Definition
De advisamento consilii nando is a Latin phrase of medieval English legal origin meaning "for hearing and determining," used in the context of writs and commissions of oyer and terminer. It appears in the form of a writ or commission issued under royal authority, often paired with the phrase nostri ("of our council"), signifying that the commission was issued with or by the advice of the king's council. The full phrase, as it appears in historical practice, authorizes designated commissioners to hear and determine specific criminal or quasi-criminal matters — typically serious offenses, treasons, or other matters the ordinary courts were not convened to address in a timely fashion. It is a descriptive phrase of commission, not an independent legal doctrine.
Common Confusion
The phrase is easily misread as a variant of de audiendo et terminando, the more frequently cited Latin formula for oyer and terminer commissions. While both phrases describe the same substantive authority — to hear and determine — de advisamento consilii nando emphasizes the advisory or conciliar dimension of the authorization, indicating that the commission issued upon counsel of the king's advisors. Researchers encountering either phrase in historical sources should treat them as functionally describing the same type of commission, while noting that the de advisamento form signals a closer nexus to royal or conciliar initiative rather than routine judicial process.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will appear almost exclusively in pre-modern English sources — writs, plea rolls, commission records, and early treatises from the medieval and early modern period. It is not a term of American law and has no direct analog in post-colonial legal systems. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should note several navigational points.
First, the term is archaic even within English legal history and is rarely indexed under its full Latin form. Researchers searching historical records should cross-reference under oyer and terminer, commission, and council (or consilium) to locate related primary material.
Second, the phrase nostri in the formula is significant. The phrase "de advisamento consilii nostri" — by the advice of our council — ties the commission to prerogative authority and distinguishes it from commissions issued as a matter of routine judicial administration. In corpus sources touching on the development of royal prerogative or the history of the Privy Council, this phrase may surface in foundational discussions.
Third, the fragmentary nature of the Rapalje & Lawrence entry for this term is a research trap. The source definition is incomplete as preserved — it breaks off mid-sentence — meaning that historical dictionary support for this phrase is thinner than for related terms. Do not treat the Rapalje & Lawrence entry as authoritative or complete on its own. Supplement with primary source work in English commission records and treatises on the history of oyer and terminer.
Fourth, no significant jurisdictional variation exists in American law because this term did not transplant into American legal practice. Its relevance is historical and comparative only.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence is the only source in the Law Mind historical shelf that contains an entry for this phrase, and that entry is fragmentary. The preserved text reads: "For hearing and determining; NOSTRI — With (or by) the advice of our to hear and determine. A writ or commission." The entry breaks off, leaving the full definition incomplete. What survives confirms the basic function of the phrase as descriptive of a commission to hear and determine, and links it to the conciliar advisory context (consilii nostri — of our council). No other shelf dictionaries index this precise phrase. Bouvier, Black, and other standard historical sources do not carry a dedicated entry. The most useful context for this phrase in those sources will be found under their respective treatments of oyer and terminer commissions and the history of royal writs.