Legal Definitions - arrestatio

arrestatio is a historical legal term derived from Law Latin, referring to an arrest. Specifically, it often implied an arrest that was carried carried out under the authority of a formal legal document, such as a warrant issued by a court or magistrate.

Here are some examples illustrating the historical application of arrestatio:

• Apprehending a Suspected Criminal: Imagine a scene in 17th-century England where a local constable receives a written order from a justice of the peace. This order commands the constable to locate and take into custody a specific individual who is suspected of having stolen goods from a nearby village.

  This act of the constable apprehending the suspect, based on the formal written directive (the warrant) from the justice, would have been historically referred to as an arrestatio. It clearly demonstrates an arrest executed under explicit legal authority.

• Detaining a Fugitive from Justice: Consider the American colonial period, where a sheriff in one colony receives an official document from a court in a neighboring colony. This document requests the apprehension and return of a person who had fled after being accused of a serious crime in the original jurisdiction.

  When the sheriff successfully located and detained the fugitive based on this inter-colonial legal request, which functioned as a type of warrant for apprehension, this action would have been considered an arrestatio. It illustrates an arrest carried out under the formal directive of a judicial body, even across different colonial jurisdictions.

• Enforcing a Royal Decree: In a medieval kingdom, a royal official is dispatched with a sealed document from the king's court. This document instructs the official to bring a particular nobleman before the court to answer charges of disloyalty to the crown.

  The official's act of taking the nobleman into custody, backed by the king's formal decree or warrant, exemplifies an arrestatio. This scenario highlights the historical application of the term to arrests made under the explicit written authority of a sovereign or a high court.