In English Law. Courts com- posed of two or more commissioners, called judges of assize (or of assize and nisi prius), who are twice in every year sent by the queen's special commission on circuits all round the kingdom, to try, by a jury of the respective counties, the truth of such mat- ters of fact as are then under dispute in the courts of Westminster Hall; there, being, however, as to London and Middle- sex, this exception, that, instead of their being comprised within any circuit, courts of nisi prius are held there for the same purpose, in and after every term, at what are called the London and Westminster sittings. These judges of assize came into use in the room of the ancient justices in eyre (justiciarii in itinere), who were regularly established, if not first ap- pointed, by the Parliament of Northampton, A. D. 1176 (22 Hen. II.), (the first of these of whom we have any record, were appointed in 1170), with a delegated power from the king's great court or aula regis, being looked upon as members thereof; though the present justices of assize and nisi prius are more immediately derived from the stat. Westm. 8, 18 Edw. I. c. 80, and consist principally of the judges of the superior courts of common law, being assigned by that statute out of the king's sworn justices, associating to themselves one or two discreet knights of each county. By stat. 27 Edw. Lc. 4 (explained by 18 Edw. II. c. 8), assizes and in- quests are allowed to be taken before any one Justice of the court in which the plea is brought, associating with him one knight or other approved man of the county: by stat. 14 Edw. III. c. 16, in- quests of nisi prius may be taken before any justice of either bench (though the plea be not depending in his own court), or before the chief baron of the exchequer, if he be a man of the law, or, otherwise before the justices of assize, so that one of such justices be a judge of the king's bench or common pleas, or the king's sergeant sworn; and, finally, by 2 & 8 Vict. c. 22, all justices of assize may, on their respective circuits, try causes pending in the court of exchequer, without issuing (as it had till then been considered necessary to do) a separate commission from the exchequer for that purpose. 8 Steph. Com. 852; 8 Bla. Com. 57, 58. There are eight circuits (formerly seven), viz.: the Home, Midland, Norfolk, Oxford, Northern, Western, North Wales, and South Wales. A general commission was issuod twice a year to the judges mentioned (of the superior courts of common law at Westminster), two of whom were assigned to every circuit. The judges had four several commissions, viz.: of the peace; of oyer and terminer; of gaol delivery; and of nisi prius. There were formerly five, in- cluding the commission of assize; but the abolition of assizes and other real actions has thrown that commission out of force. The commission of nisi prius was directed to the judges, the clerks of assize, and others; and by it civil causes in which issue had been joined in any one of the superior courts were tried in circuit by a jury of twelve men of the county in which the venire was laid, and on return of the verdict to the court above-usually on the first day of the term following-the court gave judgment on the fifth day after, allowing the four intermediate days to either party, if dissatisfied with the verdict, to move for a new trial. 8 Steph. Com. 514, 515; 3 Bla. Com. 58, 59. Where courts of this kind exist in the United States, they are instituted by statutory provision. 4 W. & S. 404. See OYER AND TERMINER;