Definition
A Latin writ of medieval English procedure, translating roughly as "for the great assize to be chosen." The writ directed the summoning of four lawful knights before the justices of assize, whose function was to select twelve additional knights — together forming the grand assize, or great jury — to try a matter of right in a land dispute. The grand assize decided questions of title to freehold land and stood as a formal alternative to trial by battle (judicial combat) in proceedings on a writ of right. The writ and the institution it summoned were abolished by 3 & 4 William IV, c. 27 (1833), the statute that swept away a broad range of archaic real property procedures.
Why It Matters in Research
This term belongs almost exclusively to the historical record of English real property law and medieval civil procedure. Researchers will encounter it in pre-nineteenth-century materials on writs of right and land title disputes, not in any surviving practice. Its primary significance today is contextual: understanding it illuminates the broader transition from proof by ordeal and combat to proof by jury in English law, a transition Henry II's reforms in the twelfth century largely drove.
Several navigational traps appear in the sources. First, Rapalje & Lawrence cross-references the variant form DE MAGNA ASSISA ELIGENDA — researchers should search both forms in historical digests, as the de- prefix version appears in writ registers and procedural manuals with roughly equal frequency. Second, the Black's first edition entry retrieved here is misattributed in the source data: the text provided (concerning Magna Charta and the Charter of the Forest) belongs to a different entry entirely and should not be relied upon as authority for this term. The second edition entry is the operative source. Third, do not conflate the grand assize (magna assisa) with the grand jury. They share a Latin structural ancestor and similar numerical composition but served entirely different legal functions in entirely different proceedings.
For corpus researchers working in English legal history, the relevant cluster of terms includes writ of right, grand assize, petty assize, and the assizes of novel disseisin and mort d'ancestor — all products of the Angevin legal reforms that reshaped land law in the late twelfth century. The abolition statute (3 & 4 Wm. IV, c. 27) is also the instrument that abolished the writ of right itself, so references to that statute in historical commentary will frequently appear alongside discussion of this writ.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) provides the most complete and accurate entry among the surveyed sources, citing Wharton for the institutional background and correctly identifying the abolition statute. Its description of the writ's mechanism — four knights summoned to choose twelve more — matches the account in Glanvill's twelfth-century treatise on English law, which is the earliest detailed description of the grand assize as Henry II's parliamentary institution.
Rapalje & Lawrence's entry is not independently useful; it redirects to DE MAGNA ASSISA ELIGENDA and the text retrieved alongside it (describing a Scottish execution device called the maiden) belongs to an entirely different entry — a corruption in the source data that researchers should disregard.
The first edition Black's entry, as noted above, appears to be a data error returning text from a Magna Charta entry. It carries no weight for this term.
None of the historical dictionaries surveyed situate the writ within Glanvill's account or the broader historiography of Angevin legal reform. Researchers needing substantive historical depth should consult Pollock and Maitland's History of English Law and Maitland's own work on the forms of action, which remain the standard secondary authorities on the grand assize and its procedural context.
Jurisdictional Note
This writ is specific to the English common law tradition and has no counterpart in American law. It was abolished before the American legal system had occasion to receive or adapt it. Researchers in Scottish or colonial legal history will not find this writ operative in those jurisdictions.