A noetherian ring R satisfies the descending chain condition on two-sided ideals (“is bi-artinian”) if and only if, for each prime P ∈ spec(R), R/P has a unique minimal ideal (necessarily idempotent and left-right essential in R/P). The analogous statement for merely right noetherian rings is false, although our proof does not use the full noetherian condition on both sides, requiring only that two-sided ideals be finitely generated on both sides and that R/Q be right Goldie for each Q ∈ spec(R). Examples exist, for each n∈ℕ and in all characteristics, of bi-artinian noetherian domains Dn with composition series of length 2n and with a unique maximal ideal of height n. Noetherian rings which satisfy the related E-restricted bi-d.c.c. do not, in general, satisfy the second layer condition (on either side), but do satisfy the Jacobson conjecture.