EXALTARE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

EXALTAREAuthored

The Law Mind • 619 words

Definition

A Latin term from old English law meaning to raise or elevate. The word appears most often in contexts involving water — specifically, the raising of the surface level of a pond or pool. The compound form *exaltare stagnum* (to raise a pool) was the typical formulation in pleading and register entries concerning interference with water levels, particularly where one party's obstruction or construction caused water to back up onto another's land.

Why It Matters in Research

EXALTARE is a term of limited but specific navigational value. Researchers encountering it in old English writs, register entries, or early common law pleadings will find it concentrated in actions concerning water obstruction — functionally the precursor to modern nuisance and water-rights disputes. The term appears in the Registrum Omnium Brevium and in Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, which Burrill's citation to "Reg. Orig. 199. F. N. B." confirms. Researchers working with these sources should treat EXALTARE as a signal that the underlying dispute involves interference with a watercourse, millpond, or similar feature, and should cross-reference related writs concerning mills, fisheries, and common nuisance.

Because the term belongs to the formulaic Latin of medieval English pleading, it does not migrate into post-writ-system practice. Researchers will not encounter it in equity records or in common law pleading after the reforms of the nineteenth century. Its presence in a document is itself a dating indicator, suggesting a source tied to the pre-reform writ system.

Do not expect to locate EXALTARE in American legal sources. The term was already archaic by the time English common law took root in the colonies, and American water-rights disputes proceeded under different doctrinal frameworks (riparian rights, prior appropriation) without this vocabulary.

Historical Dictionary Support

The four source dictionaries are in close agreement, which is unsurprising given that each draws from the same narrow stratum of old English legal Latin. Black's (both editions) and Rapalje & Lawrence offer essentially identical one-sentence definitions. Burrill goes furthest, providing the specific compound *exaltare stagnum*, the citation to the Registrum Originale, and the citation to Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium — making Burrill the most useful source for a researcher who needs to locate primary materials.

None of the historical dictionaries elaborate on the procedural context: what form of writ was used, what remedy was available, or how the doctrine of raising water related to other nuisance actions. Researchers should not treat these dictionary entries as sufficient for substantive analysis of the underlying law; they are identification aids only.

The Rapalje & Lawrence entry appears to be a compilation artifact — the definition of EXALTARE runs directly into an entry for EXAMINATION without clear separation, indicating a typographical or editorial error in that source. Researchers using Rapalje & Lawrence should be alert to such truncation issues throughout that dictionary.

Jurisdictional Note

EXALTARE belongs exclusively to the old English common law writ system and has no recognized usage in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions. Any modern legal significance would arise only through historical research into English land and water law, not through any live doctrinal application.

EXALTAREmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

In old English law, to raise; to elevate. Frequently spoken of water, i. e. to raise the surface of pond or pool. EXAMINATION is the interrogation of a person on oath, and is either by written interrogatories (q. v.) or vivâ voce. required to pass an examination; in England three, namely, a preliminary examination in general knowledge (English, Latin, arithmetic, &c.,) before being articled; an intermediate examination in elementary law after half the time under articles has been served, in order to ascertain the progress made by the arti- { 2. Of witness generally. The comcled clerk in acquiring the knowledge monest instance of vivâ voce examination occurs in obtaining evidence from witnesses, who are examined in court, or before an officer of the court or an examiner (q. v.) 13 Examination-in-chief, cross, and re-examination. - When the evidence of the witness is obtained by oral examination, this is called the examination-inchief; when a witness has been so examined, or has made an affidavit on behalf of the party calling him, and is then examined on behalf of the opposite party in order to diminish the effect of his evinecessary for a solicitor, and a final examination to test the fitness of the candidate to transact the business of a solicitor. The examinations are conducted by the Incorporated Law Society. (See the Solicitors Act, 1877, and the acts recited in the preamble.) In the United States this subject is regulated by statute in each State, the requirements differing somewhat. See ARTICLED CLERK; ATTORNEY; BARRISTER;