Definition
A Latin term meaning "of exoneration" or "of relief from burden." In historical English and American legal practice, *exoneratione* appears primarily as a component of formal writ and pleading language, signifying relief from an obligation, duty, or liability. The term is most commonly encountered in the compound phrase *de exoneratione secte* (see EXONERATIONE SECTE), a writ by which a person was discharged from the obligation of suit of court — the feudal duty to attend a lord's court at regular intervals.
Taken in isolation, *exoneratione* functions as a genitive or ablative case marker in Latin legal formulae, modifying the noun it accompanies to indicate the subject matter of the relief sought. It does not stand alone as a complete legal concept.
Common Confusion
*Exoneratione* should not be confused with the modern tort and criminal law concept of *exoneration*, which refers to the formal clearing of a person from blame, criminal liability, or a prior conviction. While both share the same Latin root, *exoneratione* as encountered in historical legal sources is strictly a term of pleading and writ practice tied to feudal tenure obligations. Modern usage of "exoneration" in criminal contexts — including post-conviction relief and innocence proceedings — carries no technical connection to the historical writ usage.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter *exoneratione* almost exclusively in two contexts: first, in historical English writ registers and abridgments drawing on the forms of action developed under common law; second, in American legal dictionaries and encyclopedias of the nineteenth century that catalogued Latin pleading terms still in formal use before code pleading displaced the forms of action.
The critical navigational point is that Rapalje & Lawrence's entry is a cross-reference only — directing the reader to *de exoneratione secte* rather than defining the bare term. This means any corpus search on *exoneratione* alone will likely surface writ-language fragments that require the full compound phrase for meaningful interpretation. Researchers should treat *exoneratione* as a flag pointing toward the writ of *de exoneratione secte* whenever it appears in pre-code pleading materials.
Because the forms of action were abolished in England by the Common Law Procedure Acts of the mid-nineteenth century, and in most American jurisdictions by Field Code-influenced procedural reforms beginning in the 1840s and 1850s, primary source materials using this term date almost entirely from before those reforms. Post-reform appearances are almost always in treatises cataloguing abolished writs, not in live pleadings.
There is no meaningful jurisdictional variation to track for *exoneratione* itself: its use was tied to English common law forms and wherever those forms were received in American practice. Jurisdictions that departed early from common law pleading will have less corpus material on the term.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence (1883) treat *exoneratione* as a dependent entry with no independent definition, cross-referencing the reader to *de exoneratione secte*. This is consistent with how other historical dictionaries of the period handled Latin ablative and genitive case components of compound writ names — they were catalogued for indexing purposes but understood to carry no standalone legal meaning.
No substantive divergence among historical sources on this term is apparent, because the term generated no independent doctrinal content. Its entire legal significance was absorbed into the compound writs of which it formed a part. Older English sources such as Fitzherbert's *Natura Brevium* and Rastell's *Termes de la Ley* address the underlying writ practice without isolating the Latin component term, which confirms that *exoneratione* was a grammatical marker in pleading language rather than a jurisprudential category.