EJURARE

2 definitions found across Law Mind sources

← Dictionary
EJURAREAuthored
The Law Mind • 737 words
Definition
To formally renounce or disclaim a right, claim, or obligation by oath. In feudal law, ejurare denoted the act by which a person swore away a legal interest — most commonly a feudal right or tenure — through a solemn renunciation under oath. The term implies more than simple abandonment: the oath element transforms the act into a binding, public repudiation carrying legal consequence within the feudal system. ---
Why It Matters in Research
Ejurare is a term of narrow historical application. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in sources treating feudal land law, particularly in materials derived from the Libri Feudorum — the medieval compilation of Lombard feudal customs that became a standard reference in Continental and English feudal jurisprudence. It does not survive as an operative legal term in modern common law practice. The principal research trap is conflation with abjuration. Ejurare and abjurare overlap conceptually — both involve oath-based renunciation — but abjurare carried a broader range of applications in English law, including the formal abjuration of the realm (renouncing the kingdom under oath to avoid criminal prosecution), which has its own distinct procedural and statutory history. When a historical source uses ejurare, it is almost certainly situated in a feudal property context, not a criminal or exile context. When it uses abjurare, the reverse may be true. Researchers working in feudal tenure materials should note that Burrill's entry for ejurare appears to have suffered a textual corruption or printing error in the surviving text, with language from what appears to be a neighboring entry on ejectment intruding into the definition. The Feud. Lib. 2, tit. 34 citation (the Libri Feudorum, Book 2, Title 34) is the authoritative source reference and should be consulted directly when precision matters. Calv. Lex. Jur. refers to Calvinus's Lexicon Juridicum, a standard early modern Latin legal dictionary, which Burrill cites as a secondary authority on the term's meaning. Because ejurare has no modern statutory or common law footprint, corpus searches are most productive when directed at feudal law treatises, glossaries of Latin legal terms, and materials dealing with the dissolution or renunciation of feudal tenure relationships. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the primary English-language legal dictionary treatment of ejurare. Burrill defines it directly as an act of feudal law — to abjure, renounce, or disclaim by oath — and anchors the definition in the Libri Feudorum, the foundational text of feudal legal scholarship. This is consistent with how the term appears in Continental legal Latin: an oath-based act of legal divestiture or renunciation. The Burrill entry is unfortunately compromised by what appears to be typographical interference from an adjacent entry, likely on ejectment, producing a passage that is incoherent in the context of feudal renunciation ("trying titles to land," "distinguished to the sea, in order to escape shipwreck"). Researchers should treat only the initial sentence of the Burrill definition as reliable. The Calv. Lex. Jur. citation at the end of the corrupted passage may represent a genuine secondary authority that Burrill intended to cite for ejurare itself, as Calvinus's Lexicon Juridicum does treat Latin feudal terminology systematically. No entry for ejurare appears in later standard English legal dictionaries such as Black's or Bouvier's, reflecting the term's disappearance from active legal usage well before those works were compiled. Its presence in Burrill, a mid-nineteenth century work with strong historical and civilian orientation, is consistent with Burrill's broader project of preserving Latin legal terminology that had fallen out of common use. ---
Jurisdictional Note
Ejurare is a term of historical feudal law, not a term of any modern jurisdiction's operative legal vocabulary. Its relevance is academic and historical, primarily in the context of English, Scottish, and Continental feudal tenure scholarship. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Feudal Tenure Law Mind Encyclopedia — Oath Law Mind Encyclopedia — Abjuration ---
Related Terms
Abjurare — closely related; oath-based renunciation with broader application in English lawparticularly in criminal and exile contexts Renunciation — the general concept of which ejurare is a specificoath-bound form Feudal Tenure — the legal system within which ejurare operated Libri Feudorum — the primary source authority for the term's legal meaning Forfeiture — a distinct but functionally adjacent mechanism for loss of feudal rights Disclaimer — the modern common law analog for renouncing an interest in property
EJURAREmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
Lat. [from e, from, and jurare, to swear.] In feudal law. To abjure, renounce or disclaim by oath. Feud. Lib. 2, tit. 34. principal method in modern use, for trying titles to land, and especially distinguished to the sea, in order to escape shipwreck; from other actions by the series of legal or out of a house, to escape destruction by fictions on which it is founded. Ejectment fire. Calv. Lex. Jur. is nothing more than the old personal action of ejection of farm, (ejectione firma,) which lay to recover a term for years, adapted to the purpose of trying titles to the freehold; and the fictions which distinguish it are merely the essential features of the old action, (viz. a lease, an entry, and an ouster,) retained in form, though long dispensed with in fact. It is still nominally an action to recover a term for years, but as, in order to do this, the lessor's title must first be made out, a recovery always necessarily involves the establishment of the title, and thus effectually, although collaterally and incidentally, accomplishes the object of the suit. The peculiarities of this action are fully explained in the elementary books, to which it will suffice to refer. 3 Bl. Com. 199-205. 3 Steph. Com. 669-676. Id. 490. 2 Crabb's Real Prop. 1079, § 2477, et seq. Wharton's Lex. Crabb's Hist. 418, 448, 556. The fictions of ejectment have been made the subject of much criticism, but they have effectually survived the late sweeping changes in the remedial law of England, and are still retained in practice in some of the United States. 4 Kent's Com. 70, 71, note. Ejectment has been described above as a mixed action. This is according to the arrangement of Blackstone, and it is expressly so denominated in England, by the stat. 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27. 3 Bl. Com. 199. 3 Steph. Com. 460, note (g). It is, however, classed by Mr. Crabb with real actions, and this is the arrangement of the New-York Revised Statutes. 2 Crabb's Real Prop. 1079. 2 N. Y. Rev. St. [302], 229. On the other hand, Mr. Stephen prefers to consider it as a personal action, which it originally was. 3 Steph. Com. 460, note (g). EJECTMENT, (EGETTEMENT) DE

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

SubscribeEncyclopediaSign In
The Law Mind Legal Dictionary. This is a legal research library, not a lawyer.
Dictionary • Encyclopedia • Sign In