Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "in going and returning." It describes the full span of a journey — the outward trip and the return trip — and is used in law to define the temporal and physical scope of a privilege, protection, or legal status that attaches to a person or vessel in transit. The phrase is most commonly encountered in two contexts: (1) admiralty law, where it describes the duration of a vessel's voyage for purposes of determining liability, insurance, or jurisdictional coverage; and (2) privilege from arrest, where it marks the protected period for witnesses, legislators, and other privileged persons traveling to and from official duties.
The fuller companion phrase EUNDO, MORANDO, ET REDEUNDO — "going, remaining, and returning" — extends the same concept to cover the entire period of official presence, including the time spent at the destination. This expanded form governs most modern discussions of legislative and testimonial privilege from arrest or civil process.
Common Confusion
EUNDO ET REDEUNDO and EUNDO, MORANDO, ET REDEUNDO are closely related but not identical. The two-part phrase covers only transit — the going and the return. The three-part phrase adds the intervening period of presence at the destination. In practice, the three-part phrase is the operative standard for testimonial and legislative privilege, since a witness or legislator needs protection not only in transit but while attending. Researchers encountering either phrase in historical sources should note which form is used, as it may affect the scope of the privilege at issue.
Why It Matters in Research
This phrase is a navigational challenge because it appears in two distinct legal domains — admiralty and privilege from arrest — without much cross-referencing between them. A researcher working in admiralty sources will encounter the two-part phrase in the context of voyage risk and coverage; a researcher working in constitutional or procedural sources will encounter the three-part phrase in discussions of legislative immunity or witness protection. Conflating the two strands, or assuming the admiralty usage carries procedural meaning, is a common error.
In historical sources, the phrase is often cited back to a single admiralty case — 3 C. Rob. Adm. 141 — without further elaboration. Researchers relying on pre-20th-century legal dictionaries will find minimal guidance on the privilege-from-arrest application; that usage developed more fully in treatise literature and constitutional commentary. The admiralty context, by contrast, is better supported in historical sources but seldom traced beyond the single citation.
The phrase also appears in workers' compensation and employment law contexts in 20th-century American jurisprudence, where "going and returning" became a term of art for the rule that injuries sustained while commuting to and from work are generally outside the scope of employment. That usage is functionally related to the Latin phrase but is analytically distinct — researchers should not assume that historical sources using the Latin phrase anticipated or govern the modern workers' compensation rule.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (1st Ed.), Burrill's Law Dictionary, and Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) are in close agreement: all three define the phrase as "in going and returning" and apply it to vessels, citing the same admiralty source. The 2nd edition of Black's is more developed, adding the fuller three-part phrase and explicitly connecting it to privilege from arrest for witnesses and legislators. This is a meaningful editorial expansion — the 1st edition and Burrill treat the phrase as a purely admiralty term, while the 2nd edition recognizes its broader procedural significance.
None of the historical sources engage with the "going and returning" rule in employment or workers' compensation law. That application is a later development and falls outside their scope. Researchers should treat the historical dictionary treatment as authoritative for admiralty and privilege contexts but incomplete as a guide to the phrase's full modern legal reach.
Jurisdictional Note
Legislative privilege from arrest eundo, morando, et redeundo has a constitutional dimension in the United States under the Speech or Debate Clause (Article I, Section 6), but the precise scope of transit protection varies by jurisdiction and has been narrowed over time. The phrase retains more active life in parliamentary systems and in admiralty practice than in American procedural litigation.