Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "a day given on the prayer of the parties." In historical common law practice, dies datus prece partium referred to a procedural continuance or adjournment of a legal proceeding granted at the joint request of the litigants rather than by the court's own motion or by operation of law. The parties would petition the court to set a future day for the matter to proceed, and the court would grant that day in response to their plea. The term functioned as a technical description of a consensual delay in litigation — distinguishing a postponement sought by the parties from one ordered by the court on its own initiative.
Common Confusion
Three related Latin maxims appear in close proximity in the historical sources and are sometimes conflated:
— Dies datus prece partium: a day given by consent of the parties (procedural continuance)
— Dies inceptus pro completo habetur: a day begun is held as complete (a rule of computation treating a partially elapsed day as a full day for legal purposes)
— Dies incertus pro conditione habetur: an uncertain day is held as a condition (a rule of construction treating a future event of uncertain timing as a conditional rather than a fixed term)
These are three distinct legal maxims that happen to share the word dies (day) and appear together in the same passages of Bracton and the historical dictionaries. They operate in entirely different doctrinal contexts — procedure, time computation, and contract construction, respectively — and should not be treated as variations of a single rule.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is primarily a relic of medieval English common law procedure and will appear almost exclusively in pre-modern sources: Bracton, early plea rolls, and the procedural treatises of the common law's formative period. Researchers encountering dies datus prece partium in a historical document are looking at procedural mechanics, not substantive law — specifically at how cases were continued on the common law side of the courts.
The practical significance for corpus research is navigational: the phrase signals that a procedural event occurred by agreement, which affects how surrounding entries in a plea roll or proceeding record should be read. A dies datus prece partium is not a default, a nonsuit, or a court-ordered delay; it reflects active participation by both parties in managing the case's schedule.
Because the term is Latin court vocabulary embedded in Bracton's era, it will appear in Law Latin registers of primary sources and in the procedural sections of treatises covering early English practice. It does not survive into modern procedural terminology in any recognizable form; contemporary equivalents are handled under continuance, adjournment, or stipulation.
Researchers should also be alert to the company this phrase keeps. Black's Law Dictionary places it alongside dies inceptus and dies incertus — which, while distinct in function, appear in the same source passages. A researcher who finds one of the three in a historical text should check whether the others are relevant to the surrounding context.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary treats dies datus prece partium briefly but correctly, citing Bracton (fol. 358), Gilbert's Common Pleas, and Reeve's History of English Law as authority. These citations point to the core procedural literature of the medieval and early modern common law. Gilbert's Common Pleas and Reeve's History are particularly useful because they translate Bracton-era practice into analytical description rather than original Latin pleading, making them more accessible entry points for researchers who need doctrinal context rather than primary source verification.
The Black's entry is purely definitional and does not explain the procedural setting in which the phrase operated — it does not, for instance, describe when courts would grant or deny such a prayer, what formalities attended the request, or how the granted day was recorded. For that depth, researchers must go to the underlying sources, particularly Reeve's account of early English law and the relevant folios of Bracton.
No meaningful divergence exists among the historical dictionaries on this term because it is narrowly technical and historically confined. The definition has not evolved; the practice it describes has simply ceased to exist in living legal procedure.
Jurisdictional Note
Dies datus prece partium is specific to the historical English common law. It has no direct equivalent in civil law, equity, or canon law traditions, and it does not appear as operative vocabulary in any modern common law jurisdiction.