30. A right or title of action that only depends in action, cannot be given or granted to none other but only to the tenant of the ground, or to him who has the reversion or remainder of the same land.
31. In an action of debt upon an agreement, the defendant may wage his law: but otherwise it is upon a lease of lands for term of years, or at will.
32. The King may disseise no man and no man may disseise the King, nor pull any reversion or remainder out of him.
33. The King's excellency is so high in the law, that no freehold may be given to the King, nor be derived from him, but by matter of record.
34. If an abbot or prior, an abbot's chief assistant, alienate the lands of his house, and dies, though his successor has right to the lands, yet he may not enter, but he must take legal action.
35. If an abbot buys a thing that comes to the use of the house, and dies, then his successor shall be charged.
Judicial activity encouraged the recording of royal legislation in writing which both looked to the past and attempted to set down law current in Henry's own day. The "Liberi Quadripartitus" aimed to include all English law of the time. This showed an awareness of the ideal of written law as a statement of judicial principles as well as of the practice of kingship. In this way, concepts of Roman law used by the Normans found their way into English law.
Church law required that only consent between a man and woman was necessary for marriage. There needn't be witnesses, ceremony, nor consummation. Consent could not be coerced. Penalties in marriage contracts were deemed invalid. Villeins and slaves could marry without their lords' or owners' permission. A couple living together could be deemed married. Relatives descended from the same great great grandfather could not marry, nor could relatives by marriage of the same degree of closeness. A legal separation could be given for adultery, cruelty, or heresy. Fathers were usually ordered to provide some sustenance and support for their illegitimate children. The court punished infanticide and abortion.
Judicial Procedure
Courts extant now are the Royal Court, the King's Court of the Exchequer, shire courts, and hundred courts, which were under the control of the King. His appointed justices administered justice in these courts on regular circuits. Also there are manor courts, borough courts, and ecclesiastical courts.