Definition
A roster is an official list of persons assigned to a particular body, unit, or organization, typically showing the order or rotation in which those persons are called upon to perform specified duties. In legal and administrative contexts, the term carries two principal uses:
1. Court and official rosters. A list maintained by a court, agency, or other official body identifying persons — such as jurors, arbitrators, mediators, or expert witnesses — who are eligible and available to be called upon in rotation to perform legal duties or services.
2. Military rosters. A table or plan governing the rotation of duty assignments among officers and enlisted personnel. In this usage, the roster is an administrative instrument that establishes legal obligations as between members of a military unit and their commanding authority.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A list of individuals or groups belonging to an organization, such as players eligible for a sports team's lineup, students officially enrolled in a school or class, or military personnel enrolled in a particular unit.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A register or roll showing the order in which officers, enlisted men, companies, or regiments are called on to serve.
Editorial note: The common meaning of roster has broadened considerably in modern usage to cover almost any membership list — sports rosters being the most familiar example. The legal meaning is narrower and more purposive: it is not merely a list of members but a scheduling instrument that determines whose turn it is to act and, by extension, who bears a legal obligation or holds a legal right to serve at a given time. This distinction matters when a roster document is introduced as evidence or relied upon to establish priority, eligibility, or default of duty.
Common Confusion
ROSTER vs. ROLL vs. PANEL: These terms are frequently used interchangeably in court and jury administration but carry distinct administrative and sometimes legal meanings. A roll typically implies a permanent or ongoing official record (as in the roll of attorneys admitted to practice). A panel refers specifically to the group of persons summoned or selected for a particular proceeding. A roster implies a rotational or scheduling function — the list exists not just to identify members but to govern whose turn it is to serve. When these terms appear in procedural rules, the specific term used may control eligibility and challenge rights.
Why It Matters in Research
Roster is a procedural term that appears most often in three research contexts, each of which requires separate attention.
First, court administration. Many courts and ADR systems maintain official rosters of qualified neutrals — arbitrators, mediators, and special masters — whose appointment depends on placement on and good standing within that roster. Researchers reviewing procedural disputes about appointment validity, fee entitlement, or disqualification need to locate the governing roster rules, which are often found in local court rules, administrative orders, or agency regulations rather than statutes.
Second, jury administration. Jury venire lists are sometimes called rosters in older procedural sources and in some state court rules. A researcher looking for challenges to jury composition or venire selection procedures may find that roster is the operative term in the governing court rule or historical record, while modern sources use "venire list," "jury pool," or "panel" interchangeably.
Third, military law. The military roster carries enforceable duty obligations. Historical cases turning on whether a soldier or officer was properly on roster — and therefore subject to military discipline for failure to appear — require attention to the distinction between a roster as an administrative document and an order as a command document. These are related but legally distinct instruments.
Researchers should also note that Anderson's Dictionary of Law contains an apparent transcription error in the entry under ROSTER, substituting text from the entry on ROBBERY. This is a known defect in that volume and should be treated as a corrupt entry. Do not rely on Anderson's for the substance of this term.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) offers a compact, consistent definition: a roster is a list of persons to perform legal duties in rotation, and in military affairs it is a table regulating the duty of officers. The second edition adds a citation to Matthews v. Bowman, 25 Me. 167, which appears in the context of military or official duty rotation.
The Webster's 1913 definition aligns almost exactly with Black's military usage, which is unsurprising given that roster entered English administrative practice primarily through military record-keeping. What the historical dictionaries do not address is the expansion of the term into court administration and ADR contexts, which is a development of the twentieth century and beyond. Researchers working in those areas should not expect historical dictionary entries to illuminate current usage in court administration or arbitration panel governance.
Anderson's Dictionary of Law provides no usable entry for this term due to the apparent text corruption noted above.
Jurisdictional Note
State courts vary in whether and how they maintain official rosters for mediators, arbitrators, and other court-annexed neutrals, with some states operating highly formalized credentialed roster systems and others leaving panel selection to informal agreement. Researchers should check applicable local rules and administrative orders, as the legal consequences of roster status — including immunity and fee enforceability — depend on jurisdiction-specific frameworks.