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View synonyms for habeas corpus

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.”


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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

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Word History and Origins

Origin of habeas corpus1

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

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Example Sentences

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

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

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

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

English act of habeas corpus passed; the act suspending it was repealed, probably forever, 1818.

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

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

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

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

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