Definition
An optional writ is a form of original writ used in old English practice that commanded a defendant to either perform a specified act or appear in court and show cause why the act had not been done. The defining characteristic is the alternative structure: the defendant could comply with the demand or explain non-compliance — hence "optional" in the sense of presenting a choice between two courses of action. It is otherwise known as a praecipe writ.
The optional writ is contrasted with the peremptory writ, which simply ordered performance without offering the defendant an alternative. The optional writ was the first step in many common law civil actions; if the defendant failed to do the thing commanded and offered no sufficient cause, a peremptory writ would follow.
Common Confusion
OPTIONAL WRIT vs. PEREMPTORY WRIT: The two forms of original writ are frequently mentioned together but serve different procedural functions. The optional writ issues first and offers the defendant a choice — do this, or show cause. The peremptory writ issues when no adequate cause has been shown and commands performance without qualification. A researcher who encounters a peremptory writ in historical records should understand it often presupposes a prior optional writ stage.
OPTIONAL WRIT vs. PRAECIPE: These terms substantially overlap, and the historical dictionaries treat them as synonyms. Strictly, praecipe refers to the form or formula of the writ (a command beginning "require" or "order"), while optional writ describes the structural type. In practice the terms appear interchangeably in pre-modern sources.
Why It Matters in Research
This is primarily a historical term. Researchers will encounter it in pre-Judicature Acts English common law materials and in American sources predating the merger of law and equity — roughly anything before the mid-nineteenth century in most U.S. jurisdictions and before 1873 in England.
The key navigational trap is the word "optional." Modern readers naturally read "optional" to mean discretionary or voluntary. In legal context, the term describes the alternative structure of the writ, not any choice afforded to the issuing court or the plaintiff. The defendant's "option" was compelled: comply or appear and explain. Neither path was genuinely voluntary.
Researchers working in colonial American court records, early federal practice, or English common law pleading materials should understand that the optional writ represented an early procedural step in the action. Finding an optional writ in the record does not mean the matter was resolved; it typically signals the opening of a disputed proceeding. The peremptory writ, if present in the same record, indicates the defendant failed to satisfy the court on cause.
The optional writ belongs to the original writ system — the formal mechanism by which the royal courts obtained jurisdiction over defendants before issue was joined. That system was largely abolished in England by the Common Law Procedure Act 1852 and the Judicature Acts 1873–1875, and in American federal practice by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (1938). Researchers working after those periods will not encounter the optional writ as a live procedural tool, but may encounter it in cited precedent or treatise discussion.
There is no meaningful modern counterpart, though the structural logic of "do this or show cause" survives in certain order-to-show-cause practice.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in close agreement. All four define the optional writ identically in substance, citing Blackstone's Commentaries (Book 3, p. 274) as the authoritative source. Bouvier's adds a citation to Finch's Law (p. 257), providing modest additional grounding. Black's second edition includes an erroneous maxim entry (Optima statuti interpretatrix) that appears to be a typographical artifact of the original printing — it does not belong to the OPTIONAL WRIT entry and should be disregarded.
Burrill's is the most precise of the four, explicitly naming the praecipe as the synonym and using the Latin spelling (præcipe), which helps researchers locate the term in other historical sources that index under that spelling rather than "optional writ."
What the historical dictionaries collectively omit: no source discusses the range of actions in which the optional writ was used, the procedural steps following it, or the distinction between writs of right and writs of course that governed when the optional form was required. Researchers needing that context should consult Blackstone directly or a treatise on common law pleading such as Gould's Treatise on the Principles of Pleading.
Jurisdictional Note
The optional writ was a creature of English common law and was adopted in American colonies and early states. Its practical relevance is confined to jurisdictions and periods operating under pre-reform common law pleading. Civil law jurisdictions never employed it.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
For related writ practice in surviving extraordinary writ contexts, see: Coram Nobis and Other Extraordinary Writs (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia) and Habeas Corpus — The Great Writ and Suspension Clause (The Law Mind Constitutional Law Encyclopedia).