Definition
In old English law, to obtain by request — specifically, to procure a writ, privilege, or other legal instrument from a court or authority through formal petition. The term describes the act of successfully soliciting a legal remedy or process, as distinguished from merely applying for one. It appears primarily in medieval English legal writing, where obtaining a writ from the king's courts was itself a procedural step requiring formal entreaty.
Why It Matters in Research
IMPETRARE is a Latin term of art confined almost entirely to medieval and early common law sources. Researchers encountering it in Bracton or similar treatises should understand it as a term describing the procurement phase of writ practice — the moment at which a petitioner successfully obtains a writ before proceedings properly commence. It is not a term of modern practice and will not appear in contemporary statutes, rules, or case law.
The primary research trap is treating IMPETRARE as interchangeable with merely filing or requesting a writ. The word carries a sense of completion — the petition has succeeded. This distinction matters when reading Bracton's procedural passages, where the sequence of petitioning, obtaining (impetrare), and then executing a writ reflects a structured conception of how royal legal process was initiated.
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should note that this term surfaces most reliably in treatises on early English writ procedure and in civil law sources from which the usage was borrowed. Black's (both editions) and Burrill each trace the term's English application to Bracton (fols. 57, 172b) and note its civil law origin, citing Calvin's lexicon. If the Bracton passages are the target, researchers should approach them with awareness that the surrounding procedural framework — the writ system itself — has no direct modern analog, and that terms like IMPETRARE anchor a vocabulary that became obsolete as pleading rules modernized.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st Ed.), Black's (2nd Ed.), and Burrill are in complete agreement on this term. All three define it identically as "to obtain by request, as a writ or privilege," all three cite the same Bracton folios (57 and 172b), and all three note that the English legal application appears derived from the civil law, with Black's citing Calvin and Burrill citing Calvin's Lex. The uniformity across sources reflects the term's narrow usage — there was little room for interpretive divergence when the term appears in so few texts with such specific meaning.
What the historical dictionaries do not address is the civil law dimension beyond the attribution note. The term's Roman and canon law history — where impetrare and its cognates described obtaining rescripts, dispensations, or privileges from imperial or papal authority — goes unexplored in these common law references. Researchers interested in the civil law lineage will need to look beyond the standard English law dictionaries to civilian sources and canon law glossaries. The common law dictionaries treat the civil law origin as explanatory context, not as substantive content.
No historical dictionary entry attempts a broader doctrinal discussion, which is appropriate given the term's purely procedural and archaic character.
Jurisdictional Note
IMPETRARE has no live jurisdictional significance. It is confined to historical common law and civil law sources and is not operative in any modern jurisdiction. Researchers encountering it outside of medieval English or Roman/canon law contexts should treat that appearance as requiring verification of the source's date and character.