court legal-history
What is the origin of &quot;friend of the court&quot;?
<p>Just curious.</p>
<p>As a non-lawyer, I often see the phrase &quot;friend of the court&quot;.</p>
<p>It is obvious to the layman what it means, but when and where did this  first become &quot;a thing&quot;?</p>

<h2>England. A long time ago.</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/gj-2019-0038/html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">amicus curiae</a><sup>1</sup> probably has its roots in English Common Law and not, as Wikipedia says, in Roman Law.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding, it’s very old: possibly pre-dating the Norman invasion. As such, it’s origin and early development would be a very niche area of study for a historian and is likely to have fragmentary records.</p>
<p><sup>1</sup> Crema, Luigi. &quot;The Common Law (And Not Roman) Origins of Amicus Curiae in International Law – Debunking a Fake News Item&quot; Global Jurist, vol. 20, no. 1, 2020, pp. 20190038. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/gj-2019-0038" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://doi.org/10.1515/gj-2019-0038</a></p>
