Definition
De passagio is a Latin phrase meaning "of passage" or "concerning passage." It appears in medieval English common law procedure as a term of art describing a category of essoin — a formal excuse for non-appearance in court — based on the pleader's or party's absence abroad or in transit overseas. The phrase is most commonly encountered in the compound form de passagio simplici, meaning "of simple passage," which designated one of the recognized grounds for claiming an essoin de ultra mare (an overseas essoin).
In practical terms, a party who could not appear before a court because they were in the course of crossing the sea — neither fully settled abroad nor yet returned to England — could claim an essoin de passagio simplici. This was distinguished from other overseas essoins based on the nature and stage of the journey.
Common Confusion
De passagio is easily confused with the broader category of essoins de ultra mare, of which it is actually a subcategory. Researchers encountering references to overseas essoins should not assume all such essoins operated under identical rules; de passagio simplici applied specifically to parties in mid-passage, and different procedural consequences and time allowances attached to each type. The distinction matters when tracing a case through medieval plea rolls, where the specific essoin claimed governed how long the proceeding could be delayed.
Why It Matters in Research
De passagio is a highly specialized procedural term confined almost entirely to medieval English common law sources, particularly treatises and plea rolls from the twelfth through fifteenth centuries. Researchers working in this period should be aware of several navigational points.
First, the term does not survive into modern practice. No contemporary legal system retains essoins of this type, and the term will not appear in post-medieval case law or statutes. Its relevance is strictly historical.
Second, de passagio appears in a cluster of related essoin terminology that is easy to conflate. The corpus of medieval procedure distinguishes between essoins de malo lecti (illness in bed), de malo viae (illness on the road), de ultra mare (overseas), and subcategories such as de passagio simplici. Burrill's entry sends the researcher directly to Fleta — a late thirteenth-century treatise of uncertain authorship — and cross-references de ultra mare. Both of those pointers are essential, as neither Burrill nor any single-entry dictionary fully explains the procedural mechanics. Researchers need to follow the chain.
Third, because this term appears almost exclusively in Latin in original sources, researchers using translated digests or abridgements may encounter it rendered differently or omitted entirely. Original plea roll entries and Fleta, Bracton, and similar treatises are the primary source locations.
Fourth, the term is jurisdictionally fixed to English common law. It has no recognized equivalent in Scots law, civil law systems, or canon law procedure, though canon law had analogous doctrines for absent parties.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only dictionary-level treatment identified in the Law Mind corpus. Burrill's entry is spare: it translates the phrase, identifies de passagio simplici as a form of essoin de ultra mare, and cites Fleta, lib. 2, c. 8, § 1. This is characteristic of Burrill's handling of archaic Latin procedural terms — accurate but compressed, functioning more as a pointer to primary sources than a self-contained explanation.
Burrill correctly situates de passagio within the essoin framework and the Fleta citation is genuine and verifiable. What Burrill does not supply is any explanation of how the essoin operated in practice: what proof was required, what time was allowed before the case proceeded, or how it differed procedurally from other overseas essoins. For that, researchers must go directly to Fleta or to Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, which addresses essoin procedure at length.
No other historical dictionary in the Law Mind shelf addresses this term. The silence of later dictionaries reflects the term's obsolescence by the time most legal dictionaries were compiled; by the seventeenth century, essoin practice had largely atrophied and the finer categorical distinctions of de passagio simplici versus other overseas essoins had ceased to have practical significance.
Jurisdictional Note
De passagio is a term of English common law procedure with no direct equivalent in other legal traditions. It is encountered primarily in English sources from the twelfth through fifteenth centuries. Researchers working in Scottish, Irish, or colonial American legal history will not find operative uses of this term.