Law French

Law French (Lawe Frensch) is an archaic language originally based on Old Norman and Anglo-Norman, but increasingly influenced by Parisian French and, later, English. It was used in the law courts of England, since the 13th century. Its use continued for several centuries in the courts of England and Wales and Ireland. Although Law French as a narrative legal language is obsolete, many individual Law French terms continue to be used by lawyers and judges in common law jurisdictions. The earliest known documents in which 'French' (i.e. Anglo-Norman) is used for discourse on English law date from the third quarter of the thirteenth century and include two particular documents. The first is The Provisions of Oxford (1258), consisting of the terms of oaths sworn by the 24 magnates appointed to rectify abuses in the administration of King Henry III, together with summaries of their rulings. The second is The Casus Placitorum (c. 1250 – c. 1270), a collection of legal maxims, rules and brief narratives of cases. In these works the language is already sophisticated and technical, well equipped with its own legal terminology. This includes many words which are of Latin origin but whose forms have been shortened or distorted in a way which suggests that they already possessed a long history of French usage. Some examples include advowson from the Latin advocationem, meaning the legal right to nominate a parish priest; neif[e], from the Latin nātīvā, meaning a female serf; and essoyne or essone from the Latin sunnis, meaning a circumstance that provides exemption from a royal summons (later essonia replaced sunnis in Latin, thus replacing into Latin from the French form). Until the early fourteenth century, Law French largely coincided with the French used as an everyday language by the upper classes. As such, it reflected some of the changes undergone by the northern dialects of mainland French during the period. Thus, in the documents mentioned above, 'of the king' is rendered as del rey, or del roy, whereas by about 1330 it had become du roi (as in modern French) or du roy.