Law of Great Nortend
| Law of Great Nortend | |||||||
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 The main entrance to the Royal Courts within the Castle of Lerdenstone. | |||||||
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The law of Great Nortend is the system of law in Great Nortend founded upon the concept of the „natural right” (jus naturale) flowing from the Crown as fount of right (fons juris). The „law” (the lex, as distinct from jus) consists of the traditional customary law (lex consuetudinis) and enacted or written law (lex scripta). The lex is the application of jus as appropriate from time to time and in place to place. Hence, statute law enacted by the Crown and judicial precedents do not do not alter the jus, but rather merely „aright” the law for jus ex lege oriendum.[1] Hence, Nortish law rejects the heathen doctrine that rex non potest peccare. Nontheless, the nature of the King's role as fons juris means that nemo regem potest judicare.[2]
History
Erbonian law can be traced back to various laws of the Arlethic tribes which they brought to Great Nortend. As power was consolidated into kingdoms and fiefdoms, various laws were in force through the land. After unification of Nortend and Cardoby under Edmund the Good in the 9th century, Nortish laws began to dominate; however, local lords and their people continued to rely mostly on the old „good law”.
Much of the lex consuetudinis which forms the basis of large areas of modern Nortish law was codified in the Regni Leges of 1271. Its promulgation was in part precipitated by anger from local lords indignant at not being consulted by Edmund IV in passing laws drastically reshaping and reforming the customary laws of the land. Several refoms were zealously enacted, including the consolidation of royal power over local courts of lords by various writs.
After the Battle of Rodchester wherein Edmund was slain. Hartmold III , claimed the throne, swearing to act on the advice of his Curia Regis in passing statutes affecting the lex consuetudinis. With the assent of his Curia, after four years' of work, he issued the Regni Leges which allegedly reinstated the lex consuetudinis generally in force during the reign of Hartmold II to apply throughout the entire kingdom. In doing so, it effectively codified the lex consuetudinis albeit only partially. Nonetheless, some reforms of Edmund IV were retained, notably those placing all matters under royal jurisdiction by writ of Chancery, whereby all pleas and judgments in lower courts could be sent to the royal courts to be reviewed under royal law.
The Leges of Hartmold II, as interpreted by custom and the courts, still form the effective basis of much of the traditional Nortish criminal and common law, although much amended over the centuries. Especially from the 18th to the 20th centuries, many statutes were passed which considerably amend some areas of the law. Other areas, on the other hand, remain almost entirely as written in the Leges, including much of basic criminal and common law.
Judiciary
His Majesty's Chancery is the government department in charge of the legal and judicial system of Great Nortend, stemming from is role as the royal charter-writing house and keeper of the seals. It is headed by the Lord High Chancellour who is the third-highest judge in the Kingdom apart from the Lord High Steuard and the King himself.
Courts
All Erbonian courts exercise the Sovereign's prerogative, as the fount of jus naturale, to „do right” to his subjects, being the places „whereat the King's duty of judging quarrels and disputes is exercised”[3]. There are two types of court — the sessions courts and the royal courts. The former dispense „low justice” and deal with misdemeanours and civil quarrels between fellow vassals. The latter dispense „high justice” with the sole right to pass a sentence of death. They also deal with disputes between subjects under the jurisdiction of no single sessions court. There is a system of appeal from the lowest sessions court to the highest royal court.
Sessions courts
The sessions courts are local courts consisting of the manor sessions, the petty sessions and the general sesssions, which try with disputes within a manor, a hundred and the county at large respectively. They are presided over by lay judges, mainly recorders and yeomen of right who dispense low justice. While they apply chamber law, they have no power to create precedents by their judgment. New customary rules can be established over time, although this is quite rare nowadays.
Sessions have jurisdiction over petty torts and misdemeanours, such as minor injuries, theft without force, neighbourly quarrels, breaches of the peace, small debts, trespasses and damage to goods. Actions are brought by complaint, judged by a jury of suitours, and judgment and sentence given by the judge. The maximum punishment at petty sessions, apart from righting the wrong, is amercement up to £8. At hundreds sessions and general sessions, imprisonment may be ordered for up to a year.
Royal courts
The basis of the royal courts is formed by the three chamber courts — King's Chamber, Common Chamber and Chancery Chamber — which deal with mostly church, criminal and common law matters respectively. They are staffed by trained justices appointed under the Great Seal of the Realm to serve at the Sovereign's pleasure. Their judgments form the body of chamber law which is binding to an extent on themselves and lower courts upon inrolment on their respective chamber rolls. The three courts all sit in the Great Hall of the Castle of Lerdenstone in Lendert-with-Cadell.
The chamber justices periodically go on Eyre around the kingdom. The Courts of Eyre (curiæ itineris) are travelling circuit courts which hear matters in both criminal and common law. There are six circuits around different counties of the country, and it is required that each county be visited at least twice a year. Eyre courts tend to hear more serious cases which cannot be tried in the sessions courts. These include all criminal felonies and common torts.
The High Court of Great Council (curia magni consilii), normally known as the Court of Counsellours, is the ultimate court in the judicial hierarchy responding to petitions to the Sovereign himself. Appeals from the chamber courts lie to the Court of Counsellours responding to petitions to the Sovereign himself. In fact, the court is a sitting of Parliament, presenting its verdicts as „billae” to the Crown for assent. As such, it also hears matters in the first instance involving peers and royal officials. The Court of Counsellours sits in the Cardinal Chamber, one of the three chapter-houses of St. Giles’s Chapel, named for its other use as the place where cardinals are created.
There are also specialised courts of Admiralty, of the Coroner, of the Marischal and Constable, of Verders, &c. which exercise principally their own special jurisdictions.
Judges
Lord Justices
The Lord Justices are the main justices, or rather suitours, of the Court of Counsellours where they are known as Law Counsellours. Lord Justices are appointed typically from senior chamber justices and are members of the House of Lords, being created knights banneret by the Sovereign. Though they have full voting rights in the House, by custom this is not exercised except in matters of law. The Lord Justice of Common Chamber and Lord Justice of King's Chamber are Lord Justices. The Lord High Chancellour and Lord High Steuard preside over proceedings, but nowadays do not usually vote.
Chamber justices
The secular chamber courts have a total of twenty-four justices appointed from the ranks of Serjeants at Law (servientes ad legem). There are two Lord Justices—the Lord Justice of Common Chamber and the Lord Justice of King's Chamber—as well as eleven puisne justices each. The Court of Chancery Chamber is presided over by the Lord High Chancellour with six puisne justices.
Sessions judges
The judges of sessions courts include sheriffs, recorders, mayors, magistrates and stewards, amongst other officers.
Domains
Erbonian law is commonly divided into three „domains” depending on which court has jurisdiction to hear and determine the disputes. The Court of King's Chamber is concerned with disputes between the King and subjects, the Court of Common Chamber between two subjects, and the Court of Chancery Chamber between the Church and a subject. These three domains of law are known as criminal law, common law and canon law. Other specialised branches of law, such as martial law, admiralty law, forest law, mining law &c. all fall into one of these three main domains. The four kinds of justiciable matters are treasons, felonies, misdemeanours and wrongs (proditiones, feloniæ, malefacta, and delicta in Court Latin).
Criminal law
Criminal law concerns all matters between the Crown and subject, not only matters ordinarily considered „criminal” in nature. To wit, it includes matters of constitutional and administrative law. The Regni Leges issued in 1362 by Henry IV was a broad-ranging statute which declared law which applied to the entire kingdom. Indeed, its passage precipitated indignation from local lords, resulting in the Carta Erboniæ Libertatum. It still forms the basis of much of the traditional criminal and common law, although much amended over the centuries.
Crimes are divided into misdemeanours and felonies. All are usually tried by judge and jury in the first instance, the former in the sessions courts and the latter in the royal courts. Trials usually begin by presentment of the complaint (by a subject wronged or witnessing) or information (by the Crown for crimes committed in flagrante delicto) at the sessions. For felonies, a mere complaint must be indicted by the jury of suitours at the Quarter Sessions. If the indictment is returned a true bill (billa vera), a writ of capias will be issued to bring the accused to court at a specified date. Upon information, or for misdemeanours, no indictment by jury is necessary.
One important plea for felonies is a plea of mens corrupta. This admits the crime, but reduces the ultimate possible sentence from death to imprisonment or fine. It can only be pleaded once, and only for „corruptible offences”. Offences with malice prepensed are excluded, such as forestall, treason and murder, as well as other pre-meditated crimes such as armed robbery, espionage, plotting and conspiracy. It does, however, include crimes of passion and opportunity, such as adultery, sodomy, manslaughter and procuration of a miscarriage. Other pleas include pleas of antea convictus or acquietatus, to prevent being tried for the same particular crime twice, and pleas as to jurisdiction or infancy.
Common law
Common law, also known as civil law, is concerned with disputes between subjects in trespass, contract, property, &c. as well as certain regulatory actions such as in company law or banking and commercial law. In cases before the royal courts, the plaintiff purchases a writ from Chancery and serves it on the Sheriff to execute by his constables. There are numerous kinds of writs appropriate to every kind of litigable complaint upon wrongs. These are broadly divided into the real actions such as the writs of recto, avo, disseisina and quod reddat, and the personal actions such as debito, transgressione, conventione and assumpsit.
Trials involve trying pleas. Various pleas are available classed as admissions, traversals or demurrers. Although several modes of trial exist, effectively all common cases use the adversarial model where two parties argue their cases before an impartial jury, which decides the questions of fact based on the merits of each case. The burden of proof for facts is „proof over the weight of common doubt”. The role of the judge is then to resolve the matters of law by giving his verdict, to give judgment and sentence, and to issue writs to execute the said judgment. Similar to the various kinds of writs of action, writs of execution vary. Forms include executions for levying money including writs of capias ad satisfaciendum, levari facias and fieri facias, and executions for recovery of property such as writs of habere facias seisinam, habere facias possessionem or retorno habendo. Writs of injungimus, mandamus, prohibitione and certiorari compel various actions.
Wrongs
There are four types of wrong under the common law :— trespass to the person, trespass in deed, trespass to goods and trespass to land. Each trespass can form an action founded upon a specific writ. For example, trover is begun by a writ of inventione, whilst traipse by a writ of quare clausum fregit.
Trespass to the person includes actions in :—
- Threat (apprehension of future harm)
- Assault (apprehension of immediate harm)
- Battery (actual harm)
- Wounding (drawing of blood)
- Mayhem (loss of body part)
- False imprisonment
Trespass in deed includes actions in :—
- Promise (breach of moral pact)
- Contract (breach of a contract)
- Covenant (breach of a solemn deed or charter)
- Debt (wrongful keeping of ought)
- Account (wrongful keeping of accounts)
- False interference (interference with the rights of another)
Trespass to personal property includes actions in :—
- Wrack (damage to goods)
- Theft (taking away of goods)
- Trover (finding and keeping of goods)
- Detinue (keeping of goods by bailee)
- Forloss (loss of goods)
- False distress (taking of goods not entitled)
Trespass to real property includes actions in :—
- Waste (damage to land)
- Estrepement (destruction of land)
- Traipse (breaking the close of land)
- Nuisance (affecting the rights to land)
- Right (disseisin of various kinds)
- False detainer (keeping of seisin without right)
Canon law
Canon law is part of the Erbonian legal system, and is enforced through the ecclesiastical courts. For example, the Canon Ad dies obligationis requires all communicant members attend their parish church. Other canons require clerks in holy orders (i. e. deacons and above) to recite the hours daily, and forbid non-parochial chapels from hanging bells or keeping graveyards. Canonical crimes include most ordinary crimes prosecuted within the jurisdiction of the civil courts. However, the ecclesiastical courts only have jurisdiction where the civil courts do not, such as when clergymen are accused, or for canonical crimes.
Churchwardens are required to report at the visitations all canonical crimes which have been committed in their parish. These include wrongs such as failure to say divine service, failure to attend divine service, failure to wear vestments or failure to ring bells, as well as misdemeanours and felonies proper, such as the teaching of heresy, simony, usury, adultery, suicide, witchcraft and perjury, as well as the two treasons of blasphemy and sacrilege, which by their spiritual natural are typically dealt in the ecclesiastical churches. Canon law also includes the law relating to wills, probate and intestate succession, marriage and divorce, and familial obligations.
Crimes are presented to the court, which issues citations to command the citees' attendances. Usually, citations are delivered to the incumbent to personally deliver to the citee. Citations are the ecclesiastical court equivalent to a writ; however, they do not require return, unlike writs which must be returned to the court after execution. Rather, the incumbent must separately certify that he has delivered the citation to the citee. Ecclesiastical courts have a full range of ordinary sentencing powers, and may also impose canonical punishments such as excommunication, interdiction, suspension and defrocking.
Wrongs in canon law, other than canonical wrongs, include trespass to dignity.
Trespass to dignity includes actions in :—
- Libel (defamation in writing)
- Slander (defamation in speech)
- Enticement (drawing away of a spouse)
- Harbouring (keeping away of a spouse)
- Seduction (drawing away of a spouse)
- False conversation (adultery)
Traditions
Court Latin
Formal legal texts in Great Nortend are written in Court Latin. Official English translations are often provided; however, they do not have force of law although they can guide the interpretation of the Latin text. The English translation is known as the „teller copy”, and is also written in very traditional, semi-archaic English. For example, the Regni Leges, the de facto statutory restatement of the lex consuetudinis from 1271, was originally written in Latin, but the most popular version is the official Chancery „teller copy” first published in 1588.
It is no longer the custom to speak Latin, however, in Court. This extends to complaints, pleadings, defences, arguments, debates, judgments, sentences &c. spoken in Court, or historically spoken and now only introduced and tendered in writing, which should be mostly in the English language, excepting standard Latin terms of art, phrases and maxims, of which hundreds continue in use. A partial list can be found here. Nonetheless, court records of the same, as well as writs and sentences, are still ingrossed and entered onto the rolls in Latin. Furthermore, in court, references to statutes and canons must be by their Latin titles, although quotations therefrom may be in English. If a lawyer accidentally uses the English title, judges traditionally will say „non intellego” meaning „I do not understand [you]”.
Red Mass
The annual Red Mass occurs at the opening of the legal year after Michaelmas at St. Giles' Chapel in Lerdenstone. It is a Mass of the Holy Ghost, and named for the red vestments of the celebrating ministres, as well as the red festal robes of the King, judges, serjeants and peers in attendance.
See also
- Subjectship of Great Nortend
- Erbonian company law
- Land tenure in Great Nortend
- Erbonian criminal law
- Erbonian common law
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 | This page is written in Erbonian English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, realise, instal, sobre, shew, artefact), and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. |