Note 555 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 2)

The name “Assize” is sometimes a source of confusion, because of the various meanings which attach to it. (1) Originally it denoted a session or meeting of any sort. (2) It came to be specially reserved for sessions of the king’s Council. (3) It was applied to any Ordinance enacted by the king in such a session, e.g. the Assize of Clarendon or the Assize of Northampton. (4) It was extended to every institution or procedure established by such royal ordinance, but (5) more particularly applied to the institutions or procedures known as the Grand Assize, and the Petty Assizes, from which the “Justices of Assize” took their name. (6) Finally, it denotes at the present day a “session” of these Justices of Assize, thus combining something of its earliest meaning with something of its latest. In certain contexts it has other meanings still, e.g. (7) an assessment or financial burden imposed at a “session” of the king’s council or of some other authority.