and his entry is characteristically compressed. He gives both meanings — running of time and the court-practice maxim — without separating them analytically, which reflects how the term appeared in the sources he was indexing rather than any conceptual conflation on his part. The quotation Burrill attributes to Lord Brougham ("The course of every court is the law of the court," 7 Bell's Appeal Cases, 166) is the most practically useful anchor for the procedural meaning. The Bracton citation for nullum tempus currit contra regem (fol. 56) is canonical and reliably traceable. What Burrill does not do — and what no historical shelf dictionary does — is trace how the running-of-time concept evolved from its Bractonian and civilian origins into the specific statutory limitations frameworks that replaced it. By the time American limitations statutes were being drafted in the nineteenth century, currere as a term of art was being displaced by the English phrase "the cause of action accrues," though the underlying concept persisted. Researchers should not assume that a source's silence on currere means the running-of-time concept is absent; it may simply have been translated into statutory English.

Jurisdictional Note

The maxim nullum tempus currit contra regem carried full force in English law and was received into early American colonial and post-revolutionary practice, but American states progressively enacted statutes limiting the sovereign's immunity from limitations periods. Federal and state governments differ in how far this immunity has been waived. The court-practice version of the maxim (cursus curiae est lex curiae) is general common law and has no significant jurisdictional variation, though its practical weight diminished as courts adopted codified procedural rules.

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