Definition
Bona fugitivorum (Latin: "goods of fugitives") is a historical doctrine of English common law under which the personal property of a person who fled from justice to escape a felony charge was forfeited. The goods passed to the Crown or to the lord of the fee, not by attainder following conviction, but by the mere act of flight itself. The fugitive's abandonment of the realm was treated as a forfeiture-triggering event independent of any judgment.
The doctrine was distinct from general forfeiture upon attainder, which required conviction. Bona fugitivorum operated earlier in the process: the flight, not the verdict, divested the felon of his goods.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is almost exclusively encountered in historical English legal materials. Researchers working in early modern English common law, ecclesiastical records, or colonial American legal history may encounter it in treatises, Year Books, or early reports. Coke's reference (5 Co. Rep. 109b) is the touchstone citation and the source Black's relies upon.
The key research trap is conflating bona fugitivorum with two adjacent but distinct doctrines: forfeiture upon attainder (which required a completed conviction) and outlawry (which carried broader consequences including loss of legal personhood). Bona fugitivorum was a narrower, earlier forfeiture triggered by flight alone. Distinguishing the three in historical materials requires attention to the procedural posture described — was the person convicted, outlawed, or merely fled?
The doctrine has no operative modern counterpart in American law. Asset forfeiture in contemporary U.S. practice rests on entirely different statutory and constitutional foundations and should not be traced back to bona fugitivorum without significant historical qualification. Researchers encountering this term in American materials from the colonial or early republic period should treat it as a transplanted English doctrine, not settled American common law.
Cross-referencing with bona utlagati (goods of outlaws) and forfeiture upon attainder entries in historical sources will often illuminate the same primary materials and help establish the procedural distinctions the doctrine depends on.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines the term tersely as "the proper goods of him who flies for felony," citing 5 Coke, 109b. Rapalje & Lawrence track closely, offering "goods of fugitives from justice" without elaboration. Both sources treat the term as self-contained and archaic, providing no discussion of how the forfeiture was administered, who enforced it, or how it interacted with concurrent doctrines.
Neither dictionary addresses the historical erosion of the doctrine. By the time American legal dictionaries began systematizing English common law inheritance, bona fugitivorum was already a relic. Blackstone's Commentaries situate it within the broader framework of forfeiture as a consequence of flight, but the doctrine had limited vitality even in late English practice. The silence of both historical dictionaries on administration and enforcement is itself informative: this was a term preserved for doctrinal completeness, not active practice.
What historical sources miss entirely is any discussion of how bona fugitivorum interacted with the rights of creditors, wives with dower interests, or innocent third parties — questions that would have been practically pressing in the period the doctrine was operative. Researchers needing that layer will need to go beyond dictionaries to Bracton, Britton, or Fitzherbert.
Jurisdictional Note
This doctrine is English in origin and has no recognized equivalent in modern American, Canadian, or Australian law. Colonial American courts occasionally referenced English forfeiture doctrines, but bona fugitivorum as a distinct category was not widely adopted or codified in American jurisdictions. Researchers should treat any American citation to the doctrine as persuasive historical reference, not binding precedent.