WRIT, a law term, which in its proper signification means a writing under the king's seal, whereby he confers some right or privilege, or commands some act to be done. Writs are either patent (open, com monly called letters patent, lame pa testes), which are not sealed up, but have the great seal attached to them ; or close (liters datum). which are, or are supposed to be, sealed up. The former are addressed to all persons indiscriminately, generally in these terms—" To all to whom these presents shall come;" the latter are directed to some officer or other individual. Of the former kind is the creation of a peer by patent, which is a royal grant of peerage; of the latter, the creation of a peer by writ, which is a summons to attend the house of peers by the style and title of some barony.
Writ in its ordinary and more limited sense is a term applicable to a process iu ciril or criminal proceedings. Civil writs are divisible into original and judicial ; original writs Issue out of the Court of Chan cery, and give authority to the courts, in which they are returnable, to proceed with the cause ; judicial writs are awarded by the court in which the action is already pending. These are again subdivided into mane and final. Original writs (which have been superseded by the writ of summons) used to contain a brief statement of the plaintiff's alleged cause of action • and such a writ was called in law Latin breve, in law French brief : this term was afterwards applied to judicial and other writs. Original writs issuing from Chancery were always witnessed, or tested, in the name of the king ; judicial writs issued from that one of the superior common law courts in which the original writ was made returnable, and were tested in the name of the chief judge of such court.
There are many kinds of writs, some of the more important of which may be here mentioned. There is the writ to the sheriff of a county to elect a member or members of the Commons House of Parliament, in case of a vacancy or general election, which issues upon the warrant of the lord chancellor, or in certain cases of tho speaker of the House of Commons. Tho writ of habeas corpus (ad subjiciendum), which is directed to any person who detains another, commanding him to produce the body of tho prisoner at such a timo and place, together with the cause of his caption and detention, to do, submit to, and receive (ad faciendum, subjwiendunt, et recipiendum) whatever the court or judge by whom the writ is awarded shall think fit. [llaaxas Colima.] There are various other write of habeas corpus, for the purpose of bringing up prisoners to be charged in execution, to give testimony, &c.—the writs of subpana ad test ificand um, by which a party is commanded to appear at the trial of a cause, to give evidence under a pecuniary penalty ; and of subpana duces tccum, by which the party is commanded to bring certain specified documents for the pur pose of the trial. A defendant privileged from the particular suit, or from being sued except before some other tribunal, is entitled to a writ of prirdege, by which the court is required to discontinue the suit. In modern tunes a party is allowed Ins privilege without suing out any writ of privilege.