Definition
Opening a commission refers to the formal act of commencing duties or beginning to exercise authority under a commission that has been issued by a court or sovereign authority. The phrase describes the moment at which an officer, judge, or appointed individual begins to act under the powers delegated to them by that commission, thereby activating its legal effect.
The term appears most prominently in the context of assize courts and nisi prius proceedings in English common law practice. Judges of assize and nisi prius received commissions directing them to hold court in particular circuits or localities. When those judges arrived at the designated place and began exercising the powers granted by the commission — hearing cases, administering oaths, empaneling juries — they were said to "open the commission." The day on which they first acted under the commission's authority was accordingly called the day of opening the commission, and it carried procedural significance for timing, jurisdiction, and the validity of proceedings conducted under it.
The concept is not limited to judicial commissions. Any formal grant of authority that takes effect upon the commencement of action under it may be described in these terms, though the judicial assize context is the dominant usage in the historical legal literature.
Common Confusion
Opening a commission should not be confused with the issuance or grant of a commission. The commission itself — the written instrument conferring authority — exists prior to its opening. The opening is the operative act that brings the commission's powers to life. This distinction was procedurally meaningful in historical practice: acts taken before the formal opening, even by the named commissioner, might lack legal validity.
The phrase also bears no relation to the modern commercial or employment sense of "commission" as compensation based on sales or transactions. Context will almost always make the distinction obvious, but researchers moving between general historical materials and legal records should remain alert.
Why It Matters in Research
This is primarily a historical term tied to English common law procedure, and researchers are unlikely to encounter it in modern American or contemporary English sources except in historical documents, older treatises, or period case reports. Its significance in research lies almost entirely in the interpretation of pre-19th century records.
When working with assize records, nisi prius reports, or circuit court materials from England or early American jurisdictions that inherited English procedural forms, the date of opening the commission could govern whether a particular proceeding was valid, whether a party had properly appeared, or whether a judgment was entered within the court's authorized sitting period. Mistakes in identifying this date in the historical record could lead to misreading the procedural posture of a case.
Researchers should also be alert to the distinction between the issuance of a commission and the opening of it. A commission could be issued weeks or months before it was opened; authority did not attach at issuance but at commencement of action under it. This gap matters when tracing the chain of judicial authority or evaluating the legitimacy of acts taken before or after the formal opening.
The term does not appear in modern American procedural codes or statutes. Researchers working in contemporary contexts who encounter this phrase are almost certainly reading a historical source or a text that preserves archaic terminology.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary provides the principal entry, defining opening a commission as "an entering upon the duties under a commission, or commencing to act under a commission." Black's anchors the definition squarely in the assize and nisi prius context, noting that judges of assize derived their authority from commissions directed to them and that their commencement of action under those commissions constituted the opening. The entry appears to trail off in the available excerpt but the core meaning is complete.
No other major historical dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus provide a separate entry for this phrase. This is consistent with its character as procedural terminology of art rather than a foundational legal concept warranting extended treatment. Bouvier's Law Dictionary, which otherwise covers assize practice, treats commissions generally but does not isolate the "opening" moment as a discrete defined term. Researchers relying solely on Bouvier's would need to reconstruct the concept from surrounding procedural context.
The absence of extended treatment in multiple historical dictionaries reflects the term's practical rather than doctrinal nature — it describes a procedural event rather than a legal right, remedy, or cause of action.