Definition
De superoneratione pastu (Law Latin: "of overburdening of pasture") is a historical writ of English common law, specifically a judicial writ that lay in favor of a party who had been impleaded in a county court for surcharging a common with his cattle — that is, for placing more animals on a common pasture than his rights permitted — where that same matter had previously been before the county court and the cause had been removed to one of the superior courts at Westminster. The writ was procedural in nature, designed to facilitate the transfer of jurisdiction and prevent a party from being twice subjected to local court proceedings for the same alleged overuse of common grazing rights.
Common Language
This term is pure Law Latin with no counterpart in ordinary English usage. The nearest plain-English rendering is "writ of surcharge of pasture," which is the translation used consistently in the historical sources.
Core Elements
The writ had three defining conditions:
1. Prior impleading in the county court. The party must have already been drawn into proceedings in the county court for the same act of surcharge.
2. The subject matter: surcharge of common pasture. The underlying dispute concerned the overloading of a common — grazing more cattle than the commoner's rights allowed.
3. Removal to Westminster. The cause must have been removed from the county court to one of the superior courts at Westminster, at which point this judicial writ issued to carry the matter forward properly in the superior forum.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will surface only in medieval and early modern English legal materials — Year Books, registers of writs, and treatises on common rights and the action of surcharge. Researchers encountering it should recognize it as a procedural mechanism rather than a substantive remedy: it does not define the wrong (surcharging a common) but rather addresses what happened to the litigation after removal from a county court.
The key research trap is conflating this writ with the underlying action for surcharge of pasture, which was a distinct substantive proceeding. The writ of de superoneratione pastu presupposes a prior county court action and marks the jurisdictional transition point; the substantive action could exist independently of it.
The term also connects to the broader family of common-right writs and to the procedural apparatus of removal from inferior to superior courts in pre-modern English practice. Researchers working on common rights, rights of pasture, or the history of English inferior courts will need to understand both the substantive law of common appendant, common appurtenant, and surcharge, and the procedural mechanics of removal, to situate this writ correctly.
Because the writ is referenced to Reg. Jud. 36b (Registrum Judiciale), researchers tracing it to primary sources should consult that register directly. The Registrum Judiciale was a standard formulary of judicial writs; its entries are formulaic and will not supply factual context but will confirm the writ's prescribed form.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary and Burrill's Law Dictionary give essentially identical accounts, both translating the term as "writ of surcharge of pasture" and both citing Reg. Jud. 36b as their primary authority. Burrill adds the Law Latin label "Breve" (writ) and places the entry alongside the adjacent writ de supersedendo, which provides useful orientation: both are procedural writs appearing in the Registrum Judiciale in close proximity, suggesting they were part of the same practical toolkit for managing transferred causes.
Neither historical dictionary supplies context about how frequently the writ was used, whether it fell into disuse with the decline of county courts as active common-law forums, or how it related to other forms of removal. These are gaps the historical dictionaries do not fill, and researchers should not assume the writ remained in active use into the later common law period. It is best treated as a feature of medieval English procedural law with limited relevance beyond that context.
Jurisdictional Note
This writ is exclusively English in origin and belongs to the pre-modern common law of England. It has no American counterpart and no relevance to post-colonial legal systems except as a historical antecedent to doctrines governing common rights and removal of causes.