LEGES - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

LEGESAuthored

The Law Mind • 819 words

Definition

Latin plural of lex. Laws. In Roman law, leges were statutes in the strictest sense: formal enactments proposed by a magistrate presiding in the senate and adopted by the Roman people assembled in the comitia centuriata. This distinguished leges from other sources of Roman law such as senatus consulta (decrees of the senate), plebiscita (resolutions of the plebeian assembly), and the broader body of ius derived from custom and juristic interpretation. In English legal writing, leges appears frequently as a Latin shorthand in compound phrases referring to specific bodies of law — most notably leges Angliae (the laws of England) and leges non scriptae (the unwritten or customary laws).

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Third-person singular simple present indicative of the verb "lege" — a usage confined to specialized or dialectal contexts with no meaningful presence in standard modern English.

Historical common usage: Not defined as a common English word in Webster's 1913. The term was carried directly from Latin into English legal writing without domestication.

Editorial note: The Wiktionary entry reflects a grammatical form entirely unrelated to the legal term. A researcher encountering leges in any legal source should treat it as Latin legal vocabulary, not as an English verb form.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Leges Angliae — "The laws of England," used in historical legal writing to distinguish the English common law tradition from Roman civil law and other foreign systems.

Leges non scriptae — "Unwritten laws." In English law, this phrase designated customary and common law as opposed to enacted statute. Contrasted with leges scriptae (written or enacted laws).

Leges scriptae — "Written laws." Statutes and formally enacted legislation, as distinguished from custom and judicial development.

Leges figendi et refigendi consuetudo est periculosissima — A maxim preserved in Burrill: "The practice of fixing and re-fixing laws is most dangerous." Cited for the proposition that constant legislative revision undermines legal stability.

Why It Matters in Research

Leges is primarily a term of Roman law scholarship and Latin-inflected English legal writing. Researchers encounter it most often in three contexts.

First, in historical treatises on Roman law, leges anchors a precise classification system. Conflating leges with the broader category of ius or with plebiscita is an error visible in some older secondary sources; the historical dictionaries are careful on this point, and Mackeldey's Roman Law (cited by both Black's editions) remains the standard reference.

Second, in early English common law sources, compound phrases built on leges — particularly leges Angliae and leges non scriptae — appear in arguments distinguishing English common law from civil law influence. Researchers working in pre-nineteenth-century English legal materials should be alert to these phrases as markers of jurisdictional argument rather than neutral description.

Third, the maxim leges figendi et refigendi consuetudo est periculosissima circulates in treatise literature as a rhetorical device against legislative instability. Its attribution and precise context vary across sources; verify the specific citation before relying on any particular version.

Anderson's Dictionary of Law simply cross-references LEX, which is the correct entry for the singular form and for the broader concept. Researchers who find leges in an index or digest may be directed to lex entries instead.

Historical Dictionary Support

The major historical dictionaries are in close agreement on the core definition. Black's (both editions) and Burrill give essentially identical accounts, all tracing to Mackeldey's Roman Law. Burrill adds Taylor's Civil Law as a secondary authority and preserves the figendi maxim. Rapalje & Lawrence do not provide a substantive entry for leges itself.

The second edition of Black's is the most useful of the five sources here: it expands the entry with the compound phrases leges Angliae and leges non scriptae, which the first edition omits. Researchers using only the first edition will miss those subentries.

What the historical dictionaries do not address is the distinction between leges in classical Roman law and the looser usage of the term in medieval and early modern English legal writing, where Latin vocabulary was sometimes applied imprecisely to English legal institutions. That gap is worth flagging when tracing a specific phrase through sources spanning multiple periods.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Roman Law; Sources of Law; Common Law and Civil Law Traditions.

LEGESmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Lat. Laws. At Rome, the leges (the decrees of the people in a strict sense) were laws which were proposed by a magis- trate presiding in the senate, and adopted by the Roman people in the comitia centuriata. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 31.

LEGESmain

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

Lat. Laws. At Rome, the leges (the decrees of the people in a strict sense) were laws which were proposed by a magistrate presiding in the senate, and adopted by the Roman people in the comitia centuriata. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 81. —Leges Anglie. ‘he laws. of England, as distinguished from the civil. Jaw and other foreign systems.—Leges non scriptse. In English Jaw. Unwritten or customary laws, including those ancient acts of parliament which were made before time of memory. Hale, Com. Law, 5. See_1 Bl. Comm. 63, 64.~—Leges scriptz. In English law. Written laws; statute liws, or acts of parliament which are originally reduced into writing before they are enucted. or receive any binding power. Hale, Com. Law, 1, 2—Leges sub graviori lege. Laws under a weightier law. Ilale, Com. Law, 44, 44.—Leges tabellarise. Koman laws regulating the mode of. voting by ballot, (tabclia.) 1 Kent, Comm. 232, note. Leges Anglix sunt tripartite,—jus commune, consuetudines, ac decreta comitiorum. The laws of England are threefold,—common law, customs, and decrees of parliament. Leges figendi et refigendi consuetudo est periculosissima. The practice of fixing and retixing [making and remaking) the laws is a most dangerous one. 4 Coke, pref. Leges humans nascuntur, vivant, et moriuntur. Human laws are born, live, and die. 7 Coke, 20; 2 Atk. 674; 11 C. B. _767; 1 Bl. Comm. 89. Leges naturz perfectissimez sunt et immutabiles; humani vero juris conditio semper in infinitum decurrit, et nihil est im eo quod perpetuo stare possit. Leges humane nascuntur, vivunt, moriuntur. The laws of nature are most perfect and immutable; but the condition of human law is an unending succession, and there is nothing in it which can continue perpetually. Human laws are born, live, and die. 7 Coke, 2. ; ; ;

LEGESmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

(741) LEGALLY APPOINTED, (in an indictment). 127 Mass. 7, 13. LEGALLY DETERMINED, (defined). 1 Greenl. (Me.) 84. L. 219. (in an agreement). 1 Wheel. Am. C. LEGALLY FILLED UP AND ENJOYED, (in a statute). 10 East 211. cious, and Justinian abolished altogether the distinctions between them. Brown. Legatos violare contra jus gentium est (4) Co., ad lect.): It is contrary to the law of nations to injure ambassadors.

legesverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

third-person singular simple present indicative of lege

legesnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

plural of lex

Legesname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

plural of Lege

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