Definition
An obsolete Law French term meaning a laying on, or the act of placing hands upon a person. Appears primarily in the phrase *injecture le mains* — literally, "laying hands on" — referring to the physical act of touching or seizing another person. The term functioned as a description of physical contact in legal contexts where the manner or fact of touching carried legal significance, such as in proceedings involving arrest, ecclesiastical discipline, or the assertion of physical authority over a person or property.
The term is not in active legal use. It survives only in historical legal sources as a relic of the Law French vocabulary that shaped early English common law pleading and procedure.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *injecture* or *injecture le mains* in historical legal materials should understand that the phrase describes a physical act — the laying on of hands — rather than a formal doctrine or cause of action in its own right. Its appearance in a text signals that the source is drawing on Law French conventions, placing it likely in English legal materials from the medieval period through the early modern era, before Law French was formally abolished in English court proceedings (1731 by statute).
The primary trap is mistaking this as a technical term with a developed body of doctrine attached to it. It is better understood as a descriptive phrase. A researcher who encounters it should look to the surrounding context to determine whether the "laying on of hands" in question relates to arrest and physical custody, battery or trespass to the person, ecclesiastical procedure (where the laying on of hands carried distinct canonical significance), or the assertion of seisin or possession over property.
Because the term appears in Kelham's glossary — a standard reference for Law French legal vocabulary — it is likely to surface when researchers are working through early plea rolls, year books, or abridgments that preserve Law French terminology. Cross-referencing with Kelham directly is advisable when the surrounding text is ambiguous.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the sole entry in the Law Mind corpus: "L. Fr. A laying on. *Injecture le mains*; laying hands on. Kelham." This is a minimal entry, consistent with Burrill's treatment of Law French terms that functioned as descriptive vocabulary rather than as terms of art requiring extended definition. The citation to Kelham — Robert Kelham's *A Dictionary of the Norman or Old French Language* (1779) — confirms the term's grounding in the Law French glossary tradition rather than in a developed English legal doctrine.
No other corpus sources address this term. The absence of discussion in later legal dictionaries reflects its obsolescence rather than any ambiguity about its meaning. The term appears to have passed out of use without controversy or refinement, simply displaced as Law French gave way to English in legal proceedings and writing.
Jurisdictional Note
Relevant only to English legal history. No American jurisdiction developed doctrine using this terminology. Researchers working in early colonial American legal records may occasionally encounter Law French survivals, but *injecture* is not among the terms that persisted into American practice.