JUDICIUM - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

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The Law Mind • 937 words

Definition

A Latin term of Roman and common law origin carrying several distinct but related meanings depending on context:

In Roman law: The second stage of proceedings in a Roman civil action — the hearing before the judex (a private citizen appointed to decide the facts), as distinguished from the preliminary proceeding in jure before the magistrate. In this sense, judicium denotes the actual trial phase: the investigation and decision of a cause resulting in a binding determination.

In old English law: Judicial authority or jurisdiction in the abstract; the power to hear and determine causes. Also used to denote a specific court or tribunal exercising that power.

A judicial hearing, investigation, or proceeding of any kind — a broader procedural sense covering any formal adjudicative process.

A verdict, judgment, or sentence — the outcome of judicial proceedings, not merely the proceeding itself.

Trial by jury — specifically, in some medieval English usage, trial by twelve men. Applied historically in contexts such as juries de medietate linguae.

Common Confusion

Judicium is sometimes treated as a direct synonym for judgment or sententia, but the terms are not interchangeable in Roman law sources. Judicium refers to the proceeding and the tribunal's authority; sententia is the specific decision rendered within that proceeding. In English legal borrowings, the distinction collapses — sources use judicium loosely for both the hearing and its outcome. A researcher encountering the term in a Latin maxim or pleading must determine from context which meaning controls. The maxim judicium a non suo judice datum nullius est momenti (a judgment given by one who is not the proper judge is of no force) uses judicium in sense 4 — the decision — not sense 1 or 2.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Bonae fidei judicium: An action of good faith in Roman law — a proceeding in which the judex had discretion to consider equitable circumstances rather than being strictly bound by the formula. Contrasted with stricti iuris actions.

Judicium parium suorum: Judgment of one's peers. The phrase appears in Magna Carta contexts and medieval English constitutional discourse as a guarantee against arbitrary condemnation — distinct from trial by jury in the modern sense but ancestral to it.

Judicium Dei: Judgment of God. Used in early English law to describe trial by ordeal or wager of battle — modes of proof understood as divine revelation of truth rather than human adjudication.

Why It Matters in Research

The primary research hazard with judicium is its semantic range. In a single corpus spanning Roman law treatises, medieval Year Books, common law abridgments, and equity pleadings, the term may mean five different things without any signal to the reader that usage has shifted. Burrill and Bouvier are particularly valuable here: Burrill emphasizes the Roman law procedural sense (judicium as the trial phase before the judex), while Bouvier gives the fuller English law inventory of meanings.

For researchers working in Roman law or civil law materials, the judicium/in jure distinction is structural — the two-stage Roman action (in jure before the praetor, in judicio before the judex) organizes the entire procedural system. Missing this distinction produces misreadings of Gaius, Justinian's Institutes, and the Digest.

For researchers in English legal history, judicium most often appears in Latin maxims, writs, and constitutional formulae. The phrase judicium parium suorum threads through debates over due process from Magna Carta to seventeenth-century common lawyers. Tracking judicium in that strand of the corpus connects to the history of jury trial, habeas corpus, and the constitutional limits on royal prerogative courts.

The jury-trial sense (judicium as trial by twelve men) appears in a narrow band of sources dealing with mixed juries — juries de medietate linguae — and is largely archaic by the eighteenth century. Do not import this meaning into contexts where the Roman or general jurisdictional senses are operative.

Anderson's entry simply redirects to JUDGMENT, which understates the term's complexity and should not be relied upon as a guide to the full range of usage.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (1st ed.) leads with the jury-trial meaning and cites Molloy's De Jure Maritimo — a narrow entry that gives little sense of scope. Black's fuller second-edition apparatus treats judicium only incidentally, in a block entry for judicial compounds, which is unhelpful for primary research.

Bouvier provides the most serviceable synthesis: he distinguishes the Roman law procedural meaning from the several English law senses and cross-references in judicio and in jure, making his entry the best starting point for disambiguating Roman from English usage. His citation to Sohm's Institutes of Roman Law is reliable for the procedural distinction.

Burrill is strongest on the Roman law side. His treatment of judicium as the second stage of the actio — the trial proper — is precise, and his cross-references to judex and actio are essential companions. His citation of Institutes 4.5.8 and the Digest is substantively accurate and useful for researchers working in civil law sources.

None of the historical dictionaries adequately address the constitutional dimension of judicium parium suorum or its role in common law arguments against prerogative jurisdiction — a gap that requires supplementing dictionary sources with treatise literature.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Roman Civil Procedure; Jury Trial (Historical Development); Magna Carta and Due Process.

JUDICIUMmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

As to judicial “Day,” “Deposit,” ‘“Discretion,” “Documents,” “Evidence,” “Factor,” “Notice,” “Process,” “Sales,” “Sequestration,” and “Writs,” see those titles. . JUDICIARY, adj. Pertaining or relating to the courts of justice, to the judicial department of government, or to the administration of justice. JUDICIARY, n. That branch of government invested with the judicial power; the system of courts in a country; the body of judges; the bench. Lat. Judicial authority or jurisdiction; a court or tribunal; a judicial hearing or other proceeding; a verdict or judgment; a proceeding before a judex or judge. State v. Whitford, 54 Wis. 150, 11 N. W. 424. —Judicium capitale. Judgment of death; lib. 1, c. 39, § 2. In old English law. capital judgment. Fleta, Calledalso, “judicium vite amissions,’” judgment of loss of life. Id. lib. 2, c. 1, § 5.—Judicium Dei. In old English and European law. The judgment of God; _ otherwise called “divinum judicium,” the ‘divine judgment.” A term particularly applied to the ordeals by fire or hot iron and water, and also to the trials by the cross, the eucharist, and the corsned, and the duellum or trial by batile, (gq. w.,) it being supposed that the interposition of heaven was directly manifest, in these cases, in behalf of the innocent. Spelman; Burrill Judicium parium. In old English law. Judgment of the peers; judgment of one’s peers; trial by jury. Magna Charta, c. 29. Judicium a non suo judice datum nuldius est momenti. 10 Coke, 70. A judg: ment given by one who is not the proper judge is of no force. Juadicium est quasi juris dictum. J udgment is, as it were, a declaration of law. Judicium non debet esse illusorium; suum effectum habere debet. A judgment ought not to be illusory; it ought to have its proper effect. 2 Inst. 341. Judicium redditur in invitum. Co. Litt. 248d. Judgment is given against one, whether he will or not. Judicium (semper) pro veritate accipituar. A judgment is always taken for truth, [that is, as long as it stands in force it cannot be contradicted.] 2 Inst. 880; Co. Litt. 39a, 168a.