Definition
A French-derived legal term meaning duty or customs. In its specifically legal usage, devoir refers to duties or customs in the fiscal sense — that is, tolls, imposts, or charges owed to a sovereign or governing authority. The term appears in English legal sources primarily through its use in the statute of 2 Richard II, c. 3, where it denotes such duties or customs rather than personal or moral obligation in the broader sense.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Duty, business; something that one must do.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Duty; service owed; hence, due acts of civility or respect — usually in the plural, as in paying one's devoirs to the ladies.
The gap matters for researchers: in ordinary historical and modern English, devoir carries a broad meaning encompassing personal duty, courtesy, and respect — "paying one's devoirs" is a social act, not a legal one. In the one notable English legal context, however, devoir is narrowed sharply to fiscal duties or customs owed to the Crown. A researcher encountering the word in general historical prose should not assume a legal or tax-related meaning; equally, a researcher reading 2 Richard II should not import the social-courtesy sense.
Why It Matters in Research
Devoir is a narrow, largely archaic term in the Law Mind corpus and its significance is almost entirely historical. Researchers are most likely to encounter it in two distinct contexts that should not be conflated: (1) pre-modern English statutory texts, particularly 2 Richard II, c. 3, where it means fiscal customs or duties; and (2) general medieval and early modern prose, where it carries the social meaning of courtesy or respect.
The practical research risk is misidentification of context. When scanning older English legal documents or treatises that quote or gloss medieval statutes, devoir may appear without explanation. Knowing that its sole established legal meaning is tied to customs and imposts — not to personal obligation or feudal service in the broader sense — prevents misreading.
Researchers working on the history of customs duties, trade regulation, or early parliamentary taxation will find devoir as a marker pointing toward fiscal legislation. It is not a term that generates doctrine, case law, or ongoing legal debate; rather, it serves as a signpost to a specific statutory tradition.
No meaningful jurisdictional evolution to track: the term did not migrate into American law and carries no independent life in equity, common law pleading, or modern statutory drafting. If encountered in American legal sources, treat it as a quotation or learned allusion to English precedent, not as operative legal vocabulary.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries are in complete agreement, each offering only a single line of substance: devoir means duty, and its legal relevance is confined to 2 Richard II, c. 3, where it is used in the sense of duties or customs. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's reproduce essentially identical entries with no variation in substance.
What the historical dictionaries do not do is explain the broader word history, distinguish fiscal duties from personal duties, or connect devoir to any body of case law or interpretive controversy. Their brevity is itself informative: this is a term of limited technical significance, retained in the dictionaries for completeness and for the assistance of scholars reading medieval statutes, not because it generates active legal questions.
Bouvier's rendering (2 Ric. II.) and Black's (2 Rich. II.) are identical references to the same statute; the minor spelling variation is a transcription artifact, not a meaningful difference.
Jurisdictional Note
Devoir is a term of English legal history with no established presence in American, Scottish, or Commonwealth legal doctrine as an independent legal concept. Researchers working in non-English-law jurisdictions may encounter it only in comparative or historical contexts.