law of the land
idea · 3 works · 6 mentions · 11 anchored passages
lex terrae · per legem terrae · due process of law · legem terrae · the law of the land · due course of law
spoken of as
2 expressionsLex Terrae“Law of the Land”4 mentions
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John (English) · The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625–1660 (English) · An Essay on the Trial by Jury (English)
No freeman could be punished except “in accordance with the law of the land.
Per legem terrae“law of the land”1 mention
The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625–1660 (English)
out of the very body of this Act of Parliament, besides the explanation of other statutes, it appears, ‘Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur nisi per legem terrae.
in the texts
An Essay on the Trial by Jury
The phrase per legem terrae, interpreted as referring to the ancient common law binding the king, not his own statutes.
The foregoing authorities are cited to show to the unprofessional reader, what is well known to the profession, that legem terræ, the law of the land, mentioned in Magna Carta, was the common, ancient, fundamental law of the land, which the kings were bound by oath to observe;
The foregoing interpretation of the words nisi per legem terræ—that is, by due process of law—including indictment, &c.
This common law, or “law of the land,” the king was sworn to maintain.
The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625–1660
The doctrine of 'per legem terrae' (by the law of the land), the Magna Carta phrase debated by counsel as requiring due process such as presentment or indictment before imprisonment.
out of the very body of this Act of Parliament, besides the explanation of other statutes, it appears, ‘Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur nisi per legem terrae.
What then is meant by these words, ‘per legem terrae’?
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John
The phrase 'law of the land' (lex terrae), whose original narrow, procedural meaning is argued to have gradually broadened into the modern notion of due process.
No freeman could be punished except “in accordance with the law of the land.
” Coke, founding apparently on these fourteenth–century statutes, makes “per legem terrae” equivalent to “by due process of law” and that again to “by indictment or presentment of good and lawful men,” thus finding the grand jury enshrined in Magna Carta.
, shows how the per legem terrae of 1215 was read in the fourteenth century as equivalent to “by due process of law,” and how the Great Charter was interpreted as prohibiting the trial of men for their lives and limbs before the King’s Council on mere informal and irresponsible suggestions, sometimes made loosely or from malicious and interested motives.