Definition
In old English and Anglo-Norman legal practice, *voyer* (Law French) means "to go" or "to issue." The term appears in medieval procedural contexts to describe the issuance or dispatch of a writ from a court. The phrase *a que le brefe voyse de la court* — "to whom the writ goes [issues] from the court" — illustrates the term's core procedural function: marking the moment or direction of a writ's formal departure from judicial authority toward its intended recipient or enforcing officer.
The term is not a substantive legal concept but a procedural verb embedded in Law French formulae. It carries no independent doctrinal weight; its significance is entirely contextual, tied to the mechanical language of medieval writ practice.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *voyer* in primary sources will find it almost exclusively in early English year books, plea rolls, and treatises written in Law French — the working language of the English common law courts from the Norman Conquest through the seventeenth century. The term does not survive into modern legal vocabulary in any recognizable form.
Two practical traps exist for researchers working in this corpus:
First, *voyer* can be easily confused with the modern English word "voyeur" or misread as a personal name or title in manuscript sources. Context is essential — the term functions as a verb or verbal noun within a procedural formula, not as a designation of a person.
Second, Burrill's entry places *voyer* immediately adjacent to *vous aves* (or *avez*), a distinct Law French formula used to commence oral pleadings. The proximity in the printed dictionary reflects alphabetical arrangement, not conceptual kinship. Researchers should not conflate these entries. *Voyer* concerns writ issuance; *vous aves* concerns the oral delivery of pleadings in court.
For corpus research, the value of *voyer* lies in its indexing function: its presence in a document signals that the source is engaging with the mechanics of writ practice in the medieval or early modern common law tradition. Brittton (*Britt.*), cited by Burrill, is among the earliest systematic expositions of English law in Law French, dating to the late thirteenth century, and is a primary site for this vocabulary.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the only historical shelf source to include *voyer* as a discrete entry. No equivalent entry appears in Bouvier, Black's early editions, or Tomlin's Law Dictionary, reflecting the term's narrow scope as procedural vocabulary rather than a term of legal art.
Burrill's treatment is characteristically spare: he supplies the language, the translation, and a single citation to Britton, without analytical commentary. This is consistent with Burrill's broader method for Law French terms, which he treats as glossary entries rather than doctrinal expositions.
The citation — *Britt. c. 120* — points to Britton's *Britton*, a late-thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman legal treatise attributed to John le Breton, Bishop of Hereford, and written in the name of Edward I. It is a genuine and accessible primary source, held in multiple editions. Researchers seeking the phrase *a que le brefe voyse de la court* in its original context should consult chapter 120 of that work.
No historical source adds to Burrill's account. The absence of the term from later dictionaries is itself informative: as Law French fell out of use and writ practice was reformed and ultimately abolished (writs of the original common law variety were largely superseded in England by the Judicature Acts of 1873–75), the specialized vocabulary attached to writ issuance became antiquarian rather than operational.
Jurisdictional Note
*Voyer* is a term of English law exclusively, rooted in the Anglo-Norman legal tradition. It has no recognized counterpart in American, Scottish, or civilian legal systems. American legal dictionaries do not include it as an operative term.