Definition
Immediate execution refers to the right of a judgment creditor to enforce a judgment through legal process — typically a writ of execution — as soon as the judgment is duly entered, without waiting for any additional period or judicial leave. The term describes both the timing (enforcement may begin at once) and the procedural entitlement (the creditor is entitled to sue out a writ immediately upon entry of judgment).
In practice, immediate execution means that upon proper entry of the judgment, the prevailing party may proceed without delay to compel payment or satisfaction — for example, by directing a sheriff or officer to levy on the judgment debtor's goods, lands, or other property.
The term should not be confused with "execution" in the sense of capital punishment. In civil procedure, execution is the enforcement mechanism that gives a judgment practical effect; "immediate" execution specifies that no waiting period, stay, or further order is required before that mechanism may be invoked.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Execution" in ordinary English means carrying out or completing something — a task, a plan, or a legal instrument such as a will or contract. "Immediate" means without delay.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's defines "execution" as "the act of executing; a carrying into effect or to completion." In the legal context, Webster's separately acknowledges execution as "a judicial writ by which an officer is empowered to carry a judgment into effect."
The gap matters here. In common usage, "immediate execution" most naturally conjures either the signing of a document or the carrying out of a death sentence. In civil procedure, the phrase is a term of art describing a judgment creditor's right to proceed to enforcement through writ — immediately upon entry of judgment — without any intervening stay or requirement of leave from the court. Neither the death penalty sense nor the contract-signing sense applies.
Common Confusion
Three distinct legal uses of "execution" operate in close proximity and are frequently conflated by researchers:
1. Execution of a judgment (civil enforcement) — the subject of this entry. A writ directing an officer to satisfy a money judgment from the debtor's property.
2. Execution of a document — the signing and delivery of a legal instrument (deed, will, contract) with the formalities required to make it operative.
3. Capital execution — the carrying out of a death sentence imposed by a court of criminal jurisdiction.
"Immediate execution" as a term of art belongs exclusively to the first category. Historical sources sometimes use "execution" without qualification, requiring the researcher to determine from context which meaning is operative.
Why It Matters in Research
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry is a fragment — it cuts off mid-sentence after listing the general entitlement and flagging that exceptions follow. This is critical: the rule that a judgment creditor is "immediately" entitled to sue out a writ of fieri facias or elegit is qualified by conditions the dictionary entry does not finish reciting. Researchers relying on Rapalje & Lawrence alone will see the entitlement but not its limits.
The source provision — the English Judicature Act 1875, Order XLII, Rule 15 — governs English practice. Researchers working in American sources should not assume this rule maps cleanly onto U.S. procedure. American jurisdictions developed their own stay and execution rules, and the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act and state-specific execution statutes create significant variation in how quickly a creditor may proceed after entry of judgment.
In historical sources, the distinction between a writ of fieri facias (directed at personal property) and a writ of elegit (directed at a debtor's lands and goods, giving the creditor possession until satisfaction) is essential context for understanding what "immediate execution" actually permitted the creditor to do. The elegit has no meaningful modern American counterpart and was largely abolished in England as well. Researchers encountering either writ in historical materials should not assume the modern enforcement parallel is straightforward.
The phrase also appears in contexts that have nothing to do with civil money judgments — including emergency injunctions and, in older criminal sources, warrants. Researchers should verify the procedural context before treating a historical use of "immediate execution" as a civil enforcement term.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence's entry reflects the posture of English procedural reform in the 1870s: the Judicature Acts consolidated and rationalized English civil procedure, and the provision cited was part of that rationalization of execution practice. The dictionary's framing — that a judgment creditor "shall immediately after the time when the judgment was duly entered, be entitled to sue out" a writ — captures the general rule cleanly.
What the entry does not do, by virtue of its truncation, is address the exceptions that qualified immediate enforceability. In English practice these included situations where a stay had been granted, where the time for appeal had not expired, or where the judgment itself was conditional. American legal dictionaries of the same period, including Black's early editions, treat execution more broadly without isolating "immediate execution" as a distinct sub-entry, suggesting the phrase was more salient in English procedural discourse than in American.
No other source dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus contain a dedicated entry for this term.
Jurisdictional Note
American jurisdictions do not use a single uniform rule on when execution may issue after judgment. Many states impose a mandatory stay period before execution may proceed; others require the judgment debtor to take affirmative steps to obtain a stay. Federal practice under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides for an automatic 30-day stay after entry of judgment before execution may issue. Researchers should not treat the English Judicature Act rule as stating American law.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Search Warrants — Issuance, Execution, and Scope (criminal_146) — relevant for the separate sense of executing a warrant, and for understanding how "execution" functions as a term of art in different procedural contexts.