Definition
A historical common law writ that exempted or discharged named persons from the obligation to serve on assizes and juries. Issued as a matter of royal or judicial grace, juratis freed the recipient from compulsory jury and assize service — a burden that, in earlier English practice, fell frequently and heavily on propertied men in their localities. The writ was not an excuse from a specific proceeding but a standing discharge from jury service generally.
Common Confusion
JURATIS should not be confused with JURATUS, which refers to a person who has taken an oath — a juror or sworn official. The resemblance is close enough to cause misreading in older manuscripts and printed reports. Juratis is a writ of exemption; juratus is a status. A researcher encountering either term in a historical document should check context carefully before drawing conclusions about meaning.
Why It Matters in Research
Juratis is a term that will appear almost exclusively in pre-modern English legal materials — Year Books, Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, and similar register-of-writs sources. It has no living practical significance in any modern common law jurisdiction. Researchers encountering juratis in historical records should treat it as evidence of the administrative machinery surrounding jury selection and exemption in medieval and early modern England, not as a concept with doctrinal continuity.
The primary research trap is terminological: juratis, juratus, and jurata (a sworn inquest or jury of presentment) are visually and phonetically similar, and historical manuscripts may not always be clearly legible. Misreading juratis as jurata could lead a researcher to conclude they are looking at a sworn panel record rather than a writ of discharge.
The writ also reflects a broader historical phenomenon worth noting for corpus navigation: in English practice, jury service was not merely a civic inconvenience but a potentially ruinous obligation for landowners who might be called repeatedly to serve on assizes. Exemptions, including juratis, were a significant feature of the system. Researchers working on the history of jury institutions, compulsory service, or the writ system will find juratis relevant as one data point in that larger structure.
Because the writ appears in Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium — the standard practitioner's register of writs — that source is the natural starting point for any deeper investigation. Citations in both editions of Black's point to Fitzherbert at folio 165.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three shelf sources are in agreement on the core meaning: juratis is a writ discharging persons from service on assizes and juries. Black's first and second editions are effectively identical in their treatment, both citing Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium at folio 165 as authority. Bouvier's entry is fragmentary in the available text — it begins "A writ which lay for persons" — but the opening language is consistent with the Black's formulation.
None of the three sources elaborates on the procedural mechanics of how the writ was obtained, who typically received it, or under what circumstances it might be revoked or challenged. The historical dictionaries treat juratis as a simple reference entry rather than a subject of doctrinal analysis, which is appropriate given that by the time these dictionaries were compiled the writ had long been obsolete. Researchers should not expect the dictionary sources to carry them far; Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium and the broader literature on English writ practice are the necessary next step.
Jurisdictional Note
Juratis was a writ of English common law with no direct counterpart in American practice. American courts replaced most of the English exemption machinery with statutory schemes governing jury qualifications and excusals. The term has no operational significance in any current jurisdiction.