Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

COURTS OP THE UNITED STATES 295

COUVERTURE

ing a somewhat similar jurisdiction to that of the court of attachments, (q. v.) COUHTS OP THE UNITED STATES comprise the following: The senate of the United States, sitting as a court <3f impeach ment; the supreme court; the circuitcouits; the circuit courts of appeals; the district courts; the supreme court of the District of Columbia; the territorial courts; and the court of claims. See the several titles. COURTS OP THE UNIVERSITIES of Oxford and Cambridge have jurisdiction in all personal actions to which any member or servant of the respective university is a party, provided that the cause of action arose within the liberties of the university, and that the member or servant was resident in the university when it arose, and when the action was brought. 3 Steph. Comm. 299; St. 25 & 26 Viet. c. 26, § 12; St. 19 & 20 Viet. c. 17 Each university court also has a crim inal jurisdiction in all offenses committed by its members. 4 Steph. Comm. 325. COURT OP WARDS AND LIVER IES. A court of record, established in England in the reign of Henry VIII. For the survey and management of the valuable fruits of tenure, a court of record was cre ated by St. 32 Hen. VIII. c. 46, called the "Court of the King's Wards." To this was annexed, by St. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 22, the "Court of Liveries;" so that it then became the "Court of Wards and Liveries." 4 Reeve, Eng. Law, 258. This court was not only for the management of "wards," prop erly so called, but also of idiots and natural fools in the king's custody, and for licenses to be granted to the king's widows to marry, And fines to be made for marrying without his license. Id. 259. It was abolished by statute 12 Car. II. c. 24. Crabb, Eng. Law, 468. COURTS OP WESTMINSTER HALL. The superior courts, both of law And equity, were for centuries fixed at West minster, an ancient palace of the monarchs of England. Formerly, all the superior courts were held before the king's capital justiciary of England, in the aula regis, or •such of his palaces wherein his royal person resided, and removed with his household from one end of the kingdom to another. This was found to occasion great inconven ience to the suitors, to remedy which it was made an article of the great charter of liber ties, both of King John and King Henry III., .that "common pleas should no longer follow

the king's court, but be held in some certain place," in consequence of which they have ever since been held (a few necessary remov als in times of the plague excepted) in the palace of Westminster only. The courts of equity also sit at Westminster, nominally, during term-time, although, actually, only during the first day of term, for they gener ally sit in courts provided for the purpose in, or in the neighborhood of, Lincoln's Inn. Brown. COURT PREROGATIVE. See PRE ROGATIVE COURT. COURT ROLLS. The rolls of a manor, containing all acts relating thereto. While belonging to the lord of the manor, they are not in the nature of public books for the benefit of the tenant. COURTESY. See CURTESY. COUSIN. Kindred in the fourth degree, being the issue (male or female) of the brother or sister of one's father or mother. Those who descend from the brother or sister of the father of the person spoken of are called "paternal cousins;" "maternal cousins" are those who are descended from the brothers or sisters of the mother. In English writs, commissions, and other formal instruments issued by the crown, the word signifies any peer of the degree of an earl. The appellation is as ancient as the reign of Henry IV., who, be ing related or allied to every earl then in the king dom, acknowledged that connection in all his let ters and public acts; from which the use has de scended to his successors, though the reason has long ago failed. Mozley & Whitley. COUSINAGE. See COSINAGE. COUSTOM. Custom; duty; toll; tribute. 1 Bl. Comm. 314. COUSTOUMIER. (Otherwise spelled "Coustumier" or "Coutumier.") In old French law. A collection of customs, un written laws, and forms of procedure. Two such volumes are of especial importance in juridical history, viz., the Grand Coustumier de Normandie, and the Coutumier de France or Grand Coutumier. COUTHUTLAUGH. A person who willingly and knowingly received an outlaw, and cherished or concealed him; for which offense he underwent the same punishment as the outlaw himself. Bract. 1286/ Spel man. COUVERTURE, in French law, is the deposit ("margin") made by the client in the hands of the broker, either of a sum of money

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