In these works, the language is already demanding and technical, well equipped with its own legal terminology. This includes many words of Latin origin, but whose forms have been shortened or distorted in a way that suggests they already had a long history of French use. Some examples are advowson from the Latin advocationem, which means the legal right to appoint a pastor; neife, from the Latin nativa, meaning female serf; and essoyne or essone from Sunni Latin, meaning a circumstance that provides for an exemption from a royal summons (later, essonia replaced Sunnis in Latin, thus replacing the Latin form of the French form). Jurassic French (Old French: Droit Français, Norman: Louai French, Middle English: Lawe Frensch) is an archaic language originally based on Old Norman and Anglo-Norman, but increasingly influenced by Parisian French and later by English. It has been used in the courts of England, starting with the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Its use lasted for several centuries at the courts of England, Wales and Ireland. Although French Law is obsolete as narrative legal language, many individual legal French terms continue to be used by lawyers and judges in common law jurisdictions (see the section “Survivals in Modern Legal Terminology”, below). In the seventeenth century, pleadings and readings were neglected, and the reign of Oliver Cromwell, who emphasized the removal of relics of archaic rituals from legal and state processes, dealt another blow to language. Even earlier, in 1628, Sir Edward Coke admitted in his preface to the first part of the Institute of the Law of England that French law had almost ceased to be a spoken language.

It was still used for case reports and legal manuals until almost the end of the century, but only in anglicized form. A frequently cited example of this change comes from a marginal note by Chief Justice Sir George Treby in an annotated edition of Dyer`s Reports, published in 1688: During the 14th century, the colloquial French language experienced a rapid decline. The use of French Law has been criticized by those who have argued that lawyers are trying to restrict access to the legal profession. The Pleading in English Act 1362 (“Statute of Plaine”) recognized this change by stating that henceforth all pleadings must be in English, so that “every man . can govern themselves better without breaking the law.” [4] From that point on, legal French lost most of its status as a spoken language. It remained used for “lectures” and “moots” (academic debates) held in the Inns of Court as part of the training of young lawyers, but it soon became a unique written language; it stopped acquiring new words, its grammar degenerated (by 1500 the gender was often overlooked, leading to such absurdities as a home (“a man (woman)”) or a feme (“a woman (man)”), and its vocabulary became increasingly English, as it was only used by English lawyers and judges, Welsh and Irish, who often did not speak French properly. The earliest known documents in which French (i.e. Anglo-Norman) is used for discourses on English law date from the third quarter of the thirteenth century and contain two special documents.

The first is The Provisions of Oxford[1] (1258), consisting of the oaths taken by the 24 magnates appointed to correct King Henry III`s maladministration, as well as summaries of their decisions. The second is the Casus Placitorum[2] (c. 1250 – c. 1270), a collection of legal maxims, rules, and short case accounts. Post-positive adjectives in many sentences of legal nouns in English – attorney general, fee simple – are a legacy of French Law. Native speakers of French may not understand some French legal terms that are not used in modern French or that are replaced by other terms. For example, the current French word for “mortgage” is mortgage. Many of the French legal terms were introduced in the 20th century. It has been converted into modern English in order to make the law more understandable in common law jurisdictions.

However, some key concepts of legal French remain, including the following: In the early fourteenth century, legal French largely coincided with French, which was used by the upper class as their everyday language. As such, it reflects some of the changes that the dialects of northern metropolitan France underwent during this period. Thus, in the documents mentioned above, “of the king” is rendered as del rey, whereas by 1330 it had become of the king (as in modern French) or the king. [3] Richardson Chief Justice of Common Banc al assizes of Salisbury in the summer of 1631 fuit assault per prisoner la condemne pur felony, que puis son condemnation ject un brickbat a le dit justice, que narrowly mist, et pur ceo immediate fuit indictment drawn per Noy towards the prisoner and his dexter manus ampute et fix al gibbet, on that luy mesme immediately hange in presence of Court. Richardson, chief judge of the common bench at the Salisbury Assizes in the summer of 1631, was attacked by a prisoner convicted of crimes there, who, after his conviction, threw a brick at the said judge, who narrowly missed, and for this a charge was immediately brought by Noy against the prisoner, and his right hand was cut off and tied to the gallows, after which he himself was immediately hanged in the presence of the court. [5] [6].