Definition
Dies datus in banco (Latin: "a day given in bank") is a procedural term from English common law referring to a day appointed for the hearing or appearance of a party in the superior court sitting in banc — that is, the full court assembled at Westminster — as distinguished from a day given at nisi prius, where a single judge sat on circuit in the counties to hear cases with a jury. The term belongs to a family of Latin scheduling expressions used in the old common law courts, particularly the Court of Common Pleas, to designate the nature and venue of a procedural appointment.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is almost exclusively a term of historical English common law procedure and will appear in pre-nineteenth-century records, pleading books, and abridgments. Researchers encountering dies datus in banco in historical sources should understand it as a scheduling designation tied to the structural division between bench proceedings and jury trial proceedings. The contrast with nisi prius is the essential context: proceedings in banco involved legal argument before the full court at a fixed term (Hilary, Easter, Trinity, Michaelmas), while nisi prius proceedings dispatched the fact-finding to the circuits. A day given in banco therefore typically signals a stage of the case involving the court's legal determination — demurrers, motions in arrest of judgment, writs of error — rather than jury trial.
Researchers working in Bracton, early plea rolls, or Coke's commentaries will encounter this term as part of a dense vocabulary of "dies" expressions (dies datus, dies amoris, dies gratiae, dies juridicus, dies non juridicus). Confusing these terms or missing the in banco qualifier can lead to misreading the procedural posture of a case. The in banco distinction effectively collapsed in English practice following the Judicature Acts of 1873–1875, which unified the superior courts and abolished the old term-and-circuit structure. After that point the term disappears from live practice, though it persists in historical legal scholarship.
American researchers should note that the in banco / nisi prius distinction was adopted in early American practice but was inconsistently maintained and largely abandoned as American courts developed their own procedural structures in the nineteenth century. The term will rarely if ever appear in American sources after the mid-nineteenth century.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary is the primary historical dictionary source for this term. The entry is spare but precise: it defines the term as "a day given in the bench, (or court of common pleas)" and distinguishes it from a day at nisi prius, citing Bracton (fols. 257b, 361) and Coke upon Littleton (135). The Bracton and Coke citations anchor the term firmly in the foundational common law texts. Black's does not elaborate on the procedural mechanics or the significance of the distinction, which is typical of the dictionary's treatment of procedural Latin terms — the definition is accurate but thin. No other major historical legal dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus provide a materially different account; the term does not appear to generate significant disagreement across sources.
The Bracton citation is notable: Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, written in the thirteenth century, is the earliest systematic treatise on English common law, and the fact that dies datus in banco appears there confirms the term's deep roots in the medieval court structure. Coke's reference in Co. Litt. 135 — Coke's Commentary upon Littleton — reflects its continuing currency in seventeenth-century practice. Researchers should note that historical dictionary sources generally do not explain the term system as a whole; to understand dies datus in banco fully, the entry should be read alongside broader treatments of common law court structure and the nisi prius system.