Definition
Dies amoris (Latin/Law Latin: "day of favor" or "day of love") is a term from old English common law practice denoting a day granted by a court to a party as a matter of indulgence — outside the ordinary course of proceedings — to allow appearance, compliance, or amicable resolution of a dispute. The court extended this day as a grace, not as of right.
Two related but distinct usages appear in the historical sources:
1. Appearance day by indulgence. In its most specific sense, dies amoris referred to the fourth day of term — the quarto die post — given by the favor of the court to a defendant for his appearance. On this day all parties appeared before the court, and the defendant was accorded a grace period beyond the ordinary rule. This was a fixed procedural feature of the old English term system.
2. Any indulgence day. More broadly, the term signified any day granted by the court to a party out of the usual course of proceedings — particularly where the grant was made with a view to an amicable settlement or disposition of the matter. In this sense, dies amoris functioned as a general descriptor for judicial grace periods rather than a technical reference to a single fixed day.
A separate, unrelated usage appears in French procedural law, where the term was applied to the report of a judgment delivered by one of the judges who participated in rendering it.
Common Language
This is pure legal Latin with no meaningful ordinary-language counterpart. The literal translation — "day of love" or "day of favor" — is evocative but misleading to the modern reader. The "love" (amor) in this context is the goodwill or favor of the court, not any affective sense. No common usage section is warranted.
Why It Matters in Research
Dies amoris is an archaic term of English common law procedure tied entirely to the old term system — a framework abolished in England by the Judicature Acts of the 1870s and long since abandoned in American practice. Researchers encountering the term in primary sources will almost always be working in pre-reform English records, Year Books, early treatises, or colonial-era American materials.
The principal research trap is the term's ambiguity. Historical sources disagree on whether dies amoris meant specifically the quarto die post (a fixed fourth-day appearance) or any court-granted indulgence day. Burrill explicitly flags this uncertainty, noting that the term "seems to have rather signified any day granted by the court to a party as a matter of indulgence." Black's, by contrast, leads with the quarto die post identification. A researcher reading a historical source that uses the term should not assume the narrower or broader meaning without checking context.
The French procedural usage — dies amoris as the report of a judgment — is an entirely separate concept sharing only the name. This is a genuine false-cognate risk when moving between English and French legal sources of the same period.
Cross-reference to quarto die post is essential: the two terms overlap but are not interchangeable, and understanding the term system (Michaelmas, Hilary, Easter, Trinity) is prerequisite to placing dies amoris in its procedural context.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill and Black's agree on the core meaning — a day of favor or indulgence granted by the court — but diverge on specificity. Black's anchors the definition primarily to the quarto die post and describes it as the "appearance day of the term on the fourth day," implying a fixed procedural slot. Burrill is more cautious, noting that dies amoris is "supposed to be the same with the quarto die post" while suggesting the term had broader application to any indulgence day granted outside ordinary procedure. Burrill's treatment is the more historically careful of the two.
Both dictionaries cite Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 135a) as authority for the English practice. Burrill also cites Crabb's History of English Law. Black's references Pothier's Procedure Civile for the French usage — a separate doctrinal context that neither dictionary fully distinguishes from the English meaning.
What the historical dictionaries do not address: the practical mechanics of how dies amoris was requested, granted, or recorded in plea rolls; how frequently it was granted versus denied; or how the concept interacted with default rules and essoin practice. Researchers needing that operational detail must go beyond the dictionary sources to Coke directly or to historical procedural treatises.
Jurisdictional Note
Dies amoris is a term of English common law procedure with no direct American statutory or constitutional analog. Colonial American courts occasionally adopted English term-system conventions, but the term itself rarely appears in American sources after the early nineteenth century. Researchers in English legal history or comparative procedure may also encounter the French usage, which is doctrinally unrelated.