Definition
A Latin phrase used in pleading and formal legal instruments, meaning "in consideration of the premises." The term signals that what follows is given or done in exchange for, or by reason of, the matters already stated in the document. It appears in older common law pleadings and conveyancing instruments as a shorthand acknowledgment that the consideration for an obligation or grant is grounded in the facts, recitals, or conditions previously set forth.
Why It Matters in Research
Sorum is a term researchers will encounter almost exclusively in early English common law records, reported cases, and formal instruments from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its appearance in the corpus is narrow but distinctive: when it surfaces, it marks a transition in a pleading or deed from recital to operative language. Researchers working with older conveyances, bonds, or pleadings should recognize it as a consideration clause marker rather than a substantive legal category.
The term is essentially obsolete in modern drafting. Post-nineteenth-century instruments accomplish the same function through explicit consideration recitals ("in consideration of the premises set forth above") or through standardized boilerplate. If sorum appears in a document a researcher is analyzing, the document almost certainly predates the mid-nineteenth century, which can itself be useful for dating and provenance purposes.
The single citation anchor across all three source dictionaries — 1 Strange 535 — points to Strange's Reports, the early eighteenth-century English law reports. Researchers seeking context for the term's practical deployment should look there. The associated Latin maxim cited alongside it in Black's and Burrill's — In consimili casu, consimile debet esse remedium ("in a like case, there ought to be a like remedy") — is a separate maxim of general application and is not a definition of sorum itself; the juxtaposition in the historical dictionaries reflects the compact, citation-dense format of those volumes rather than any conceptual link between the two.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's, Burrill's, and Bouvier's are in complete agreement on the core meaning: sorum means "in consideration of the premises." The three entries differ only in degree of Latin formality and in whether they carry the associated maxim. Burrill's provides the most complete presentation, giving both the English gloss and the accompanying maxim with its own translation. Black's and Burrill's both cite Hardres's Reports for the maxim; Bouvier's confines itself to the core meaning alone.
None of the three source dictionaries situate the term in broader doctrinal context — they function here purely as glossaries of Latin pleading shorthand rather than substantive legal authorities. Historical sources are silent on jurisdictional variation or procedural significance beyond the bare translation, which reflects the term's nature as a formulaic phrase rather than a contested legal concept.
Jurisdictional Note
Sorum appears in English common law sources and is not known to have developed distinct meaning in American practice. American instruments that employ it are almost certainly modeled directly on English precedent forms.