Definition
A Latin verb from civil and old English law meaning "to lie." In legal contexts, *jacere* carries two related but distinct senses:
1. To lie (as in, a matter resting) in the mouth or hands of a party — used to describe what a person may or may not properly assert, deny, or invoke. The phrase *cum non jaceat in ore tenentis dedicere* means "since it lies not in the mouth of the tenant to deny," indicating that a party is estopped or otherwise disabled from making a particular denial or claim.
2. To lie, as an action or legal proceeding — meaning that a remedy, action, or process is available, applicable, or legally competent in the circumstances presented. In this sense, *jacere* is roughly equivalent to the English expression "an action lies" or "this remedy lies." It imports that a legal avenue is open, proper, and may be pursued. Its near synonym in this usage is *locum habere*, meaning "to have place."
Common Confusion
*Jacere* should not be confused with *jactura*, the Latin term for jettison or throwing overboard of cargo (relevant in maritime and general average law). The roots are related — both derive from the concept of throwing or casting — but their legal functions are entirely distinct. *Jacere* describes procedural availability or permissibility; *jactura* describes a specific act causing loss. Researchers encountering either term in old texts should confirm context before assuming meaning.
Why It Matters in Research
*Jacere* appears almost exclusively in Latin maxims, medieval English statutes, and treatises drawing on Roman or early common law sources. Researchers working in pre-modern English legal materials — particularly in pleading, real property, and actions at law — will encounter it embedded in formulaic phrases rather than defined or explained in context.
The two senses of the word map onto two distinct research problems. The first sense (what lies in a party's mouth) is essentially estoppel or pleading doctrine; the second sense (whether an action lies) is the foundational question of whether a cause of action or remedy is cognizable at all. In modern legal writing, this second sense survives in the English idiom "an action lies" or "no action lies," and researchers tracing the doctrinal history of that formulation back through equity and common law pleading will find *jacere* at the root.
The Statute of Westminster II (13 Edw. I), cited in Burrill, and Fleta (a late-thirteenth-century English legal treatise) are the primary sources where *jacere* appears in the contexts Burrill identifies. Researchers using these sources should be aware that Fleta is heavily derivative of Bracton and that cross-referencing both texts is often necessary to resolve ambiguity in a given passage.
Because *jacere* is a verb rather than a defined legal noun, it will not appear as a headword in most indexes or digests. It surfaces instead within quotations of Latin maxims or in footnotes glossing statutory or treatise passages. Digital search of Latin-language source texts is the most reliable method for locating instances.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole source consulted here, and its entry is brief but precise. Burrill correctly identifies both principal senses — the lying of a matter in a party's mouth and the lying of an action or proceeding — and supports both with citations to Westminster II and Fleta. No divergence among historical sources can be assessed from a single dictionary, but Burrill's treatment is consistent with the way *jacere* functions in the passages he cites.
What historical dictionaries generally underserve is the connection between *jacere* in this procedural sense and the broader Roman law concept of *actio* and its availability (*competere*). The phrase *locum habere*, which Burrill equates with the second sense of *jacere*, also has Roman law antecedents; researchers interested in the genealogy of the "action lies" concept in English law would benefit from tracing both terms through Bracton and the civil law glossators, sources Burrill does not systematically engage.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Actions at Law; Estoppel; Pleading (Historical)