Writ

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A writ (from Anglo-Saxon written , the Latin equivalent is breve ) is in common law a written order by a competent authority, usually courts.

history

The writ as a legal institution developed from the initially only irregular practice of the English kings, in response to requests made to them for dispute settlement, to issue orders to their subordinates. Due to the steadily increasing number of such requests - and the risk of the petitioner presenting the facts incorrectly - the process has been formalized over time. A catalog with more than 75 different writs had already been created by the time of Henry II . The writs have long since ceased to be issued by the king personally, but instead issued for a fee with the aid of templates by his chancery . Such a template looked like this:

Latin German
De aueriis replegiandis Regarding the return of a movable thing (Writ of replevin - Vindication )
Rex Vicecomiti salutem. Precipimus tibi quod iuste et sine dilatione replegiari facit A. aueria sua, que B. cepit et iniuste detinet ut dicit et postea ipsum A. inde iuste deduci facias, ne inde amplius clamorem audiamus pro defectu Justicie. The king greets the sheriff. We order that you ensure, appropriately and without delay, that A., who submits that B has taken his belongings and is wrongly keeping them, that they are returned and that you then ensure that justice has been given to A. becomes in such a way that we do not have to hear the matter again because of a lack of justice.

The writ was the only way to be heard in a King's Court; however, an informal, not necessarily written, presentation was sufficient to bring an action to a normal local court. The nobility who held the local court hearings soon feared an erosion of power by the writs. Because by creating new writs, adapted to the respective circumstances, it was relatively easy (provided that money was not a problem) to evade the jurisdiction of the nobility and instead to have justice done by a King's Court . The kings eventually had to bow to the growing pressure of the nobility, so that the Provisions of Oxford stipulated that new writs could only be created with the express consent of the baronial council .

Todays situation

United Kingdom

Writ hardly plays a role in British law these days. British peers are called to meetings of the House of Lords through Writ of Summons .

United States

Although the writ was explicitly abolished in civil proceedings by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1938, there are still some weighty writs in American law: The writ of habeas corpus is explicitly prescribed by the American constitution (Art. 1, § 9 , cl. 2) and most of the proceedings before the Supreme Court take the form of a petition for the writ of certiorari .

References and comments

  1. ^ Henry Arthur Hollond: Writs and Bills . In: The Cambridge Law Journal , Vol. 8 (1942), No. 1, pp. 15–35, here p. 15.
  2. ↑ King Æthelred already gave the archbishop of Kent to establish unity between two parties to the dispute. Find it in: Benjamin Thorpe: Diplomatarium Anglicum aevi Saxonici. A collection of English charters, from the reign of King Aethelberht of Kent, AD DCV to that of William the Conqueror . Macmillan, London 1865, p. 302.
  3. ^ Taken from: Elsa de Haas: An Early Thirteenth-Century Register of Writs . In: The University of Toronto Law Journal , Vol. 7 (1947), No. 1, pp. 196-226, here p. 212.
  4. ^ William Searle Holdsworth: A History of English Law , Vol. 1. London, Methuen, 5th ed. 1931, p. 398.

See also