Definition
Latin: "It is ordered." A formulaic phrase that historically opened the written record of rules of court when such rules were entered in Latin. The phrase functions as a formal signal of judicial command — the equivalent of a modern "it is hereby ordered" prefacing a court's directive. Ordinatum est was not a substantive legal doctrine but a procedural artifact: the opening words of a judicial act reduced to written form in the Latin of the medieval and early modern English courts.
The phrase carries particular association with the maxim that follows it in all major historical sources: Ordine placitandi servato, servatur et jus — "When the order of pleading is observed, the law also is observed." This maxim captures the legal philosophy embedded in the procedural formalism of the period: that adherence to correct procedure was itself a form of legal compliance, not merely a technicality separate from substantive law.
Common Confusion
Ordinatum est should not be confused with other Latin ordering phrases in old practice records, such as consideratum est ("it is considered"), which introduced judgments, or adjudicatum est, which signaled a formal judicial determination. Each phrase marked a distinct procedural moment. Researchers encountering Latin court records need to distinguish between a court's order (ordinatum est), its judgment (consideratum est), and its adjudication, as conflating them can misread the procedural posture of a historical proceeding.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a term for reading old practice records, not for arguing modern doctrine. Researchers working in pre-nineteenth-century English court records, plea rolls, or early American colonial court documents may encounter ordinatum est as the opening of a court rule or directive. Its presence identifies the text that follows as a procedural command of the court, issued as a rule of practice rather than as a judgment in a specific case.
The accompanying maxim — Ordine placitandi servato, servatur et jus — is the more intellectually significant element for doctrinal research. It appears in Coke on Littleton and in Broom's Legal Maxims, both of which are part of the Law Mind corpus, and it was invoked in early common law argument to support the proposition that procedural regularity was substantively meaningful. Researchers tracing the historical relationship between procedure and substance in common law thought should follow this maxim into those sources rather than treating ordinatum est as a standalone concept.
The shift from Latin to English court records — compelled in England by the Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730 — rendered ordinatum est obsolete in live practice. After that date, the phrase survives only in historical records and in the dictionaries that preserved it. Researchers should be alert to the fact that any document using ordinatum est in its original context predates 1730 in English practice, or reflects pre-reform colonial American practice.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three historical sources — Black's first and second editions and Burrill — are in close agreement, presenting ordinatum est as a term of "old practice" with nearly identical language. This convergence is not surprising: the term had long ceased to be a living phrase by the time any of these dictionaries were compiled, so there was no evolving usage to track. All three anchor the phrase to the Coke on Littleton reference (303a) and Broom's Legal Maxims, signaling that the maxim Ordine placitandi servato was the primary legal substance worth preserving.
Burrill adds a modest bibliographic contribution, citing 9 East 25 (note) and 2 M. & S. 144 (note) — early nineteenth-century King's Bench reports — suggesting the phrase appeared in notes to those decisions, likely in historical or comparative context rather than as operative language. Black's first and second editions omit these reporters, a minor difference without substantive consequence.
None of the three sources attempts to connect ordinatum est to broader procedural theory or to trace its use across specific court systems. The entries are essentially philological markers, preserving the phrase for reference without analyzing its historical reach.
Jurisdictional Note
Ordinatum est is a phrase of English common law practice and has no meaningful independent history in civil law jurisdictions. Its relevance in American legal research is confined to the colonial and early post-independence period, when Latin court records were still in use in some jurisdictions before statutory reforms replaced Latin with English in official court proceedings.