Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "of or concerning the exchequer." De scaccario functions primarily as a descriptive title or label attached to English statutes and writs that related to the Court of Exchequer and its jurisdiction over royal revenue matters. The term is most commonly encountered as part of the title Statutum de Scaccario, a statute enacted in the fifty-first year of the reign of Henry III (1266–1267), which addressed the administration and procedure of the Exchequer.
The phrase is not a substantive legal doctrine but rather a classificatory marker — a shorthand used by legal historians, treatise writers, and court reporters to identify instruments governing exchequer business.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers are most likely to encounter de scaccario in two contexts: (1) historical treatises cataloguing early English statutes, and (2) discussions of Exchequer jurisdiction in medieval and early modern English legal history.
The primary trap in historical sources is conflation. Because de scaccario appears as part of several different instruments — statutes, writs, and procedural orders — the phrase alone does not point to a single, discrete document. A researcher finding a reference to something described as "de scaccario" must identify which instrument is meant from context.
The statute of the fifty-first year of Henry III is the reference point in all three dictionary sources, and John Reeve's History of the English Law (vol. 2) remains the standard secondary source cited in connection with it. Researchers using Reeve should be aware that his work is a narrative history, not a critical edition of the statutes, and his pagination references reflect nineteenth-century editions.
This term sits at the intersection of English constitutional history, fiscal administration, and early statutory law. It is unlikely to appear in modern legal practice but will surface in any serious research into the historical development of English revenue courts or the antecedents of modern tax and fiscal jurisdiction.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) and Burrill's Law Dictionary are in full agreement on both meaning and referent. All three sources give the same translation ("of or concerning the exchequer"), identify the same statute (Henry III, year 51), and cite the same secondary authority (Reeve). The uniformity across these sources reflects that de scaccario was not a contested or evolving term — it was a historical artifact even by the time these dictionaries were compiled.
What the historical dictionaries do not provide is any broader context for the Exchequer itself, the nature of the fifty-first year statute, or how de scaccario instruments related to the broader body of medieval English administrative law. Researchers should not treat the dictionary entries as sufficient for substantive historical analysis; they function only as an identification aid.
None of the three sources flag the possibility of other instruments carrying the de scaccario label, which is a minor gap. Writs and procedural orders of the Exchequer were also historically described using this phrase, though the statutory reference dominates the legal dictionary tradition.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
No Law Mind Encyclopedia entry directly addresses the Court of Exchequer or medieval English fiscal administration. The matching entries flagged (paternity doctrines, defective incorporation, standards of appellate review) share only a superficial Latin prefix and are not relevant to this term.