Definition
A Latin term meaning "we will go." In legal usage, *ibimus* appears almost exclusively as a fragment of the phrase *nec super eum ibimus* — "nor will we go upon him" — drawn from Magna Carta. In that constitutional context, the phrase is part of the foundational guarantee that the Crown would not proceed against a free man except by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. The word itself carries no independent doctrinal weight; its significance is entirely contextual, derived from its placement within one of the most consequential sentences in the history of Anglo-American law.
Common Confusion
*Ibimus* should not be confused with *ibid.* (an abbreviation of *ibidem*, meaning "in the same place"), which appears far more frequently in legal writing as a citation shorthand. The visual similarity can mislead a researcher scanning Latin terms in older texts. *Ibimus* is also distinct from *imus* and *ibit*, other conjugations of the Latin *ire* (to go) that occasionally appear in medieval legal Latin but without the same doctrinal pedigree.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter *ibimus* almost exclusively in primary sources and commentary relating to Magna Carta — specifically Chapter 39 of the 1215 text (renumbered Chapter 29 in the 1225 reissue). The phrase *nec super eum ibimus* is part of a clause that became the textual foundation for due process and habeas corpus arguments across centuries of English and American law. A researcher who encounters *ibimus* in isolation, without recognizing its Magna Carta provenance, may underestimate the constitutional weight of the surrounding passage.
In older English and American treatises, writers frequently quote or paraphrase the Latin of Magna Carta without translating every word, assuming reader familiarity with legal Latin. *Ibimus* appearing mid-quotation in an 18th or 19th century constitutional argument is a reliable signal that the author is invoking the Chapter 39 guarantee, even if Magna Carta is not cited by name. Recognizing the term thus functions as a navigational cue to the broader due process lineage in the corpus.
Because *ibimus* has no life outside this phrase, it does not require jurisdictional tracking or doctrinal subdivision. Its research value is archival and etymological: confirming that a source is engaging with the Magna Carta tradition rather than some other legal principle.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill and Bouvier are in complete agreement on the bare translation — "we will go" — and both anchor the term to Magna Carta. Burrill is the more instructive of the two, providing the Latin phrase *nec super eum ibimus* and the Magna Carta attribution, which at minimum tells the researcher where to look next. Bouvier offers only the translation, without context. Neither entry attempts substantive analysis of the clause's constitutional significance, which reflects the function of 19th-century law dictionaries as glossaries of Latin terms rather than constitutional commentaries. Researchers should treat both entries as a starting point for identifying the source, then turn to Coke's commentary on Magna Carta (*Second Institute*) or Blackstone's *Commentaries* for substantive treatment of the clause's meaning and reception in common law.
Neither historical source flags the distinction between the 1215 and 1225 texts of Magna Carta, a gap that matters in careful historical work because the chapter numbering and some phrasing differ between versions.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See: Magna Carta; Due Process; Habeas Corpus