SCIRE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

SCIREAuthored

The Law Mind • 842 words

Definition

Scire is a Latin verb meaning "to know" or "to have knowledge of." In legal contexts, it appears almost exclusively as a root component in Latin phrases and compound legal terms rather than as a standalone legal concept. The two most significant legal uses are:

1. As the root of scienter, the doctrine of knowledge or guilty mind — the mental state in which a party acts with awareness of the falsity, illegality, or dangerous character of their conduct.

2. As the first word of scire facias ("cause to know" or "make known"), a form of writ used historically to revive dormant judgments or to challenge the continued validity of a record, patent, or charter.

Scire itself has no independent legal effect; its importance lies entirely in the compound terms it anchors.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Identified only as an Italian surname; no general English usage.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not entered as an English word; treated as Latin vocabulary.

Scire is pure Latin that passed into legal English through its compounds. Lawyers and judges use it as a component of phrases, not as a freestanding English term. Researchers encountering "scire" in legal documents should look immediately to the full phrase — most commonly scire facias or the adjectival form scienter — rather than treating the word in isolation.

Common Confusion

Scire is sometimes loosely equated with scienter when a writer uses the bare Latin root for shorthand. These are not interchangeable. Scienter is a fully developed legal doctrine with specific pleading and proof requirements. Scire, standing alone, is merely the Latin infinitive. Similarly, scire should not be confused with scire facias, which is a distinct procedural writ. Researchers seeing "scire" without a following word should treat it as an incomplete citation or transcription error rather than a discrete legal term.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers working in older law reports, equity proceedings, or patent records will encounter scire most frequently as the opening word of writ language — "scire facias quod" — often abbreviated or truncated in manuscript records. The truncation can obscure which compound term was intended. In criminal and fraud materials, appearances of scire in isolation typically signal a passage about scienter doctrine, even when the full word scienter is not used.

Jurisdictional layering matters here: scire facias writs were abolished in federal practice by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Rule 81(b), 1946 amendments) but survived longer in some state systems. Pre-abolition federal equity records and post-abolition state records thus require different interpretive approaches when the word scire appears in procedural contexts.

In tort and securities fraud research, the scienter branch of scire carries a distinct historical arc: nineteenth-century fraud cases often discussed the "scire" element discursively before scienter crystallized as a term of art. Rapalje & Lawrence's treatment confirms this by presenting scienter as the operative concept with supporting Latin maxims, not scire independently.

Historical Dictionary Support

Rapalje & Lawrence do not define scire as a standalone entry. Their treatment falls under the heading SCIENTER, where they supply three Latin maxims built on the scire root:

— Scienti et volenti non fit injuria (Bracton): no injury is done to one who knows and wills it. This is a foundational principle of assumption of risk and consent doctrine.

— Scientia sciolorum est mixta ignorantia: the knowledge of smatterers is diluted ignorance — a caution against half-knowledge as a defense.

— Scientia utrinque par pares contrahentes facit: equal knowledge on both sides makes contracting parties equal — relevant to fraud and misrepresentation analysis.

The pattern is consistent: classical sources treat scire as a building block for maxims, not a doctrine in itself. Anderson's Dictionary of Law does not supply a usable entry for scire in the source material available, confirming its absence as an independent term in American legal dictionaries of the period. What emerges from both sources is that the legal tradition absorbed scire's meaning through its derivatives rather than codifying the root.

Jurisdictional Note

The procedural significance of scire — through scire facias — varies sharply by jurisdiction and era. Federal courts abolished the writ in 1946. Several states retain modified versions for specific purposes, including patent and charter proceedings. Researchers should not assume that the abolition of scire facias in federal equity practice eliminates its relevance in contemporaneous state court records.

SCIREmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

(1153) SCIENTER, (how proved). 3 Wheel. Cr. Cas. 520. Scienti et volenti non fit injuria (Bract. 20): An injury is not done to one who knows and wills it. Scientia sciolorum est mixta ignorantia (8 Ca. 159): The knowledge of smatterers is diluted ignorance. Scientia utrinque par pares contrahentes facit (3 Burr. 1910): Equal knowledge on both sides makes the contracting parties equal. (1154) ceedings, is prescribed as the mode for repealing letters patent. The jurisdiction is vested in the United States Circuit Courts. 25. On recognizance. A scire facias is a judicial writ, but in the nature of an original proceeding, when it is issued by the conusee of a recognizance (q. v.) to have execution against the conusor for the debt. (Fost. 229, 279, 327; 2 Wms. Saund. notes to Underhill v. Devereux; Chit. 888, 1096.) The scire facias is in lieu of an ordinary action. a 26. A scire facias is sometimes a continuation of a former action, being merely an interlocutory proceeding and in the nature of process or execution, as in the case of scire facias quare executionem non (infra, & 11); sometimes a proceeding after the action has terminated, as in the case of a scire facias ad rehabendam terram (infra, ¿9). Chit. 1140. 27. Against shareholders. - The most important instance in which a scire facias of this kind is now brought is where it is required to enforce a judgment against the shareholders of a company. By Stat. 7 Geo. IV. c. 46; 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 73; 8 and 9 Vict. c. 16, and other acts, if execution has been issued against a company subject to one of those acts (e. g. a railway company), and the property is insufficient, a scire facias may (with certain limitations as to past members, the amount for which each shareholder is liable, obtaining leave of the court, &c.,) be issued against any of the shareholders, requiring them to show cause why execution should not be awarded against their property. (Chit. 1177-1196; Hodges Railw. 80 et seq.; Ilfracombe Rail. Co. v. Devon and Somerset Rail. Co., L. R. 2 C. P. 15; Portal v. Emmens, 1 C. P. D. 664; Sm. Ac. (11 edit.) 339; Fost. 106.) It is stated in Archbold's Practice (p. 935) that an action of scire facias against shareholders is commenced by writ of summons in the same way as an ordinary action and follows a similar course. This may be open to question. The following are the principal kinds of scire facias having distinctive names: 9. Ad rehabendam terram-By crown. A scire facias ad rehabendam terram lies to enable a judgment debtor to recover back his lands taken under an elegit when the judgment creditor has satisfied or been paid the amount of his judgment. (Chit. 692; Fost. 58. See ELEGIT.) A scire facias in the nature of execution is sometimes required by the crown, e. g. to have execution of a debt secured by recognizance, or to issue execution on an office found (q. v.) (Fost. 233); if it is determined in favor of the crown an extent may be issued. Man. Exch. Pr. 136 et seq. See EXTENT. 10. Quare restitutionem non.-Scire facias quare restitutionem non lies where execution on a judgment has been levied, but the money has not been paid over to the plaintiff, and the judgment is afterwards reversed in error or on appeal; in such a case a scire facias is necessary before a writ of restitution can issue. Chit. 582; Fost. 64. 11. Ad audiendum errores-Quare executionem non.-Scire facias ad audiendum errores and quare executionem non were writs used in proceedings in error, the first by the plaintiff, the second by the defendant in error, to compel the opposite party to plead. They are both obsolete. Chit. 1341 et seq.; Fost. 213. Scire facias is sometimes employed in proceedings in the Mayor's Court of London. 12. Lord Mayor's Court.-In proceedings in foreign attachment (q. v.), when a certain period has elapsed after the attachment has been served, the pla plaintiff is at liberty to issue a scire facias, which is a warning to the garnishee to appear to show cause why the plaintiff should not have execution of the money, &c., attached; the garnishee either appears or suffers judgment to go by default. Brand. For. Att. 13. 13. If in a suit in the Mayor's Court the defendant's property has been attached and exe cution issued against the garnishee, the defendant cannot appear to the plaint in the ordinary course, because the proceedings in attachment are founded on his fictitious default in appearing to the plaint; and, therefore, if he wishes to dispute the plaintiff's claim, he must issue a writ of scire facias ad disprobandum debitum; when the plaintiff has appeared to the writ the defendant declares, and the action proceeds as in ordinary cases unless the plaintiff prays stet billa (q. v.) Brand. For. Att. 113. SCIRE FACIAS, (defined). 56 Ala. 255;2 Saund. 71 n.; Co. Litt. 290b. (is a new and independent action). 1 Halst. (N. J.) 305. Coxe (N. J.) 118. judgment). Penn. (N. J.) 529. (when lies to revive a judgment). (must issue from the court rendering (1155)

SCIREmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

stitution, as well as from the annual tax levied on the property of white persons for school purposes.1 Every man is interested in the education of the children of his community: his peace and quiet, his happiness and property, are largely dependent upon the intellectual and moral training which it is the object of public schools to supply. Hence the right to tax for maintenance of schools.2 The practice of setting apart section sixteen of every township of public lands, for the maintenance of public schools, is traceable to the Ordinance of 1785, the first enactment for the disposition by sale of the public lands in the western territory. The appropriation for that object became a fundamental principle by the Ordinance of 1787, which settled the terms of compact between the people and the States of the northwestern territory, and the original States. One article affirmed that "religion, morality, and knowledge" are "necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind," and declared "that schools and the means of education, should be forever encouraged." This principle was extended, first by enactment (1 St. L. 550, § 6), and again, in 1802, by the compact between the United States and Georgia, to the southwestern territory. There is a definite purpose declared to consecrate the same central section of every township of every State which might be added to the Federal system to the promotion of these objects. Reservations of minerals were not made out of that section. On the subject of corporal punishment in schools, see the cases cited to this paragraph, and PUNISHMENT, Corporal. See ABODE; ALCOHOL; APPENDAGE; BOND; CHARITY, 2; COLLEGE, 2; EDUCATION; LECTURES; SECTARIAN; SEMINARY; TEACHER; TUITION; WORSHIP. L. To be aware of; to learn; to know. Scire facias. That you cause to be known. A writ for a defendant to appear in court on a day named to show cause why the plaintiff should not have advantage out of a matter of public record. Abbreviated sci. fa., and s. f. Causes execution to issue upon the matter of rec ord, as, a judgment, recognizance, mortgage, tax lien, Clayton v. Stone, 2 Paine, 392 (1828), Thompson. J.. Drury v. Ewing, 1 Bond, 540 (1862); Baker v. Selden, 101 U. S. 99 (1879), cases. 2 Huffman v. Clirk, 77 N. C. 58-59 (1877), cases; 1 Greenl. Ev. § 498; 1 Whart. Ev. §§ 438, 665-67, cases. * State v. Baldwin, 36 Kan. 17-18 (1886), cases; Marshall v. Brown, 50 Mich. 148 (1883), cases; Boyle v. State. • Vredenburg v. Behan, 33 La. An. 637 (1881), Todd, 57 Wis. 472, 478 (1883), cases. Judge. • Constitution, Art. I, sec. 8, cl. 8. See 4 Kent, 238; 2 Washb. R. P. 125; Williams, R. P 281; 2 Bl. Com. 332. S

Scirename

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

A surname from Italian.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

Subscribe Encyclopedia Sign In