Definition
A Latin phrase meaning, roughly, "for allowing liberties" or "for the allowance of privileges." In historical English law, *libertatibus allocandis* appears as the identifying phrase for a writ issuing out of the common law courts to protect a citizen or burgess from being impleaded — that is, sued or proceeded against — in a manner contrary to the liberties or privileges to which that person was entitled by virtue of their status, charter, or custom. The writ commanded that the privilege be recognized and allowed.
The phrase is almost always encountered in legal sources as part of the full writ name *De Libertatibus Allocandis*, the "De" form being the standard Latin construction for naming writs of this era.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter this term almost exclusively in pre-modern English legal materials — writ registers, early treatises, and abridgments — and rarely, if ever, in American sources. Its practical significance ended with the substantive reform of English writ practice in the nineteenth century.
Several navigational points are worth noting:
First, the term appears in at least two distinct writ contexts in the historical record, and sources do not always distinguish between them cleanly. Black's 2nd Edition, under related entries, also associates "allocandis" language with writs directing the exchequer to pay pensions or annuities, with writs for delivery of lands or goods forfeited on recognizance, and with writs for release of prisoners who had given bail. These are functionally different instruments. A researcher encountering "allocandis" in a period source should identify the full writ title and the issuing court before treating it as equivalent to the burgess-privilege writ described here.
Second, Rapalje & Lawrence redirect readers to the "De" form (*De Libertatibus Allocandis*) rather than providing an independent entry — a common cross-referencing pattern in the historical dictionaries for writ names that appear both with and without the "De" prefix. Researchers should search under both forms in older indexes and digests.
Third, the concept of "liberties" embedded in the writ name carried a specific technical meaning in medieval and early modern English law: not liberty in the abstract constitutional sense, but particular franchises, privileges, and exemptions attached to corporate status (as a citizen or burgess of a town or city) or granted by royal charter. Conflating this usage with the broader modern sense of civil liberties will produce category errors when reading historical commentary.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's 1st Edition provides the core definition economically: a writ for a citizen or burgess impleaded contrary to his liberty, to have his privilege allowed, citing the *Registrum Omnium Brevium* (Reg. Orig.) at folio 262. Black's 2nd Edition substantially expands its coverage of related "allocandis" writs but presents the burgess-privilege writ as the terminal entry in a run of related instruments, which can obscure the distinct character of each writ type for a reader moving quickly through the entry.
Rapalje & Lawrence add no independent substance, functioning only as a pointer to the preferred entry form.
None of the dictionary sources explain the procedural mechanics of how the writ operated in practice — who could invoke it, in what court, on what factual showing — and none situate it within the broader scheme of English franchise and borough law. Researchers needing that context must look beyond the dictionaries to sources such as Fitzherbert's *Natura Brevium* or the primary writ registers themselves.
Jurisdictional Note
This writ was a creature of English law and has no recognized American counterpart. It does not appear in American writ practice. Researchers working in United States legal history will encounter the term only in imported English legal literature or in early colonial materials that drew directly on English forms.