SESSIO

4 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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Definition
Latin term meaning "a sitting" or "a session." Used in old English law to denote a formal convening of a court, legislature, or other deliberative body. Most commonly encountered in the phrase sessio parliamenti — the sitting of Parliament — but applicable to any authorized assembly gathered for official business. The term is the Latin root behind the modern English legal word SESSION and appears in historical records, court documents, and legal treatises in contexts where modern sources would simply use "session."
Why It Matters in Research
Sessio is a term of access, not analysis. Researchers encounter it not because it carries legal weight distinct from "session" but because it appears in older Latin-language legal materials — parliamentary records, Year Books, Cowell's Interpreter, and similar sources — where the vernacular equivalent had not yet displaced the Latin form. A researcher reading pre-modern English legal documents should recognize sessio as a straightforward precursor to "session" and cross-reference findings accordingly. The primary research trap is temporal: sessio belongs to the era when legal records were kept in Latin or Law French, and its appearance is itself a dating signal. A document using sessio parliamenti is likely pre-modern, predating the shift to English-language parliamentary and court records. This framing helps researchers calibrate the vintage of a source and the procedural context it reflects. Because sessio dissolves into the broader term SESSION in English-language legal development, researchers interested in the substantive law of legislative or judicial sittings should migrate to SESSION entries in the corpus, where fuller treatment of procedural rules, quorum requirements, and the legal consequences of sessions and recesses will be found.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries agree precisely: sessio means "a sitting; a session," and each cites Cowell's Interpreter for the parliamentary usage sessio parliamenti. Burrill alone adds the etymological note that the term derives from sedere (to sit), which is accurate and helps explain its appearance across a family of related Latin legal terms including residere, praesidere, and assisa. No source dictionary goes beyond this minimal treatment, and none attempts to distinguish sessio from session as a matter of doctrine. This uniformity reflects the term's status as a Latin form, not a term of art — it carries no independent legal meaning beyond its translation. What the historical dictionaries do not address is the procedural significance of a sessio once convened: rights of parties, rules of order, the effect of adjournment. For those questions, Rapalje & Lawrence's companion entry on SESSION (partially reproduced in the source material) is the appropriate starting point.
Related Terms
Session — modern English equivalent; the operative term for substantive research Sessio Parliamenti — the specific parliamentary usage; see entries on Parliamentlegislative session Assisa — related Latin term for a sitting of justices; frequently appears in the same historical sources Court — parent concept for judicial sittings Adjournment — the act terminating a session; legally significant counterpart Prorogation — parliamentary act suspending or ending a session of Parliament Term (of court) — closely related concept distinguishing scheduled judicial periods from individual sittings
SESSIOmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
Lat. In old English law. A sitting; a session. Sessio parliamenti, the sitting of parliament. Cowell.
SESSIOmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
Lat. In old English law. A sitting; a session. Sessio parliamenti, th sitting of parliament. Cowell.
SESSIOmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883
A sitting or session. Sessio parof the same bill of exchange, any one part liamenti, a sitting of parliament.-Cowell. SESSION.- The sitting of a court or of justices in court; the time during which a court is open for the transaction of business. Also the time during which a legislative body sits for the transaction of business. SESSION, (as applied to courts). 3 Hen. & M. (Va.) 27. (of legislature). 64 III. 82. SESSION, GREAT, OF WALES. - A court which was abolished by 1 Will. IV. c. 70. The proceedings now issue out of the courts at Westminster, and two of the judges of the superior courts hold the circuits in Wales and Cheshire, as in other English counties. SESSION OF THE PEACE is a sitting of justices of the peace for the exercise of their powers. There are four kinds: petty, special, quarter and general sessions. See those titles. Pritch. Quar. Sess. 1. SESSIONS OF THE PEACE, (defined). 1 Chit. Crim. L. 134. of which being paid, the others are void. This is done to obviate inconveniences from the mislaying or miscarriage of the bill, and to enable the holder to transmit the same by different conveyances to the drawee, so as to insure the most speedy presentment for acceptance and payment. The general usage in England and America is for the drawer to deliver a set of three parts of the bill to the payee or holder. Where a set consisting of several parts is given, each part ought to contain a condition that it shall be payable only so long as all the others remain unpaid. Byles Bills (11 edit.) 387. See BILL OF ExCHANGE, § 10.

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