Definition
De champertia is a historical English writ directed to the justices of the Court of Common Pleas (the "bench"), commanding them to enforce the statutes against champertors — that is, persons who engaged in champerty. The writ functioned as a procedural instrument for activating statutory penalties against those who unlawfully maintained or financed another's litigation in exchange for a share of the proceeds. It does not describe a substantive legal doctrine in itself, but rather the enforcement mechanism for the law of champerty.
Common Confusion
De champertia is easily conflated with champerty itself. The distinction matters for historical research: champerty names the doctrine and the wrong; de champertia names the writ by which courts were commanded to act against it. A historical source referencing de champertia is discussing enforcement procedure, not the elements of the champerty offense.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in early English legal sources and is practically absent from American case law. Researchers encountering de champertia in historical texts should treat it as a procedural artifact of the English writ system, not as a free-standing legal concept with modern application.
The primary research trap is treating de champertia as synonymous with champerty itself. It is not. Champerty is the underlying offense or doctrine; de champertia is the writ that commanded enforcement of the champerty statutes. A researcher scanning historical registers of writs, early common law treatises, or English plea rolls may encounter this term where champerty is the actual subject under analysis.
The sources cited in both editions of Black's — Reg. Orig. 183 and Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 172 — refer to the Registrum Omnium Brevium (the Register of Writs) and Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, two foundational English treatises on the writ system. These are the primary locations where de champertia appears with any substantive treatment. Researchers working in early modern English legal history who need to trace the procedural enforcement of champerty prohibitions should consult those sources directly rather than relying on the Black's summary.
Because the writ system was abolished in England through procedural reforms in the nineteenth century, de champertia has no living procedural counterpart. Modern research on the underlying doctrine belongs under champerty and maintenance, or under the contemporary treatment of litigation finance and champerty in jurisdictions where the doctrine survives.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary define de champertia identically, describing it as a writ directed to the justices of the bench commanding enforcement of the statute of champertors, and citing the same two sources. Neither edition offers any expansion on the writ's history, scope of use, or the specific statutes it enforced. The entry is descriptive and minimal in both versions.
What the historical dictionaries do not supply: there is no discussion of the champerty statutes themselves (principally the Statute of Westminster II, 1285, and related English legislation), no explanation of how the writ was actually invoked in practice, and no indication of how frequently de champertia was used in the historical courts. Researchers should not treat the Black's entries as sufficient background for historical scholarship on the writ — they function as a pointer, not an exposition.
Jurisdictional Note
De champertia is a creature of English legal history with no direct American procedural equivalent. The doctrine of champerty survived in varying forms in American common law jurisdictions, but the writ mechanism did not transplant. Any American research touching champerty enforcement will proceed through modern procedural vehicles, not through this writ.