NISI PRIUS (Lat. unless before). In Practice. For the purpose of holding trials by jury. Important words in the writ (venire) directing the sheriff to summon jurors for the trial of causes depending in the superior courts of law in England, which have come to be adopted, both in England and the United States, to denote those courts or terms of court held for the trial of civil causes with the presence and aid of a jury.
The origin of the use of the term is to be traced to a period anterior to the institution of the com mission of niei prim, in its more modern form. By Magna Charta it was provided that the common pleas should he held in one place, and should not follow the person of the king ; and by another clause, that assizes of novel disseisin and of mort d'ancestor, which were the two commonest forms of letions to recover land, should be held in the va rious counties before the justices in eyre. A prae tice obtained very early, therefore, in the trial of trifling muses, to continue the cause in the superior court from term to term, provided the justices in eyre did not sooner Wei juaticiarii diu) come into the county where the cause of action arose, in which case they had jurisdiction when they so came. Bracton, 1. 3, c. 1, 11. By the statute of nisi
prioe, 13 Edw. I. c. 30, enforced by 14 Edw. III. 0.16, justices of assize were empowered to try com mon issues in trespass and other suits, and return them, when tried, to the superior court, where judg ment was given. The clause was then left out of the continuance and inserted in the venire, thus: "Przecipimus tibi quod venire facial, earam juetieia ria noetrie apud Weetm. in Oetabie Seti nisi talie et talie, tali die et lueo, ad partee ilia* venerint, duodeeim," etc. (we command you that you cause to come before our justices at Westminster, on the octave of Saint Michael, unless such and ouch a one, on such a day and place, shall come to those parts, twelve, etc.). Under the provisions of 42 Edw. III. c. 11, the clause is omitted from the ve nire, and the jury is espited in the court above, while the sheriff summons them to appear before the justices, upon a ho beae corpora jurotorum, or, in the king's bench, a dietringas. See Sellon, Pract. Introd. lxv.; 1 Spence, Eq. Jur. 116 ; 3 Sharswood, BI sekst. Comm. 352-354 ; 1 Reeve, Hist. Eng. Law, 245, 382.
See, eleo, ASSIZE ; COURTS Or ASSIZE AND NISI PR1US ; JURY.