Legal Definitions - concilium

concilium refers to a historical legal practice involving a formal session of a court dedicated to hearing legal arguments in a specific case. It could also refer to the formal request made to the court to schedule such a session.

• Imagine a complex land dispute in medieval England. After all the evidence was presented, the judge would schedule a concilium where the barristers for both the plaintiff and the defendant would present their final legal arguments, citing precedents and interpreting statutes, before the court made its decision.

  This example illustrates concilium as the actual court session where legal arguments are formally presented and heard by the court.

• In a 17th-century English court, if a lawyer believed their client's case required a dedicated session for intricate legal debate, they would file a formal concilium motion. This motion would ask the court to set aside a specific day for the legal teams to present their detailed arguments on points of law, separate from the presentation of factual evidence.

  This example demonstrates concilium as the formal request or motion made to the court to schedule a specific day for hearing legal arguments.

Historically, the term also appears in specific phrases like Concilium Plebis, referring to assemblies of the common people in ancient Rome, though its primary legal meaning in English historical contexts relates to court proceedings.