Doctrines
Habeas Corpus
HAY-bee-us KOR-pus
Also Known As The Great Writ
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Origin Rooted in English common law procedure and Magna Carta (1215); formally codified in the Habeas Corpus Act 1679.
Habeas corpus, Latin for that you have the body, is a legal action or writ requiring that a person under arrest be brought before a court so it can determine whether the detention is lawful. It is a core safeguard against arbitrary imprisonment, rooted in English common law procedure and Magna Carta (1215), and formally codified in the Habeas Corpus Act 1679. It is generally treated as suspendable only under narrow, extraordinary constitutional conditions; the United States Constitution, for example, permits suspension only in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion.
Facts
Disputed
Core PrincipleThe Suspension Clause of the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Clause 2) permits Congress to suspend habeas corpus only in cases of rebellion or invasion when the public safety requires it, and only Congress, not the Executive, holds that power; how far the Clause reaches was contested in litigation over Guantanamo Bay detainees following the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006, until the Supreme Court held in Boumediene v Bush (2008) that the Suspension Clause affirmatively guaranteed habeas review even for alien enemy combatants held outside the United States. 2 How far the constitutional right to habeas review extends beyond sovereign United States territory, and to whom, remains a genuinely contested question in wartime and national-security litigation. Origin PeriodRooted in English common law procedure and Magna Carta (1215); formally codified in the Habeas Corpus Act 1679. 1 Core PrincipleA detained person has the right to have the lawfulness of their detention tested before a court. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Held Differently
Civil Law, Legal Systems Civil law systems generally provide analogous judicial protection against arbitrary detention through differently named procedures rather than through habeas corpus as such.
In Legal System
Sources
1. Black's Law Dictionary
Bryan A. Garner, editor; founded by Henry Campbell Black, Thomson Reuters
2. Habeas Corpus (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
Suspension ClauseQuote, Suspension Clause
The Suspension Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Clause 2), states: "The Privileges of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."
2. Habeas Corpus (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
Major Legal Systems in the World Today
Rene David and John E.C. Brierley, Stevens and Sons, 1985In Legal System: Common Law
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