Thames River may not be obstructed by damming up
the river on each side leaving a narrow outlet to net fish. All
such weirs shall be removed.

- Judicial Procedure -

Henry II wanted all freemen to be equally protected by one system
of law and government. So he opened his court, the Royal Court, to
all people of free tenure. A court of five justices professionally
expert in the law, traveled with the King, and on points of
difficulty consulted with him. Justices began to be more than
presiding officers; they, instead of those attending, rendered the
judgments. The chief court was in Westminster, where the
weightiest decisions were made. Other professional itinerant
justices appeared periodically in all counties of the nation to
hear certain criminal and civil cases and to hear citizens'
private civil suits [common pleas]. They came to perform many
other tasks, including promulgating and enforcing new legislation,
seeking out encroachments on royal rights, reviewing the local
communities' and officials' performance of their public duties,
imposing penalties for failure to do them or for corruption,
gathering information about outlaws and nonperformance of homage,
and assessing feudal escheats to the crown, wardships to which the
king was entitled, royal advowsons, feudal aids owed to the King,
tallages of the burgesses, and debts owed to the Jews. The
decision-making of itinerant justices on circuits begins the
process which makes the custom of the Royal Court the common law
of the nation. The county courts, where the traveling justices
heard all manner of business in the counties, adopted the
doctrines of the Royal Court, which then acquired an appellate
jurisdiction. The itinerant justices came from the same small
group of royal justices who were on the Royal Court and the
Exchequer, which was headed by the justiciar. Difficult cases were
decided by the king and wise men of his council.

Tenants of manors and of escheats in royal hands, who had been
excused from the monthly county court, were required to appear.
Side by side with the reeve and four men of the rural townships
appeared the twelve legal men of each of the chartered boroughs
which owed no suit to the ordinary county court. In the formation
of the jury of presentment for criminal cases, each hundred sent
twelve legal men and each township four to make report to the
justices. Women did not serve on juries. Compurgation was