Jurisdictio

Jurisdictio is a Latin term commonly translated as jurisdiction—the authority of a legal body to hear and decide disputes and to apply law. The word combines iuris, the genitive of ius meaning “law,” with dictio, meaning “speaking” or “declaration,” signaling the act of speaking law or delivering legal decisions.

Historically, in Roman law iurisdictio referred to the competence of magistrates to administer justice and render judgments, and the concept persisted into medieval and civil law as a description of judicial competence. In Latin legal literature, the term is often used to discuss the theoretical foundations of how courts acquire and exercise power, distinct from the substantive rules they apply.

Today, jurisdiction is the standard English term, while jurisdictio appears primarily in Latin texts, comparative law writings, or discussions of legal history. The concept encompasses several dimensions of judicial power, including territorial reach (which courts may hear a case), subject-matter scope (which kinds of cases a court may decide), and personal jurisdiction (which persons or entities may be bound by a court’s decisions). In international law, jurisdiction also involves issues such as forum selection, choice of law, and extraterritorial reach.

Although rarely used in everyday legal practice outside scholarly or historical contexts, jurisdictio remains a useful label for explaining how authority to administer justice has been conceived and structured within different legal traditions.