Tenure in the United States

Tenure Definition

(from Lat. tenere, to hold). A term of extensive signification. While it means the mode by which one holds an estate in land, it imports any kind of holding (according to the definition of Tenure based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary; this definition may need to be proofread) from mere possession to the owning of the inheritance. 153 Cal. 718; 96 Pac. 500; Ann. Cas. 1914D 636. In the most general sense, the mode or right of holding, as “tenure of oflSce.” More specifically, the mode by which a man holds an estate in lands. Such a holding as is coupled with some service, which the holder is bound to perform so long as he continues to hold. The thing held is called a “tenement;” the occupant, a “tenant;” and the manner of his holding constitutes the “tenure.” Classification of feudal tenures.
(1) The principal species of tenure which grew out of the feudal system was the tenure by knight’s service. This was essentially military in its character, and required the possession of a certain quantity of land, called a “knight’s fee,” the measure of which, in the time of Edward I., was estimated at twelve ploughlands, of the value of twenty pounds per annum. He who held this portion of land was bound to attend I his lord to the wars forty days in every year, if called upon. It seems, howBver* that if he held but half a knight’s fee, he was only bound to attend twenty days. Many arbitrary and tyrannical incidents or lordly privileges were attached to this tenure, which at length became so odious and oppressive that the whole system was destroyed at a blow by St. Charles II. c. 24, which declared that all such lands should thenceforth be held in free and common socage, a statute, says Blackstone, which was a greater acquisition to the civil property of this kingdom than even Magna Charta itself; since that only pruned the luxuriances which had grown out of military tenures, and thereby preserved them in vigor, but the statute of King Charles extirpated the whole, and demolished both root and branches. See “Feudal Law;” Co. Litt. 69; St. Westminster I., c. 36.
(2) Tenure in socage seems to have been a relic of Saxon liberty which, up to the time of the abolition of military tenures, had been evidently struggling with the innovations of the Normans. Its great redeeming quality was its certainty; and in this sense it is by the old law writers put in opposition to the tenure by knight’s service, where the tenure was altogether precarious and uncertain. Littleton defines it to be where a tenant holds his tenement by any certain service, in lieu of all other services, so that they be not services of chivalry or knight’s services; as, to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent, or by homage, fealty, and twenty shillings rent, or by homage and fealty without any rent, or by fealty and a certain specified service, as, to plough the lord’s land for three days. Litt. 117; 2 Bl. Comm. 79. See “Socage.”
(3) Other tenures have grown out of the two last-mentioned species of tenure, and ate still extant in England, although some of them are fast becoming obsolete. Of these is the tenure by grand serjeanty, which consists in some service immediately respecting the person or dignity of the sovereign; as, to carry the king’s standard, or to be his constable or marshal, his butler or chamberlain, or to perform some similar service. While the tenure “by petit serjeanty requires some inferior service, not strictly military or personal, to the king; as, the annual render of a bow or sword. The late duke of Wellington annually presented his sovereign with a banner, in acknowledgment of his tenure. There are also tenures by copyhold and in fraiikalmoigne, in burgage and of gavelkind; but their nature, origin, and history are explained in the several articles appropriated to those terms. 2 Bl. Comm. 66; 2 Inst. 233.
(4) Tenures were distinguished by the old common-law writers, according to the quality of the service, into free or base. The former were such as were not unbecoming a soldier or a freeman to perform, as, to serve the lord in the wars; while the latter were only considered fit for a peasant, as, to plougli the land, and the like. They were further distinguished with reference to the person from whom the land was held; as, a tenure “in capite”, where the holding was ox the person of the king, and tenure m gross, where the holding was of a subject. Before the statute of Quia Emptores (18 Edw. I), any person might, by a grant of land, have created an estate as a tenure of his person, or of his house or manor; and although by Magna Charta a man could not alienate so much of his land as not to leave enough to answer the services due to the superior lord, yet, as that statute did not remedy the evil then complained of, it was provided by the statute above referred to, that if any tenant should alien any part of his land in fee, the alienee should hold immediately of the lord of the fee, and should be charged with a proportional part of the service due in respect to the quantity of land held by him. The consequence of which was that, upon every such alienation, the services upon which the estate was originally granted became due to the superior lord, and not to the immediate grantee. 4 Term R. 443; 4 East, 271; Crabb, Real Prop. § 735. Wharton’s classification is as follows: (A) Lay tenures.
I Prank tenement, or freehold.
(1) The military tenures (abolished, except grand serjeanty, and reduced to free socage tenures) were : Knight service proper, or tenure in chivalry; grand serjeanty; cornage. (2) Free socage, or plough service; either petit serjeanty tenure in burgage, or gavelkind.
II Villeinage.
(1) Pure villeinage (whence copyholds at the lord’s’ [nominal] will, which is regulated according to custom) .
(2) Privileged villeinage, sometimes called “villein socage” (whence tenure in ancient demesne, which is an exalted species of copyhold, held according to custom, and not according to the lord’s will), and is of three kinds: Tenure in ancient demesne ; privileged copyholds, customary freeholds, or free copyholds; copyholds of base tenure.
(B) Spiritual tenures.
I Frankalmoigne, or free alms. II. Tenure by divine service.

Law Faculty Tenure

List of Most Cited Law Professors by Specialty in 2009-2013

Brian Leiter’s Law School Rankings listed a group of relevant Law School professors as the top cited law professors in the United States in the period 2009-2013, by speciality. From these list he created a ranking of law Schools based on the percentage of tenured faculty represented in the 11 specialty area rankings he covered. The ranking is as follows (number of faculty above divided by the approximate number of tenured faculty, rounded to the nearest 5):

1. Law School: Yale University : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 44% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 22
2. Law School: University of Chicago : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 27% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 8
3. Law School: Columbia University : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 20% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 13
4. Law School: Stanford University : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 20% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 8
5. Law School: Harvard University : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 18% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 15
6. Law School: University of California, Irvine : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 17% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 5
7. Law School: University of California, Berkeley : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 16% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 9
8. Law School: New York University : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 12% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 11
9. Law School: University of California, Los Angeles : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 12% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 6
10. Law School: Duke University : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 9% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 4
11. Law School: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 9% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 4
12. Law School: University of Pennsylvania : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 9% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 4
13. Law School: Cornell University : The % of Tenured Faculty Ranked in Top 10 for this Law School is: 8% . The total # of faculty ranked in top 10 for this School is: 3

Other schools by total number of faculty: Georgetown University (5); University of Virginia (3); 2 each for University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, George Mason University, George Washington University, Vanderbilt University, and University of San Diego; 1 each for Boston College, Cardozo Law School, Northwestern University, University of Illinois, University of Notre Dame, Ohio State University, University of California at Davis, University of Iowa, Washington University in St. Louis, Albany Law School, University of Southern California, Indiana University at Bloomington, Temple University and University of Hawaii.

Tenure By Chivalry Definition

Tenure by knight service. Co. Litt.

Tenure in Foreign Legal Encyclopedias

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Tenure and job security in relation to Public Officers

Find out in this American legal Encyclopedia the information on Tenure and job security (abolition of position, discharge from or termination of employment, disciplinary actions, forfeiture of office, power to remove from office, privatization, public policy tort, wrongful discharge in violation of public policy, recall, reductions in force, removal from office, resignation and forfeiture of office) in relation to Public Officers (and in the context of local government law).

Resources

Further Reading

• Information about Tenure in the Gale Encyclopedia of American Law.

Tenure