Definition
A Latin term from old English law meaning "to refer." Used in procedural contexts to direct matters — typically disputes or cases — to a designated judicial body for resolution. The term appears in formal writs and official instruments ordering that certain matters be sent to a court or panel of justices for determination rather than resolved at their point of origin.
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Why It Matters in Research
REFERRE is a term researchers will encounter almost exclusively in medieval and early modern English legal instruments, particularly writs, charters, and royal commands. Its practical importance is narrow but specific: recognizing the term prevents misreading procedural directives in primary sources from the period.
The Magna Carta context is essential here. The Burrill quotation — *Referantur ad justiciarios n'ros de banco, et ibi terminentur* — appears in the context of the Great Charter's provisions governing where certain common pleas would be heard. This reflects the constitutional significance of fixing jurisdictional routing: the word *referre* in such instruments was not merely administrative language but carried real weight in delimiting which court held authority to resolve a matter.
Researchers working in the history of English court structure, the development of the common law courts (especially Common Pleas and King's Bench), or the procedural legacy of Magna Carta will encounter this term embedded in Latin passages. It should not be confused with the modern English legal practice of "referral" in the sense of sending a party to another professional or agency — a usage that is procedurally related in spirit but carries entirely different legal content.
The term also marks a terminological boundary: REFERRE belongs to the Latin procedural vocabulary of English law that was progressively displaced as English-language pleading became standard. By the time of the legal reforms of the 19th century, this vocabulary had become antiquarian. Sources from the intervening period may use anglicized forms ("referred," "referment") that trace back to the same Latin root but function differently in their legal contexts.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill is the sole historical dictionary source for this entry, and his treatment is brief. He correctly identifies the term as Latin, situates it in old English law, and anchors it with a direct quotation from the Magna Carta (9 Hen. III. c. 12). This is valuable: rather than offering an abstract definition, Burrill illustrates the term in its most significant historical context.
What Burrill does not address is the broader procedural architecture in which *referre* operated — the distinction between courts, the significance of routing disputes to the bench rather than local or itinerant justices, and the constitutional implications of that routing. Researchers should treat Burrill's entry as a finding aid pointing toward primary sources rather than a complete account.
No other historical legal dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus include an independent entry for REFERRE, which reflects its status as a term of art localized to a specific historical period and instrument type rather than a term with ongoing doctrinal life.
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