Definition
A Latin verb from old English law meaning to exile or banish. The term appears primarily in legal literature as a gloss on Magna Carta, chapter 29, which prohibits the exile of a free man except by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. The operative phrase is: *Nullus liber homo exuletur, nisi...* — "no freeman shall be exiled, unless...." The term does not describe a procedural mechanism or a distinct legal action; it names the act of banishment itself, and its significance in legal sources derives entirely from its appearance in that constitutional prohibition.
Common Confusion
*Exulare* (to exile) should not be conflated with the related but distinct medieval English concepts of outlawry (*utlagatio*) and abjuration of the realm. Outlawry placed a person outside the protection of law as a consequence of flight from justice; abjuration was a sworn departure from the realm as an alternative to criminal prosecution. Exile in the sense of *exulare* — particularly as used in Magna Carta commentary — refers to forcible banishment by state action, which is precisely the arbitrary exercise of power the chapter 29 prohibition targeted. A researcher conflating these terms will misread both the Magna Carta provision and Coke's commentary on it.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a term encountered almost exclusively in commentary on Magna Carta and its reception into English constitutional law, not in operative legal instruments or pleading. A researcher will find it in Coke's *Institutes* (specifically 2 Inst. 47, where Coke expounds chapter 29) and in dictionary entries that track Coke's gloss rather than independent sources. The term itself is not the object of research — it is a signpost pointing toward the broader Magna Carta due process tradition.
The critical research trap: the three historical dictionary entries all cite the same two sources (Magna Carta c. 29 and 2 Inst. 47), which means the dictionaries are not independently corroborating each other. They are all downstream of Coke. Any deeper investigation requires going directly to Coke's *Second Institute* rather than treating the dictionary chain as independent authority.
Researchers working on the history of banishment, outlawry, or transportation as criminal punishments should note that *exulare* addresses the prohibition on arbitrary exile, not the affirmative law of banishment as a sentence. Those are distinct subjects requiring different source trails.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st ed.), Black's (2nd ed.), and Burrill's are in complete agreement on substance. All three define the term identically, all three quote the same Magna Carta phrase, and all three cite the same two authorities. The only variation is a typographical discrepancy in Black's 2nd ed., which renders the Latin verb as *erulctur* rather than *exuletur* — almost certainly a compositor's error, not a meaningful textual variant.
None of the three dictionaries contextualizes the term within the broader Magna Carta due process clause or explains the significance of Coke's reading at 2 Inst. 47. For a researcher, the dictionaries mark the location of the concept but do not map the terrain. Coke's expansion of chapter 29 — treating it as the foundation of English liberty against arbitrary crown action — is the interpretive layer the dictionaries silently assume.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Magna Carta and English Constitutional Liberty; Banishment and Outlawry in Medieval English Law.