Usually, assizes.a trial session, civil or criminal, held periodically in specific locations in England, usually by a judge of a superior court.
2.
an edict, ordinance, or enactment made at a session of a legislative assembly.
3.
an inquest before members of a jury or assessors; a judicial inquiry.
4.
an action, writ, or verdict of an assize.
5.
judgment: the last assize; the great assize.
6.
a statute for the regulation and control of weights and measures or prices of general commodities in the market.
[Origin: 1250–1300; ME asise < OF: a sitting, n. use of fem. of asis seated at (ptp. of aseeir), equiv. to a-a-5+ -sis < L séssum (sed- s. of sedére to sit+ -tus ptp. suffix)]
1303 (attested from 1164 in Anglo-L.), from O.Fr. asise "session," from fem. pp. of asseoir "to cause to sit," from L. assidere (see assess). Originally "all legal proceedings of the nature of inquests or recognitions;" hence sessions held periodically in each Eng. county to administer civil and criminal justice.
As*sess"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Assessed; p. pr. & vb. n. Assessing.] [OF. assesser to regulate, settle, LL. assessare to value for taxation, fr. L. assidere, supine as if assessum, to sit by, esp. of judges in a court, in LL. to assess, tax. Cf. Assize, v., Cess.]1. To value; to make a valuation or official estimate of for the purpose of taxation. 2. To apportion a sum to be paid by (a person, a community, or an estate), in the nature of a tax, fine, etc.; to impose a tax upon (a person, an estate, or an income) according to a rate or apportionment. 3. To determine and impose a tax or fine upon (a person, community, estate, or income); to tax; as, the club assessed each member twenty-five cents. 4. To fix or determine the rate or amount of. This sum is assessed and raised upon individuals by commissioners in the act. --Blackstone.
As*size"\, n. [OE. assise, asise, OF. assise, F. assises, assembly of judges, the decree pronounced by them, tax, impost, fr. assis, assise, p. p. of asseoir, fr. L. assid?re to sit by; ad + sed[=e]re to sit. See Sit, Size, and cf. Excise, Assess.]1. An assembly of knights and other substantial men, with a bailiff or justice, in a certain place and at a certain time, for public business. [Obs.] 2. (Law) (a) A special kind of jury or inquest. (b) A kind of writ or real action. (c) A verdict or finding of a jury upon such writ. (d) A statute or ordinance in general. Specifically: (1) A statute regulating the weight, measure, and proportions of ingredients and the price of articles sold in the market; as, the assize of bread and other provisions; (2) A statute fixing the standard of weights and measures. (e) Anything fixed or reduced to a certainty in point of time, number, quantity, quality, weight, measure, etc.; as, rent of assize. --Glanvill. --Spelman. --Cowell. --Blackstone. --Tomlins. --Burrill. Note: [This term is not now used in England in the sense of a writ or real action, and seldom of a jury of any kind, but in Scotch practice it is still technically applied to the jury in criminal cases. --Stephen. --Burrill. --Erskine.] (f) A court, the sitting or session of a court, for the trial of processes, whether civil or criminal, by a judge and jury. --Blackstone. --Wharton. --Encyc. Brit. (g) The periodical sessions of the judges of the superior courts in every county of England for the purpose of administering justice in the trial and determination of civil and criminal cases; -- usually in the plural. --Brande. --Wharton. --Craig. --Burrill. (h) The time or place of holding the court of assize; -- generally in the plural, assizes. 3. Measure; dimension; size. [In this sense now corrupted into size.] An hundred cubits high by just assize. --Spenser. [Formerly written, as in French, assise.]
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