Writ.

Writ. In English law, means a written order addressed to a subject in the king's name. Since the Norman Conquest writs have been freely devised and altered for many different purposes. Some are of an administrative or political nature, as, for example, the writ addressed to a returning officer, commanding him to hold an election, and return the name of the person elected; writs of mandamus and prohibition, by which inferior courts are kept within the bounds of their jurisdiction; and the famous writ of Habeas Corpus (q.v.), by which a person who has another in custody is commanded to bring up his prisoner and to show by what authority he detains him. An action at law was formerly begun by an 'original writ' issued under the great seal; it is now begun by a writ of summons, requiring the defendant to appear and answer the plaintiff's claim. The judgment of the court is enforced by a writ of execution, as, for example, the writ of Fieri Facias (q.v.), which directs the sheriff to levy the debt by seizing the defendant's goods. See CAPIAS, CERTIORARI, ELEGIT, ERROR, MANDAMUS, NE EXEAT, SUBPENA, &c. Formerly the king would issue writs of execution without trial, but this abuse was taken away by the Great Charter of 1215. De Heretico Comburendo was abolished under Charles II. Many of the old forms of writ have been abolished (such as Latitat, which proceeded on the legal fiction that the defendant was in hiding out of Middlesex) or rendered obsolete by modern changes in procedure, such as Scire Facias and Quo Warranto (q.v.). In the United States the several states differ considerably; thus in New York writs of Error and writs Ne Exeat have been abolished. See also SUMMONS and WARRANT.