Forms: 4–6 iure-, (4 iuri-, iurdiccion), 4–7 iurisdiccion, etc. (with usual interchange of i and y, cc and ct, on and oun), 5 iurisdycion, 7– jurisdiction. [orig. a. OF. jure-, juri-, jurdiction, -dicion (F. juridiction), ad. L. jūrisdictiōn-em, f. jūris, gen. of jūs law + dictio, n. of action f. dīcere to say, declare. Subsequently assimilated to the L. form, which was also used in F. in the 17–18th cents.]
1. Administration of justice; exercise of judicial authority, or of the functions of a judge or legal tribunal; power of declaring and administering law or justice; legal authority or power.
[1267. Act 52 Hen. III., c. 2. (Stat. Marleberge) Qui non sit de feodo suo, aut super ipsum habeat jurisdictionem per Hundredam vel ballivam que sua sit.]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 26324. He [a priest] has his iurediction tint o þis man al wit resun.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 265. Þes wordis of Crist meneþ two juridicciouns, as spiritual and seculer.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Friar’s T., 21. Thanne hadde he thurgh his Iurisdiccion [MS. Petw. -diction, Harl. iurediccioun, Camb., Corp., Lansd. iurdiccion, -diction, -e] Power to doon on hem correccion.
1395. Purvey, Remonstr. (1851), 30. Neithir the king, neithir his justisis han jurisdiccioun on clerkis, trespace thei nevere so moche.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xxix. 111. Whan som body hathe submytted hymself … to the iurisdicyon of some Iuge [etc.].
1509. Hawes, Conv. Swearers, 10. By pryncely preemynence and Iuredyccyon.
1538. Starkey, England, II. i. 170. In admynystratyon of justyce … in such thyngys as they had jurysdycyon of.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 246. Ecclesiasticall persones, should not … exercise iurisdiccion, or any kynd of aucthoritie in temporall matters.
c. 1670. Hobbes, Dial. Comm. Laws (1677), 153. To declare the Law, which is not Judgment, but Jurisdiction.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), III. 431. The nobility of the district of Padua had formerly the criminal jurisdiction, as it is called, over their vassals.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 129. The districts … were not intended to be exempted from the jurisdiction of the Company’s officers.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., III. iv. 640. The Chief Justiciar … had general jurisdiction of pleas civil and criminal.
1864. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., xix. (1875), 343. Free from all jurisdiction of the Pope or any Catholic prelate.
1892. F. T. Piggott (title), Exterritoriality. The Law relating to Consular Jurisdiction.
1896. Law Times Rep., LXXIII. 690/1. This court has no jurisdiction over the property in America.
fig. 1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits (1616), 128. If wee will faine a perfect Logician … all the Sciences … appertaine to his iurisdiction.
2. Power or authority in general; administration, rule, control.
c. 1425. Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 48. Euery other thyng in whom Dame Nature Hath any iurysdiccion.
1433. St. Edmund, II. 929. For God hath power and Iurysdiccioun Make tongis speke of bodies that be ded.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 319. To live exempt From Heav’n’s high jurisdiction.
1756–82. J. Warton, Ess. Pope, II. IX. 113. The tranquillity and ease of the mind, depend upon a thousand things that are not under our jurisdiction.
1860. Marsh, Eng. Lang., xii. 261. Man’s language is higher than himself … and still less subject than he to the jurisdiction of the laws of material nature.
3. The extent or range of judicial or administrative power; the territory over which such power extends.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 57. Prelatis letten & forbeden prestis to preche þe gospel in here iurdiccion or bischoperiche, but ȝif þei han leue & letteris of hem.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, IV. iv. K viij. The Iuge ought to deffende and kepe the labourers and possessyons which ben in his Iurisdyccion by al right and lawe.
1555. Eden, Decades, 23. In al this tracte, they passed throwgh the Iurisdiction of other princes.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., 25. The other sequestrate Tuscan jurisdiction, is the little comonwealth of Luca.
1770. Connect. Col. Rec. (1885), XIII. 399. Resolved that the said lines … shall be the jurisdiction lines … between the said towns.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Charmed Sea, ii. 15. Whether he should not send on this procession, and keep the next that might arrive within his jurisdiction.
1833. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk. (1873), II. [III.] I. i. 4. Basil’s care of the churches … extended far beyond the limits of his own jurisdiction.
fig. 1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. xii. 191. God hath … permitted the sea sometimes to breake his appointed limits, and inuade the Iurisdiction of the land.
1671. R. Bohun, Wind, 9. They [winds] never cease blowing within their own jurisdiction.
4. A judicial organization; a judicature; a court, or series of courts, of justice.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. Introd. § 3. 79. Peculiar laws … adopted and used only in certain peculiar courts and jurisdictions. Ibid., I. vii. 242. No jurisdiction upon earth has power to try him in a criminal way.
1821. J. Q. Adams, in Davies, Metric Syst., III. (1871), 269. The jurisdictions to which resort must be had … are those of municipal police.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C., II. v. 67. The abolition of hereditary jurisdictions.
