Definition
An archaic legal phrase derived from the Latin *justiciare*, used in old English practice with three related but distinct procedural meanings: (1) to do justice or administer justice in a formal legal sense; (2) to see that justice is done, typically as a duty imposed on a court or officer; and (3) to summon a person before a tribunal to answer and submit to justice. The phrase appears primarily in medieval and early modern legal instruments, writs, and procedural records rather than in substantive legal doctrine.
Common Confusion
TO JUSTICE should not be confused with the noun phrase "to justice" as it appears in ordinary English idiom (e.g., "to bring someone to justice"), which carries a general, non-technical meaning. The legal phrase is a verb construction — functioning as an infinitive — with specific procedural force in historical English practice. Modern readers encountering the phrase in archaic legal instruments may misread it as idiomatic rather than recognizing it as a term of art with defined procedural content.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in medieval or early modern English legal records — plea rolls, writ registers, or Chancery instruments — will encounter this phrase in contexts where its precise procedural meaning is material to understanding what legal action was being taken or compelled. The three functional senses (doing, supervising, or compelling justice) are not always clearly distinguished in the source documents themselves, and misreading one for another can distort the interpretation of a proceeding.
The phrase connects directly to related Latin forms. Burrill cross-references *justiciare* and *justicies*, and researchers should follow those entries when tracing the phrase through primary sources. *Justicies* was a specific writ commanding a county court to do justice to a plaintiff — a narrow, technical instrument. Conflating the general phrase "to justice" with the specific writ *justicies* is a common research error.
The Scottish variant — Justice Ayres (or Aires) — represents a distinct institutional application of the same root concept. In Scots law, these were formal judicial circuits conducted by judges of the Justiciary Courts for regional administration of criminal justice. The term "ayres" or "aires" derives from the same tradition as the English eyre, and researchers working in Scottish legal history should treat Justice Ayres as a separate institutional term requiring its own investigation, not simply a Scottish synonym for English assize circuits.
For corpus researchers, this phrase is unlikely to appear in post-seventeenth-century legal materials except in historical commentary or quotation. Its presence in a document is itself a dating indicator.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal shelf source for this term. Burrill correctly identifies the Latin root *justiciare* and provides the three functional meanings without substantial elaboration. His entry is brief but accurate, and his cross-references to *justiciare* and *justicies* are the appropriate follow-on entries for deeper research.
Burrill also notes the Scottish Justice Ayres with a citation to Bell's Dictionary, correctly situating them as a distinct regional institution rather than a direct equivalent of English practice. This is a useful distinction that researchers should not collapse.
No other standard historical legal dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus — not Bouvier, not Black's early editions — carry a dedicated entry for this phrase, suggesting it had already passed from active legal use by the time those dictionaries were compiled in the nineteenth century. Its appearance in Burrill reflects that dictionary's particular strength in archaic and Latin-derived English legal terminology.
The phrase is largely absent from modern legal dictionaries because it no longer functions as operative legal vocabulary. Researchers should not expect contemporary resources to resolve questions about its historical use.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase "to justice" in its technical sense is specific to the historical common law tradition of England and, in its Justice Ayres form, Scotland. It has no operative equivalent in modern American, Canadian, or Commonwealth legal practice.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Obstruction of Justice (18 USC 1501-1521) — for modern context on the administration and interference with justice as a legal concept.
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Juvenile Justice — Overview and Philosophy — for institutional justice administration in a modern framework.