Questio quid juris

Questio quid juris is a Latin law term meaning roughly "I question which law [applies]." Its use dates back to the Middle Ages, and Geoffrey Chaucer, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (c. 1390), has his illiterate "Sumnour" (Summoner, a server of legal writs for the ecclesiastical courts) always shout out the phrase when he is drunk:

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And whan that he wel dronken hadde the wyn, Than wolde he speke no word but Latyn. A fewe termes hadde he, two or thre, That he had lerned out of som decree- No wonder is, he herde it al the day, And eek ye knowen wel how that a jay Kan clepen "Watte" as wel as kan the pope. But whoso koude in oother thyng hym grope, Thanne hadde he spent al his philosophie; Ay "Questio quid iuris" wolde he crie.

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