PURSUE

Definition

To pursue, in legal usage, carries two distinct but related meanings: 1. To follow a matter judicially, as a complaining party — that is, to initiate or prosecute a legal proceeding against another. In this sense, a party pursues a claim, remedy, or cause of action by pressing it through the proper legal channels. 2. To execute or carry out a warrant, authority, or legal power — that is, to act upon a directive by performing the acts it authorizes. In older practice, an officer or agent pursuing a warrant was understood to be implementing it, not merely chasing its subject. A third, narrower usage appears in Scots law: to prosecute criminally, where "pursuer" functions as the party-label equivalent to "plaintiff" or "complainant" in civil proceedings. ---

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To follow urgently, originally with intent to capture or harm; to chase. Also: to aim for or go after an objective; to practice a profession or participate in an activity; to continue or carry on. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To follow with a view to overtake; to follow eagerly or with haste; to chase. Also: to seek or adopt measures to obtain, as in pursuing a remedy at law. The gap between common and legal meaning is narrow but consequential in practice. In ordinary English, "pursue" typically implies physical chase or aspiration. In legal usage, the term carries procedural weight: to pursue a remedy or claim is a term of art signaling active, formal prosecution of a legal right through authorized channels. A party who fails to pursue a remedy in the legally required manner — even if they have "followed" it informally — may forfeit rights. The secondary legal meaning (executing a warrant or authority) has no counterpart in common usage at all. ---

Why It Matters in Research

The term appears in two functionally different legal contexts, and researchers conflating them may misread historical sources. When early cases or treatises say a party "pursued" a matter, they almost always mean the first sense — initiating or pressing a judicial proceeding — not physically tracking anyone. When the same sources say an officer "pursued" a warrant or authority, they mean execution of legal power, not the act of obtaining it. In equity sources, "pursue a remedy" and "pursue relief" are standard formulations signaling active invocation of judicial process. Researchers working in remedies materials should be alert to language about whether a party has "pursued" one remedy as potentially affecting the availability of others — this connects directly to the doctrine of election of remedies and cumulation questions. In Scots law sources, "pursuer" is the standard label for the initiating civil party, equivalent to plaintiff. Researchers encountering this term in comparative or historical Scots materials should not read it through the English common-law lens of "one who chases." The warrant-execution sense of "pursue" is largely obsolete in modern American and English legal writing but appears in older practice texts and reported cases where authorities acted pursuant to writs. Misreading "pursued the warrant" as meaning the warrant was sought, rather than executed, can produce errors in understanding historical procedural sequences. Anderson's entry for "pursue" in the Law Mind corpus is anomalous — it discusses words of purchase and Shelley's Case, which reflects a misfile or cross-reference error in that source and has no bearing on the definition of "pursue" itself. Researchers relying on Anderson's for this term should disregard that entry. ---

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Burrill agree closely: to pursue is to follow a matter judicially as a complaining party, and to pursue a warrant or authority is to execute or carry it out. Both editions of Black's cite Coke on Littleton (52a) for the warrant-execution meaning, and Burrill adds the Scots criminal-prosecution sense, sourcing it to State Trials. Bouvier is more compressed, offering only the execution meaning without the judicial-proceeding sense. The historical dictionaries are in substantial agreement. What they omit is the modern doctrinal significance: in contemporary practice, "pursue" appears most frequently in discussions of remedies, exhaustion requirements, and procedural obligations — contexts that give the term operational legal consequences that the historical definitions only faintly anticipate with the phrase "to follow a matter judicially." None of the historical sources address how "pursue" functions as a standard verb in statutory drafting (e.g., "the right to pursue happiness" in constitutional texts, or "pursue all available remedies" in contractual or statutory obligation clauses), an evolution that post-dates the major historical dictionaries. ---

Jurisdictional Note

In Scots law, "pursuer" remains the living term for the civil plaintiff and is used throughout Scottish court practice to the present day. Researchers working with Scottish legal materials should treat it as a party-designation term, not a verb describing conduct. No equivalent survival of this usage exists in English or American courts. ---

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Cumulation of Remedies — When Multiple Remedies May Be Pursued Simultaneously (Law Mind Remedies & Equity Encyclopedia, remedies_69) ---

Related Terms