Definition
A Law French phrase meaning "from henceforth" or "from this point forward." Used in medieval English statutes and legal instruments to indicate prospective operation — that is, that a provision, obligation, or prohibition applies going forward from the moment of enactment or execution, not retroactively. The phrase appears in the Statute of Tithes (18 Edw. III) and was treated by Coke as a term of art signaling prospective legal effect.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a narrow, archaic term of art drawn from Law French that appears almost exclusively in medieval English statutory texts and the classical common law commentaries on them. Researchers encountering desere en avant in primary sources should treat it as a temporal marker indicating prospective scope. Its presence in a statute helps resolve ambiguity about whether a legislative provision operated retroactively or only on future conduct — a recurring interpretive question in both historical and modern statutory construction.
The term is unlikely to appear outside the context of ecclesiastical law and tithe disputes unless cited as a general illustration of Law French temporal phrasing. Coke's treatment in the Institutes (2 Inst. 639) is the principal secondary authority that contextualizes the phrase. Researchers working in medieval ecclesiastical law, statutory construction, or the history of Law French should note that Burrill links this phrase in sequence with entries on "desire and request" and "desire" as precatory language in wills — these are related only by alphabetical proximity, not legal connection, and should not be conflated.
The Burrill entry, while compact, is valuable precisely because it anchors the phrase to a specific statute and a specific Coke passage, giving researchers two fixed points of verification in primary and classical secondary sources.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only substantive treatment of this phrase among major historical legal dictionaries. The entry is terse: it identifies the phrase as Law French, translates it as "from henceforth," and cites the Statute of Tithes (18 Edw. III) alongside Coke's Second Institutes at page 639. No further elaboration is offered, which is characteristic of Burrill's handling of narrow Law French statutory terms — he records and locates rather than analyzes.
No independent entry for desere en avant appears in Jacob's Law Dictionary, Tomlin's Law Dictionary, or Bouvier, suggesting the phrase had limited circulation beyond its specific statutory context. The absence from these sources should not be read as an indication that the phrase is insignificant; rather, it reflects the specialized ecclesiastical and fiscal law context in which it operated. Coke's Institutes remain the controlling interpretive authority.
The juxtaposition in Burrill with entries on precatory language in wills ("desire and request," "desire") is purely organizational and should not suggest any substantive relationship between this phrase and testamentary construction doctrine.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is exclusively a feature of English legal history and has no independent life in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions. It is not in use in modern legal practice. Research interest is limited to historical English statutory and ecclesiastical law.