“[B]oth the presentment of crimes and the conduct of trials by assize or jury — which rapidly became a common feature of royal justice — required the presence of twelve or more men from the vicinity where the matter in question occurred…. The means of achieving this reconciliation was the frequent issue of commissions to perform judicial functions in the country…. [A]ssize commissioners had original jurisdiction to hear a case from beginning to end …. But the assizes, though moulded into a regular routine, never became a distinct ‘court’ in the permanent sense. The jurisdiction of the judges rested entirely on the commissions which issued for each circuit: the judges could therefore be regularly interchanged, and after 1340 it was quite normal for a Common Plea case to be tried at nisi prius by a King’s Bench judge, and vice versa.” J.H. Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History 67 (3d ed. 1990).
commission of assize
commission of assize. Hist. A royal authorization empowering a person to hold court and try cases arising while the justices in eyre held court elsewhere. Cf. EYRE.
