Brief (Lat. brevis, breve; Fr. href, short). I. A writ issuing out of any court in the name of the king; though more strictly the name of the original writ by which a suit was commenced, it was afterward applied to all judicial writs. The reason of the name, as explained by Bracton (which, however, was only in reference to the original writ), was that it briefly set forth the subject matter of the action and the claim of the plaintiff. II* In ecclesiastical law, a pontifical letter addressed to inferior ecclesiastics or to temporal princes upon some matter of discipline or claim of the church, called an apostolical brief. This designation may have been used as expressing the concise form of the brief as compared with the more ample phraseology of the pope's bull. A similar use of the term was made in respect to a letter from the king in reference to ecclesiastical matters. III. In modern law, a summary of a case made out for the use of counsel, containing an abstract of the pleadings, .a statement of the facts that can be proved, and a list of witnesses with a specification of what each can testify to. In England this is prepared by the attorney.

In this country counsel often-er make up their own brief, and the word generally denotes the heads of a law argument, with citations of authorities, which are not only used for the convenience of counsel, but are furnished to the court.