Definition
A term of Scots law with two distinct meanings:
(1) Criminal arrestment. The securing of a person charged with a crime until trial, or until the accused gives sufficient security to appear (judicio sisti — security to stand judgment). This is functionally analogous to arrest and pretrial detention in common law systems.
(2) Civil arrestment. A judicial process by which a creditor intercepts movable property or a debt owed to the principal debtor while it remains in the hands of a third party, prohibiting that third party from making payment or delivery until the arresting creditor's claim is satisfied or secured. The third party holding the funds or goods is the arrestee; the debt intercepted must be a movable obligation. This is the dominant technical usage of the term in Scots private law.
The two meanings share a common core — both involve a judicial prohibition that immobilizes something (a person or property) pending resolution — but they operate in entirely different legal contexts and produce different legal consequences.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "The action of arresting (in any sense)" or, more specifically, "the process that prohibits a debtor from making payment to the creditor until another debt due to the person making use of the arrestment by such creditor is paid."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The arrest of a person, or the seizure of his effects; esp., a process by which money or movables in the possession of a third party are attached. A stoppage or check."
The common usage tracks the legal meaning reasonably closely, which is unusual. Webster's 1913 captures the civil arrestment function well. The gap worth noting: in ordinary English, "arrest" almost always means the detention of a person; in Scots legal usage, arrestment more commonly refers to the civil debt-interception process rather than personal detention, reversing the intuitive weight of the term.
Common Confusion
English-trained researchers frequently read "arrestment" as a variant of "arrest" in the common law sense and miss the civil law dimension entirely. The criminal meaning is the minor use; the civil process — closer to garnishment or trustee process than to arrest — is the dominant legal application. Do not conflate arrestment with diligence broadly: arrestment is one specific form of diligence in Scots law, not a synonym for the whole category.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Arrestment on the dependence: Civil arrestment obtained while an action is still pending, used as a precautionary measure to prevent the debtor from dissipating assets before judgment is obtained. Bouvier notes that this form may be loosened or recalled under certain circumstances.
Arrestment in execution: Civil arrestment following a judgment, used to enforce satisfaction of a debt already established.
Arrestment rei servandæ causa: A preservatory arrestment of movable effects in the hands of their possessor until the question of ownership is determined. Burrill identifies this as a species of sequestration.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus will encounter arrestment almost exclusively in Scots law materials, historical British equity sources, or comparative law treatments. Several traps await:
First, the term is jurisdiction-specific. Outside Scotland, it appears in legal texts only as a term of art requiring explanation — if you see it in an English source, the author is either drawing a comparison to Scots practice or quoting Scots authority directly.
Second, the civil meaning is far more legally developed than the criminal meaning. The historical dictionaries devote substantially more attention to the debt-interception process. Researchers interested in the criminal detention function should generally look to Scots criminal procedure materials directly and should not expect thorough treatment in general legal dictionaries.
Third, the civil arrestment closely parallels American attachment, garnishment, and trustee process. Rapalje & Lawrence make this comparison explicit. This equivalence is useful for researchers tracing the intellectual history of creditor remedies or working in comparative law: arguments and doctrine developed in Scots arrestment cases may inform — and may have historically influenced — American attachment law, though the procedural mechanics differ.
Fourth, the corpus connections run toward the criminal procedure encyclopedia entries listed above, but those entries address common law arrest doctrine. Arrestment in its primary civil sense connects more naturally to creditor remedies, diligence, and the Scots law of obligations — areas where the Law Mind corpus may require researchers to supplement with primary Scots sources outside the encyclopedia's common law frame.
Historical Dictionary Support
All five source dictionaries agree on the bipartite structure of the term: criminal securing of the person and civil interception of movable debts. The definition language is nearly identical across Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, and Burrill's, each tracing to Erskine's Institutes (Book 3, Title 6) as the authoritative Scots source — a point of convergence that confirms Erskine as the primary doctrinal reference for this term.
Rapalje & Lawrence offer the most practically useful gloss by naming the American equivalents: attachment, garnishment, and trustee process. This comparative identification appears in none of the other dictionaries and is the single most useful piece of navigational information for an American-trained researcher encountering the term.
Burrill provides the most granular treatment, identifying the arrestment rei servandæ causa as a distinct subspecies tied to ownership disputes rather than debt collection — a nuance the other dictionaries collapse or omit.
What the historical sources collectively miss: they do not address the procedural mechanics of how arrestment is executed, recalled, or challenged, nor do they trace the evolution of Scots arrestment doctrine after the institutional writers. Researchers needing doctrine beyond definition should look directly to Erskine's Institutes and Bell's Commentaries on the Laws of Scotland.
Jurisdictional Note
Arrestment is a term of Scots law with no direct equivalent procedure in English common law or American law, though its civil function closely parallels garnishment and attachment. It does not appear as operative procedure in any American jurisdiction. Researchers working in English or American jurisdictions encountering this term are dealing with a comparative or historical reference, not a live procedural category.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Arrest — Probable Cause, Warrants, and Procedure (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia) — relevant to the criminal detention meaning of arrestment, though the encyclopedia entry addresses common law arrest doctrine rather than Scots procedure.
Resisting Arrest and Obstruction of Law Enforcement (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia) — tangentially relevant for comparative context on the personal-detention function.