Record in United Kingdom

Edward IV Records

For information about this topic, please read the entry, in this legal Encyclopedia, about: Edward IV Records

Record and Medieval Law

Record and Legal History

Legal Materials

(Compiled by the University of South Caroline Gould School of Law) Gwillim, Henry, and Charles Ellis, eds. A Collection of Acts and Records of Parliament, With Reports of Cases, Argued and Determined in the Courts of Law and Equity, Respecting Tithes. 2nd ed. London: J. Butterworth, 1825.

Notes: First edition (1801) also available online in The Making of Modern Law; ModernEconomy (subscription databases)Abstract: Collection of Acts and Records of Parliament with reports of cases covering the years 1224-1824.

Pronay, Nicholas, and John Taylor, eds. Parliamentary Texts of the Later Middle Ages . Oxford : Clarendon Press , 1980.

Abstract: Includes the Modus Tenendi Parliamentum.

Bibliographies of English Law History

• Maxwell, William H. A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Volume 1: English Law to 1800. London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1955-
• Beale, Joseph H. A Bibliography of Early English Law Books. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1926.
• Winfield, Percy H. The Chief Sources of English Legal History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925.

Concept of Record

The following is an old definition of Record [1], a term which has several meanings:1, (verb) To preserve the memory of, by committing to writing or printing or by inscription; to write or enter in official books for authentic evidence; to transcribe, in permanent form, for reference.

Alternative Meaning

(Noun)A memorial of what has been done; a writing or document preserved as evidence; authentic written evidence, considered as either public or private, but usually public. See Writing, Public; Recordum. The acts and judicial proceedings of a court of record are enrolled in parchment for a perpetual memorial and testimony; and the rolls are called the “records ” of the court. See Court, Of record. Judicial record. An official record of proceedings in a court of justice. Usage, in England, has made parchment the material tor perpetual memorials. In the United States, records are kept in bovmd books of linen paper, parchment, as the material, no longer entering into the defbaition. In many expressions, referring to proceedings before courts of review, what is really meant is a copy of the record; as, in the expressions ” defect in the record,” ” diminution of the record,” “show error by the record,” ” error apparent upon the face” or “in the record,” “the record shows” or ” does not show,” ” remit the record.” A record, or judicial record, is a precise histoiy of a suit from its commencement to its termination, including the conclusion of the law thereon, drawn up by the proper officer, for the purpose of perpetuating the exact state of the facts. In the language of Lord Coke, ” records are memorials or remembrancers, in rolls of parchment, of the proceedings and acts of a court of justice, which hath power to hold plea ac- cording to the course of the common law.” Matter of record. Any judicial proceeding entered upon the records of the court in which it originates, or to which it is carried for review. Thus, the pleadings in an action being entered upon the records of the proper court and filed with its officer as the authentic histoiy of the suit, are thence termed a matter or matters of record. Opposed, ” matter in deed,” g. u Of record. On record; recorded. Opposed, not of record: unrecorded; not legally recorded. Contracts of record. Express contracts evidenced by some matter on record in a court; as, a judgment, or a charge in that nature.Merges any other contract or ground of action; is, in effect, an estoppel, see, in this resource, the term; requires no consideration; binds the debtor’s realty; is avoided by fraud or illegality; and is discharged by satisfaction entered on the record itself. Affidavits, depositions, and other matters of evidence, though appearing in the transcript of the proceedings of a common-law court, do not form part of the record, unless made so by an agreed statement of the facts, a bill of exceptions, a special verdict, or a demurrer to the evidence. They must be made a part by some regular proceeding at (he time of trial and before the rendition of judgment. Nul tiel record. No such record. A plea that there is no such matter of record in existence as the opposite party alleges. Puts in issue only that fact; and is met by the production of the record itself, valid upon its face, or an exemplification duly authenticated. A defense which requires evidence to contradict the record admits its existence and seeks to avoid its effect- by special plea, as at common law, or by an equivalent. Detects on the face of the record may be taken advantage of upon production, but detects which require extrinsic evidence to make them apparent must be formally alleged before they can be proven. See Apparere, De non, etc. Denial of a record of a foreign court is tried by a jury, because the existence of the record to be inspected must first be proven. Judicial records are ” of such incontroulable credit and verity that they admit no averment, plea, or proof to the contrary; and if such record be alleged, and it be pleaded that there is no such record, it shall be tried only by itself.” This is called trial by record, and is by bare inspection whether there is any such record or not; otherwise, there would be no end to disputes. See Inspection. The, records of the domestic courts of England and of some of the States are held to import absolute verity, as well in relation to jurisdictional as to other facts, in all collateral proceedings. Public policy and the dignity of the courts are supposed to require that no averment shall be admitted to contradict the record. But the rule has no extra-territorial force. See Jurisdiction. If there appears any material mistake of the clerk in making up a record the court will direct him to amend it. Courts of record may at any time, of their own motion, without notice, correct the mistake of a recording officer so as to make the record conform to the truth. They are the exclusive judges of the propriety aiid ot the proof. See Error, 2(1); Misprision; Nunc ProTunc. The old notion that a record remains in the breast of the court only till the end of the term has yielded to necessity, convenience, and common sense. See Term, 4. Recorder. 1. An ofificer charged with the preparation and custody of records, especially records of deeds of all descriptions; a register, see, in this resource, the term 2. An officer, in cities of a few States, who exercises original jurisdiction in determining some of the more common criminal com- plaints, and adjudicates matters of a limited, civil nature. Anciently, one who recited or testified on recollection, as occasion required, what had previously passed in court, and this was the duty of the judges, thence called recordeurs. In England, he is often a person learned in the law whom the magistrate of a city, by virtue of the king’s, grant, associates with himself for his direction in judicial proceedings. The recorder of the city of London is practically the judge in the Lord Mayor’s court of the city. Recording. Copying an instrument into the public records, in a book kept for that purpose, by or under the superintendence of the officer appointed therefor. Recording Acts. Statutes which regulate the official recording of conveyances, mortgages, bills of sale, hypothecations, assignments for the benefit of creditors, articles of agreement, and other sealed instruments, for the purpose of informing the public, creditors, and purchasers, of transactions affecting the ownership of property and the pecuniary responsibility of individual persons. Also, statutes which regulate the registration of vessels. Compare Registry. Public records, by construction of law, are notice to all persons of what they contain. Their contents are matters of public knowledge, because the law requires them to be kept, authorizes them to be used, and secures to all persons access to them that knowledge of them may be public; and thence imputes to all interested persons that knowledge the opportunity to acquire which it has provided. The law assmnes the fuimiment and not the defeat of its own ends. It will not permit its policy to be gainsaid, not even by a plea of personal ignorance of its existence or extent. It would defeat that purpose not to presume with conclusive force that the notice, which it was their office to communicate, had reached the party interested in receiving it. See Acknowledgment; Authentication; Delivery, 4; Diminution; Error, 2 (3); Evidence; Exemplification; Face; Faith, Full, etc.; Falsify; Index; Judgment; Lodge, 1 (2); Lost; Notice; Quasi; Remit; Satisfaction, 1.

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Notes and References

1. Meaning of Record provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)

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See Also

• Pleading (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Magna Carta (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Pleas of the Crown (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Conversion (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Canon Law (in this legal Encyclopedia)

Concept of Record

Traditional meaning of record [1] in the English common law history: 1. A court having power to fine or imprison for contempt; a court of which the proceedings were entered in writing (formerly on parchment), a copy of which was conclusive evidence of the fact of such proceedings at another trial; a King’s court as distinct from a subject’s; see the entry on types of courts, 117. 2. An enrolment or memorandum made in a court or registry, formerly necessarily on parchment. 3. Anciently, the proceedings of a court, although oral; or a plea thereof. 4. The official instrument containing an account of the proceedings in a court of justice, the history of the case; see NISI PRIUS. Trial by record: when the issue turns upon a record, and is tried by the inspection of the court without witness or jury. Anciently (see RECORD, 3), by the proceedings in a previous action as proved orally by witnesses. Matter of record: matter evidenced by record, and which can therefore be proved and disproved only by the record itself or an authorized copy. [rtbs name=”history-of-english-law”]

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Notes and References

1. Based on A concise law dictionary of words, phrases and maxims, “Record”, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1911, United States. This term and/or definition may be absolete. It is also called the Stimson’s Law dictionary, based on a glossary of terms, included Record.

See Also