Definition
*Legis* is a Latin genitive form meaning "of the law," appearing in compound legal phrases and Latin maxims throughout the common law tradition. As a standalone headword, it surfaces most distinctly in historical English law as the short form of the writ *de jure patronatus* or, more precisely, in references to the writ known in ecclesiastical and crown practice contexts — but Bouvier records it specifically as a writ brought by the King's clerk against those who would eject him from a living (a church benefice), where the King's title to present that clerk was at stake. In this narrow procedural sense, *legis* functions as a label for a remedial writ protecting royal ecclesiastical patronage rights.
More broadly, researchers will encounter *legis* as a constituent element in Latin maxims and doctrinal phrases: *ignorantia legis neminem excusat* (ignorance of the law excuses no one), *ratio legis* (the reason or purpose of a law), *vigor legis* (the force of law), and *ex post facto legis* (by subsequent law). In these uses, *legis* is not itself a legal term of art but a grammatical building block within established Latin formulas.
Common Confusion
Researchers sometimes treat *legis* as a freestanding term with independent legal meaning, when in practice it almost always functions as part of a compound phrase or maxim. The writ usage recorded by Bouvier is historically specific and largely obsolete; encountering *legis* in a modern source nearly always signals a Latin phrase rather than a reference to this ancient writ. Separately, the writ itself is sometimes confused with the writ *quare impedit*, which also addressed disturbances of a patron's right to present a clerk to a living — but *quare impedit* lay for any patron, while the writ Bouvier identifies as *legis* was specific to the Crown's interest.
Why It Matters in Research
The primary research risk with *legis* is category confusion: the term appears in two entirely different registers — as an archaic writ name and as a ubiquitous Latin grammatical element — and conflating them produces misdirection. If you encounter *legis* in a pre-eighteenth-century English legal source involving church livings or royal patronage, Bouvier's entry is the correct frame. If you encounter *legis* in a maxim or doctrinal statement in any period, treat it as grammatical, not as a writ reference, and look up the full phrase.
For corpus researchers working in ecclesiastical law, the writ described by Bouvier belongs to a cluster of crown-patronage writs that operated alongside *quare impedit*, *darrein presentment*, and *jus patronatus* proceedings. These writs were substantially affected by the Reformation's reorganization of church-crown relations and had largely fallen into disuse by the early modern period. Sources citing Jacob's law dictionary or Tayler (the secondary authorities Bouvier names) are drawing on antiquarian compilations rather than living practice.
Latin phrase research requires full-phrase indexing. No corpus search on *legis* alone will reliably surface relevant maxims; searching *ratio legis*, *ignorantia legis*, or other complete phrases will yield far more accurate results.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's is the only shelf source in the Law Mind corpus with a discrete headword entry for *legis* as a writ. The entry is brief and derivative, citing Jacob's Law Dictionary and Tayler without elaboration. This brevity is itself informative: by Bouvier's era (mid-nineteenth century), the writ had no continuing practical significance, and the entry functions as an antiquarian record rather than a guide to living doctrine.
What the historical dictionaries do not cover is the far more pervasive use of *legis* in Latin maxims. That usage is addressed in treatises on statutory construction and in collections of legal maxims (such as Broom's *Legal Maxims*) rather than in dictionary headword entries, because *legis* in those contexts is a word, not a concept.
Jurisdictional Note
The writ usage is specific to historical English law and has no American counterpart. Latin phrases incorporating *legis* are used across common law jurisdictions, though civil law systems naturally have a richer tradition of direct Latin legislative terminology.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See: WRITS (Historical) for the procedural context of crown ecclesiastical writs; ECCLESIASTICAL LAW for the broader framework of royal patronage and church livings; LATIN MAXIMS for *legis* as a grammatical element in doctrinal phrases.