Writ of Right · Atlas

in the texts

The Law of Torts19th Century · English

The historical English writ used for the assertion of title to land, representing the older procedure of restitution rather than penal redress.

For assertion of title to land there was the writ of right;

group c wrongs affecting person and property wrong ¶

For the former case the common law provided its most ancient remedies—the writ of right (and later the various assizes and the writ of entry) for land, and the parallel writ of detinue (parallel as being merely a variation of the writ of debt, which was precisely similar in form to the writ of right) for goods;

iii injuries to reversion ¶

Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John20th Century · English

A royal writ requiring a lord to do full right to a tenant complaining of a denial of justice, later becoming the procedure defined by disputes over ownership of land.

But many difficulties lay in the path of the writ of right.

2 evasion of its spirit ¶

The essential feature of a Writ of Right came to be that it dealt with ownership as opposed to mere possession:

i royal writs and feudal jurisdictions ¶

Why did the barons, it may be asked, while attacking the writ praecipe, allow the writ of right patent to go unscathed?

ii the intention of magna carta ¶