Definition
REMANERE is a Latin and Law Latin term used in old English law and old English practice with two related but distinct meanings:
1. As a noun equivalent (Law Latin): A remainder; an interest in property that takes effect after the expiration of a prior estate. Used in early common law pleading and land law to denote what modern lawyers call a remainder.
2. As a verb (Latin): To remain, to stop or stay, or to demur in its archaic sense — meaning to pause or hold back from proceeding. In the context of the assize, remanere describes the staying or suspension of proceedings. The formulaic inquiry directed to the tenant — asking whether he will or can say anything why the assize should remanere — was a procedural checkpoint before an assize of novel disseisin or similar action could proceed to verdict.
Common Confusion
Researchers encountering remanere in early records may conflate its two functions. When the term appears in a land conveyance or pleading about estates, it operates as a noun (a remainder). When it appears in procedural Latin — particularly in connection with assizes — it is a verb describing a stay or halt of proceedings. The surrounding context almost always distinguishes the two, but misreading the procedural usage as a substantive property term (or vice versa) can distort interpretation of the document.
The archaic English word "demur" (used by Burrill to gloss the procedural sense) adds a further layer of confusion. In modern practice, demurrer is a pleading device objecting to the legal sufficiency of an opponent's pleading. In the old sense Burrill invokes, remanere/demur simply meant to pause, stop, or stay — not to formally object on legal grounds as modern demurrer practice implies.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in pre-modern English legal records — Year Books, early plea rolls, assize rolls, and land conveyance instruments — will encounter remanere in both functions. The navigational challenge is twofold.
First, the property sense connects directly to the development of remainder doctrine in English land law. Early common law texts and plea rolls use remanere and its cognates interchangeably with what would become the technical term "remainder." Coke's treatment in Co. Litt. 49a and the report of Cholmley's Case (2 Co. 51a), both cited by Burrill, are the key anchors. Researchers tracing the doctrinal history of remainders should treat remanere in these sources as a direct precursor to the modern term.
Second, the procedural sense — the assize formula — appears in assize rolls and in treatises describing the conduct of the assizes of novel disseisin, mort d'ancestor, and related actions. The formulaic inquiry to the tenant (whether he knows any reason why the assize should remanere) was not a trivial formality; it opened the door to pleas in bar, essoins, or other grounds for suspending proceedings. Missing this procedural moment in a source can cause a researcher to misread why an assize record shows no verdict rendered.
The term is largely obsolete in modern legal practice and will not appear in contemporary sources. It belongs entirely to the historical corpus.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal English-language legal dictionary source for this term, and it handles both meanings competently in brief compass. Burrill correctly separates the Law Latin nominal use from the Latin verbal use and ties each to its proper documentary context. The citation to Co. Litt. 49a for the property sense is reliable; Coke's Institutes remain primary sources for early remainder doctrine. The citation to Cholmley's Case (2 Co. 51a) adds a case-law anchor for the property meaning.
Burrill's entry includes a fragment of the assize formula in Latin, which is genuinely instructive for researchers who will encounter that language in assize rolls. The fragment as preserved in Burrill is slightly truncated, likely a transcription artifact, but the substance — inquiry to the tenant before the assize proceeds — is consistent with what historical sources on assize procedure describe.
No modern legal dictionary treats this term, which is appropriate given its obsolescence. Researchers should not expect to find remanere in Black's Law Dictionary or similar contemporary references.
Jurisdictional Note
Remanere is exclusively a term of old English law and has no counterpart in American colonial or post-independence legal practice as a term of art. American remainder doctrine inherited the substance but shed the Latin terminology early. This term will not appear in American sources except in quotation from English authorities.