The use of an advisory jury is derived from the practice of the Court of Chancery of referring issues of fact to one of the Common Law Courts of Westminster be tried by a jury as a feigned issue. The feigned issue was to inform the conscience of the court, and could be disregarded by the Chancellor. The feigned issue was a legal fiction by stating that a wager contract was laid between two parties interested in respectively maintaining the affirmative and the negative of certain propositions.