habeas corpus

[ hey-bee-uhs kawr-puhs ]

noun

, Law.

1. a writ requiring a person to be brought before a judge or court, especially for investigation of a restraint of the person's liberty, used as a protection against illegal imprisonment.

habeas corpus

/ ˈheɪbɪəs ˈkɔːpəs /

noun

1. law a writ ordering a person to be brought before a court or judge, esp so that the court may ascertain whether his detention is lawful

habeas corpus

1. A legal term meaning that an accused person must be presented physically before the court with a statement demonstrating sufficient cause for arrest. Thus, no accuser may imprison someone indefinitely without bringing that person and the charges against him or her into a courtroom. In Latin , habeas corpus literally means “you shall have the body.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of habeas corpus¹

< Latin: literally, have the body (first words of writ), equivalent to habeās 2nd-person singular present subjunctive (with imperative force) of habēre to have + corpus body

Word History and Origins

Origin of habeas corpus¹

C15: from the opening of the Latin writ, literally: you may have the body

Example Sentences

To do that, the activists are relying on the writ of habeas corpus, a legal protection for imprisoned people.

From Time

An appellate court later that year also denied habeas corpus relief to Happy.

From Time

The prisoner, Abu Zubaydah, who has never been charged with a crime, has been waiting 14 years for a federal judge to rule on his habeas corpus petition that challenges the legality of his detention.

From ProPublica

The Supreme Court in 2008 ruled that noncitizen detainees at the prison have the right, known as habeas corpus, to go to court to challenge their detention.

From Washington Post

I will fight if someone tries to take away from me and those I love the rule of law, trial by jury, the writ of habeas corpus, and a government with nobody above the law.

From Time

They hate that Lincoln suspended habeas corpus; they never note that Jefferson Davis did, too.

From The Daily Beast

The ringleader was Willie Mak, and he got the death penalty, a sentence later overturned in federal habeas corpus proceedings.

From The Daily Beast

Greenpeace and student activists were outlawed and habeas corpus was suspended.

From The Daily Beast

Now, if you please, Senator McCain, in the spirit of habeas corpus, show me the body.

From The Daily Beast

English act of habeas corpus passed; the act suspending it was repealed, probably forever, 1818.

From Project Gutenberg

One of the most familiar actions is habeas corpus, which is employed to recover a person's liberty from illegal restraint.

From Project Gutenberg

First of all, he brought an action—a writ of habeas corpus, I think—to recover his daughter, as an English subject.

From Project Gutenberg

On the presentation of the first report of the committee the government brought in a bill to suspend the habeas corpus act.

From Project Gutenberg

It robs men of the jury trial, it robs them of habeas corpus, and forty other things.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• action
• arraignment
• case
• contest
• hearing
• impeachment
• indictment
• lawsuit
• litigation
• prosecution
• suit
• tribunal

More About Habeas Corpus

What is habeas corpus?

The writ of habeas corpus, often shortened to habeas corpus, is the requirement that an arrested person be brought before a judge or court before being detained or imprisoned.

Where did the term habeas corpus come from?

Recorded as a legal borrowed word by the 1460s in English, habeas corpus literally means in Latin “you shall have the body,” or person, in court, and a writ is a formal order under seal, issued in the name of a sovereign, government, court, or other competent authority. So, a writ of habeas corpus is a court order to bring a person who’s been detained to court to determine whether or not their detention is valid. It’s a fail-safe to prevent the government from imprisoning people without cause.

Habeas corpus originated in Medieval English common law. It’s difficult to say exactly where it first appeared in writing, but it was most famously codified in the 1215 Magna Carta, which granted all free men protection against illegal imprisonment. This English law was brought over to the North American British colonies. In turn, the U.S. Constitution, which was influenced by the Magna Carta, explicitly charges: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” Many other modern countries include writs of habeas corpus in their constitutions.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln famously used an executive order during the Civil War to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to keep Maryland, and important train routes between Washington, DC and the North, from falling to Confederate sympathizers. Because the Constitution allows for suspension in the event of rebellion, Lincoln was within his rights to do this (England had also suspended the writ during past emergencies). Still, the decision was controversial, as it meant those suspected of being associated with the Confederacy could be imprisoned without trial.

Habeas corpus was also suspended in some instances in World War II, notably by the governor of Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the 2010s, the writ has been the subject of much legal dispute over the detention of suspected terrorists, especially concerning the detainees held in Guantánamo Bay without charge. In 2008, the Supreme Court found the Military Commissions Act of 2006 unconstitutional, which President Bush signed into allowing for the detention of “unlawful enemy combatants” against the U.S.

In common legal practice, the habeas corpus is invoked in cases where someone believes they’ve been wrongly detained. This applies to both people in prisons and people who are in mental institutions. Essentially, one could petition the court for a writ of habeas corpus, which, if granted, would give them a court date to determine the legality of their imprisonment. Such a trial could result, and has, in release from custody or reduction in sentence.

Examples of habeas corpus

“Bloomfield, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to murdering five people in New Mexico, filed a writ of habeas corpus to withdraw his guilty plea.”
—“Attorney General’s Office helps keep murderer behind bars,” Silver City Sun-News (May 25, 2017)

“The granddaddy of all American constitutional crises was precipitated by Southern secession in 1861. In one particularly striking sub-crisis, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, citing Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, which says that ‘The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.’”
—Noah Feldman, “Hold Your Tongue: This Isn’t a ‘Constitutional Crisis’,” Bloomberg (May 12, 2017)

“President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday afternoon announced that the writ of habeas corpus had been suspended in Mindanao following his declaration of martial law on the island Tuesday night after clashes between security forces and bandit groups left three people dead and several others hurt.”
—Audrey Morallo, “Habeas corpus suspended in Mindanao, says Duterte,” The Philippine Star (May 24, 2017)

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.