Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "without number" or "without stint or limit." In legal usage, *sine numero* describes a right of common — specifically, the right to pasture an unlimited number of animals on common land, unrestricted by any fixed quota or allocation. It stands in contrast to common appendant or appurtenant rights that are formally stinted, meaning limited to a specified head of livestock. A right of common exercised *sine numero* grants the holder the broadest possible grazing entitlement, bounded only by the capacity of the land itself.
Common Confusion
*Sine numero* is sometimes loosely grouped with other rights of common without distinguishing its defining feature — the absence of numerical restriction. Researchers should not conflate it with common of pasture generally, which may or may not carry a limitation. The operative distinction is between *stinted* common (limited by number or type of animal) and *unstinted* common, the latter of which is what *sine numero* describes. The phrases "without stint," "without limit," and "unstinted common" all point to the same concept and should be treated as functional equivalents in historical sources.
Why It Matters in Research
The phrase appears almost exclusively in sources touching medieval and early English land law, particularly treatises on rights of common and manorial custom. Researchers working in this area should be aware of several navigational points.
First, *sine numero* is a term of art within a narrow doctrinal corridor. It will not appear in American case law with any frequency, and when it does, it is typically in the context of historical land grants or inherited common law rights rather than modern property disputes.
Second, the phrase functions as a qualifier to a broader property right. Encountering *sine numero* in a source signals that the nature and extent of the common right — not merely its existence — is at issue. This matters when interpreting old deeds, grants, or manorial records, where the presence or absence of a numerical limitation on common can determine the scope of a surviving easement or property right.
Third, the Fleta citation in both Black's and Burrill's (*lib. 4, c. 19, § 8*) points to the 13th-century English legal treatise *Fleta*, composed circa 1290. This is a real and important source for understanding medieval common law, and researchers following this trail should know that *Fleta* is written in Latin and deals extensively with manorial rights, villeinage, and agrarian property law. It is one of the foundational texts alongside Bracton and Britton for understanding the origins of English real property doctrine.
Fourth, in corpus research, the phrase may appear in its component parts — *sine* and *numero* separately — or in translated form as "without number" or "without stint." Searching only for the Latin compound may cause researchers to miss relevant surrounding doctrine.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's and Burrill's are in complete agreement on this term. Both define it identically — "without stint or limit," applied to common — and both cite the same passage in Fleta. Neither source elaborates beyond that minimal definition, which reflects how narrow and technical the term is. Neither dictionary addresses American applications or later common law development of unstinted common rights, which is consistent with the term's essentially archaic character by the time both dictionaries were compiled.
What the historical dictionaries miss: neither source explains the contrast between stinted and unstinted common in a way that illuminates the practical significance of the distinction, nor do they connect *sine numero* to the broader doctrine of common of pasture or to the enclosure movement that largely extinguished such open-field rights in England. Researchers needing that broader context will need to look beyond the dictionary shelf to treatises on real property and agrarian legal history.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is effectively confined to English common law and its direct descendants. In American jurisdictions, rights of common *sine numero* are historically rare and largely extinct as a practical matter; where they survive in deed language, they are treated as easements appurtenant and interpreted under state property law. The concept has no statutory foothold in modern American law.