Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "for hearing and determining" or "to hear and determine." In historical English law, de audiendo et terminando was the name of a writ — or more precisely, a royal commission — issued to specially appointed justices authorizing them to hear and decide cases involving heinous misdemeanors, trespass, and riotous breaches of the peace. It was not a court in itself but a delegation of royal judicial authority, empowering designated commissioners to convene, take evidence, and render judgment in serious criminal matters that warranted special attention outside the ordinary course of common law proceedings.
The term is the Latin equivalent of the Law French phrase d'oyer et terminer, and the two expressions describe the same commission. The anglicized form — oyer and terminer — is the term that survived into modern legal usage and American law.
Common Confusion
De audiendo et terminando and oyer and terminer are not two distinct institutions. They are the same commission expressed in two different languages: Latin and Law French, respectively. Historical sources use both forms, sometimes interchangeably. Researchers encountering de audiendo et terminando in older English legal records or treatises should treat it as a direct synonym of oyer and terminer and consult materials under that heading. The Latin form largely fell out of active use as Law French terminology became dominant in common law practice, which is why modern dictionaries and court records overwhelmingly use the oyer and terminer formulation.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a pure historical artifact. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in pre-modern English legal sources — Year Books, early plea rolls, Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, Registrum Omnium Brevium (Reg. Orig.), and commentaries drawing on those sources. It does not appear as an operative term in American statutes or case law, which uniformly adopted the Law French rendering.
The navigational challenge this term presents is one of synonym recognition. A researcher working through early writs, commission records, or English legal dictionaries may encounter de audiendo et terminando without recognizing it as the ancestor of the familiar oyer and terminer. Missing that connection means missing the substantive body of law, commentary, and historical development that accumulated under the oyer and terminer heading.
For corpus research, this term marks a chronological boundary: its appearance signals a source predating or contemporary with the transition away from Latin as the dominant language of English legal records (a process accelerated by the Pleading in English Act 1362 and later reforms). Sources that use de audiendo et terminando rather than d'oyer et terminer or oyer and terminer are likely drawing from early medieval English legal tradition. This can help date sources or identify which layer of authority a later writer is citing.
Researchers should also note that the commission itself was not a standing court but an ad hoc instrument. Its scope was defined by the specific commission issued, meaning that the authority of justices acting under it was limited to what the commission enumerated — a detail that generated litigation in historical cases about whether particular offenses fell within a given commission's grant.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) and Burrill's Law Dictionary offer nearly identical entries, all brief, all pointing immediately to oyer and terminer as the operative cross-reference. This consensus reflects that by the time these dictionaries were compiled, de audiendo et terminando was already a historical curiosity rather than a live term of art — preserved for completeness and for the benefit of researchers encountering it in older materials.
Burrill adds the useful notation that the Latin form corresponds to the Law French "d'oyer et terminer," making the linguistic equivalence explicit. All three sources cite the same two authorities: Registrum Omnium Brevium (Reg. Orig.) at folio 123 et seq., and Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium at 110 B. These citations ground the term in its original writ-based context and point researchers toward the primary sources where the commission's scope and operation are described.
None of the historical dictionaries elaborates on the procedural mechanics of the commission itself or its relationship to the general eyre, the assize system, or other special commissions — all of which provide important context for understanding what de audiendo et terminando actually authorized in practice. For that level of detail, researchers should move to the oyer and terminer entry and its associated encyclopedia materials.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia: OYER AND TERMINER