Definition
In meditatione fuge (Latin: "in contemplation of flight") is a phrase describing the condition of a debtor or defendant who is believed to be preparing to flee the jurisdiction in order to evade legal obligations, particularly the satisfaction of debts. When a person is said to be in meditatione fuge, they have not yet absconded but are imminently likely to do so — the flight is anticipated rather than accomplished. The phrase historically grounded the basis for certain extraordinary legal remedies, most notably arrest of the person or attachment of property, designed to prevent a creditor from being left without recourse once the debtor departed.
Common Language
The phrase has no meaningful foothold in ordinary English. It is Latin legal terminology without a common-usage counterpart and requires no comparison to lay definitions.
Common Confusion
In meditatione fuge should not be confused with the completed act of flight or absconding. The phrase specifically captures the anticipatory moment — the debtor is planning to flee but remains within reach. Remedies predicated on in meditatione fuge were therefore preventive and urgent; they were distinct from remedies available after a debtor had already departed. Conflating the two states leads to misreading historical pleadings and equitable applications, which often depended precisely on this distinction between imminent and accomplished flight.
Why It Matters in Research
The phrase appears most frequently in early equity and Scots law sources and carries different procedural weight depending on jurisdiction. In Scottish equity practice, as reflected in Kames' Equity, the concept supported the use of arrestment or personal diligence against a debtor believed to be on the verge of leaving. In English common law contexts, the phrase supported mesne process — particularly the arrest of a defendant before judgment — when a creditor could show the defendant was about to abscond. Researchers working in pre-nineteenth-century equity materials, Scots legal records, or early American commercial law sources should be alert to this phrase as a trigger term: its presence signals that a creditor sought emergency relief and that the procedural posture of the case may differ markedly from ordinary debt actions.
The phrase also surfaces in treatises on commercial law and conflict of laws in discussions of jurisdiction over absent debtors. Researchers consulting Kent's Commentaries in connection with illicit trade or commercial obligations may encounter the adjacent maxim — "In mercibus illicitis non sit commercium" (there should be no commerce in illicit or prohibited goods) — quoted in the same passages. Burrill links both phrases in a single entry, so researchers should be careful not to treat them as a single compound principle; they are independent maxims that happen to appear in the same equitable sources.
Because the doctrine underlying in meditatione fuge has been largely absorbed into modern attachment and injunction practice, the phrase itself rarely appears in twentieth- or twenty-first-century materials. Researchers tracing the historical roots of prejudgment attachment, or studying the evolution of creditor remedies, will find the phrase concentrated in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century equity and commercial law literature.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the core definition — "in contemplation of flight" — and anchors it to two sources: Kames' Equity (volume 2, pages 14–15) and Kent's Commentaries (volume 3, page 262, note). The Kames citation locates the phrase firmly in Scottish equity practice, where Lord Kames treated the imminence of flight as sufficient equitable ground for personal diligence against a debtor. The Kent citation appears in the context of commercial law and the law of nations.
Burrill does not elaborate on the procedural mechanics or discuss English common law usage independently. The entry is a pointer entry, directing the researcher to the primary sources rather than synthesizing doctrine. This is characteristic of Burrill's treatment of Latin maxims: he identifies the phrase and its authorities but leaves doctrinal development to the treatises cited. Researchers should not expect Burrill alone to supply a complete account of how the phrase functioned in practice — the Kames and Kent sources are essential complements.
No other source dictionaries were provided for this entry.
Jurisdictional Note
The concept was most developed in Scots law, where arrestment on the dependence was available upon a showing that the debtor was in meditatione fuge. English and early American courts recognized analogous doctrines but the Latin phrase itself was more common in equity and Scots-influenced practice than in standard common law pleading.