Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "so here" or "thus here." Used in legal argument in the early English Year Books and old common law texts to draw an analogy or parallel — essentially signaling that what has just been stated about one matter applies equally to the present case or point under discussion. The phrase functioned as a rhetorical shorthand: having established a principle or precedent, the speaker or writer would invoke *sic hic* to assert that the same reasoning holds in the instant situation.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is essentially a fossil of medieval English legal argument style and will appear almost exclusively in the Year Books and early common law reports — sources predating modern citation conventions. Researchers encountering *sic hic* in those texts should understand it as a connective argumentative marker, not a term of art with substantive legal content. It signals that an analogical inference is being drawn, so the surrounding passage — not the phrase itself — carries the legal weight.
Because *sic hic* appears in Year Book Latin, which blends with Anglo-Norman Law French in these sources, researchers should be alert to the mixed-language conventions of that corpus. The phrase is not a doctrine, test, or rule; it is argumentative scaffolding. Do not treat it as a legal standard.
The Burrill citation to Yearb. M. 2 Hen. VI. 1 places the term squarely in the early fifteenth century (1423–24). Researchers working in Year Book materials from this period should expect similar Latin connectives functioning in this same bridging role. No modern legal usage of *sic hic* exists in standard doctrine.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only historical dictionary treatment, and its entry is minimal: Latin phrase, translation ("so here"), procedural context (words used in argument, old books), and a single Year Book citation. Burrill makes no effort to expand the definition because no expansion is warranted — the phrase does its work grammatically and contextually rather than as a substantive legal concept.
The absence of the term from later dictionaries (Black's, Bouvier's) reflects its obsolescence outside of Year Book scholarship. It did not survive into the modern common law vocabulary in any active sense. Researchers should treat Burrill's entry as both the beginning and the end of the definitional record for this phrase.
Jurisdictional Note
Applicable only to early English common law sources. No jurisdictional variation exists in modern practice because the term has no active modern usage.