Sequuntur Statuta per illustrum principem dominum d. Karolum secundum Sabaudie etc. ducem modernum condita.

In order that the presidents and collateral judges of said councils—as well as those residing with us at Chambéry and Turin—may incline more fervently toward the cultivation of justice and the observance of our statutes, we will and command that, on the first judicial day following the Nativity of our Lord in each year, they shall render an oath, their hands placed corporeally upon the Holy Canon and the Scriptures, at the peril of their souls, concerning the observance of this our edict and of the other aforementioned statutes, and concerning the decisions of causes and the administration of justice: namely, the collateral judges in the hands of the president of the council to which they shall have been assigned, and the presidents in the hands of the first collateral judge of the council in which they shall preside, and in the presence of the other collateral judges assisting there.

Item, since it often happens that in these very councils matters regarding ecclesiastical affairs and the armed militia are discussed, by this edict we decree that in said councils residing at Chambéry and Turin—and in each of them—two famous men, expert in both laws, shall be deputed and chosen as we shall see fit to elect. One of these shall be ecclesiastical, and the other a secular layman. They shall be bound to reside continually with our other counselors in said councils and to vote immediately after the presidents of those councils, and they shall be held to render the appropriate oaths in this regard into the hands of the president in whose council they shall reside.

After, therefore, suitable provision has been made regarding the appropriate persons in said councils, wishing to provide for the manner of proceeding in causes, we decree and declare by this edict that all causes of our subjects—with the exceptions written below—shall be heard for the first cognizance and terminated by the ordinary judges of those parties, and in the second cognizance by intermediate judges of appeal, if there be any; where there are none, by the immediate ones. And from the sentences of those judges of appeal or ordinary judges, as far as the judge is lacking, an appeal and recourse shall be made to one of our aforementioned councils residing at Chambéry or Turin: namely, if they are from beyond the mountains, to the council of Turin, but if they are from this side of the mountains, to the council residing at Chambéry. So that the appeal is made gradually to the same councils and to those residing with us; on that account ordering that they shall not in any way impede or intervene in the same causes for the first cognizance aforesaid, except, however, for our fiscal causes and those pertaining to the patrimony of the fisc, and the fisc itself, [and causes] of orphans, of miserable widows, of itinerant merchants, or of subjects of communities, barons, bannerets, and others whose cognizances, according to the form of law and our statutes, are deemed to belong to the said councils residing at Chambéry and Turin in the manner aforesaid. We decree by the series of these presents that whatever is done otherwise shall be null and void.

We will and command that the causes of councilors, chamberlains, court officials, and our other ordinary servants, as much actively as passively, shall be handled before our aforesaid councils residing at Chambéry or Turin in the same manner aforesaid for the first cognizance. We decree, therefore, that the ordinances and sentences of any kind rendered by said councils in causes of appeals and other matters of our court servants aforesaid shall have the force of a prefect of the praetorium and obtain execution, upon the provision of security according to the form of law; and that from those same sentences, nevertheless, it shall be possible and valid to appeal or petition to us or to the council residing with us. Which council, in causes of such appeals or petitions, shall then proceed according to the authority delegated or to be delegated to it by us.

And furthermore, to avoid the superfluous entanglements of lawsuits, which are often generated by the chicanery of litigants, we decree by this edict that in causes being litigated, both before said ordinary judges and our aforesaid councils, it shall not be lawful for the litigating parties to plead regarding the merits of the principal matter by positions or articles except twice for the plaintiff and twice for the defendant before the ordinary judges for the first cognizance. In causes of the first or second appeal, however, before appealing to our aforesaid councils or one of those same councils, also only twice. In causes of appeal, however, before said councils residing at Chambéry and Turin, no more than once. But where the first appeal is devolved immediately to the same councils, then it shall be lawful to plead before them twice. And before the council residing with us, no more than once for either party. Regarding the proofs and counter-proofs of witnesses, however, we wish the statutes to be observed.

Wishing to moderate the superfluous lawsuits which, on account of interlocutory rulings omitting principal matters, are sometimes rendered immortal, we decree that from interlocutory rulings in causes being litigated before said councils—even those having the force of a definitive sentence, rendered by the councils themselves in any way, whether confirmed or not confirmed—there shall be no appeal, petition, or claim of nullity in any manner; but it shall only be requested to be reviewed before the same councils with an adjunct, according to the form of our decree already providing for this. Unless those interlocutory rulings cause such a grievance that it could not be repaired by a definitive sentence.