Definition
De libero fassagio (Latin: "of free passage") is a historical common law writ directed at a party who wrongfully obstructs or withholds another's right of free passage — typically a right of way or easement of passage over land. The writ compelled the defendant to permit the plaintiff to exercise that right without interference. It belongs to the family of writs known as quod permittat, which commanded a defendant to allow the plaintiff to enjoy a right rather than simply restoring possession or awarding damages.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers are unlikely to encounter this writ in any context other than medieval and early modern English common law pleading records, writ registers, and procedural treatises. Its practical significance had collapsed well before the nineteenth century, and it does not appear in American common law development in any meaningful form.
The primary research trap is treating Black's bare entry as a complete account of the writ's scope and operation. Black's (2nd Ed.) reduces it to a single cross-reference — "a species of quod permittat" with a citation to the Registrum Omnium Brevium at folio 155 — which is accurate as far as it goes but tells researchers almost nothing about how the writ was invoked, against whom it lay, or what proof was required. Anyone researching the procedural history of easement and right-of-way enforcement in English law will need to consult the Registrum directly or turn to Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium or similar writ-register commentaries for substantive guidance.
The writ matters most as a historical predecessor to modern easement enforcement actions. Understanding that the common law developed specialized writs — rather than relying on a single general action — for different categories of interference with land rights is essential context for tracing how easement doctrine evolved into its modern form. The quod permittat line of writs, of which de libero fassagio is one, represents the common law's earliest systematic attempt to protect incorporeal hereditaments through affirmative judicial compulsion rather than trespass damages alone.
Corpus researchers working in English legal history should note the connection between this writ and the broader taxonomy of original writs governing land rights. The Registrum Omnium Brevium (the printed writ register, with editions from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) is the canonical source; the folio reference in Black's points researchers directly to the relevant entry.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) Supplemental is the only shelf source in the Law Mind corpus to carry this entry, and its treatment is minimal: "writ of free passage. A species of quod permittat. Reg. orig. 155." This is a citation-style entry rather than a substantive definition — it identifies what the writ is by genus (quod permittat) and points to the primary source (the Registrum Originale) rather than explaining its operation or the legal context in which it arose.
No divergence among historical sources can be assessed from within the corpus because only one source covers the term. This is itself a research signal: de libero fassagio had faded sufficiently from active legal use by the time major English and American legal dictionaries were compiled that most editors omitted it entirely. Its survival in Black's 2nd Ed. Supplemental likely reflects that edition's effort to document archaic and obsolete writs for historical completeness rather than any continuing practical relevance.
The Registrum Omnium Brevium — the source Black's cites — is a printed compilation of original writ forms used in the English royal courts, and its folio 155 reference gives researchers a direct and verifiable entry point into the primary source record on this writ's formal requirements.
Jurisdictional Note
This writ is exclusively a feature of English common law and has no recognized American counterpart. In the United States, interference with easements and rights of way is addressed through equitable injunction, the action to quiet title, or trespass on the case — none of which descend directly from de libero fassagio.