Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning "removed." Appearing in early common law pleading and procedure, *remue* signified that a writ or matter had been removed — transferred from one court to another, or taken out of its current procedural posture. The term does not carry independent substantive legal meaning; it functions as a descriptive past participle within formal pleading formulas, most notably in contexts involving the removal of writs.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No current entry. The word is obsolete in modern English.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "To remove. [Obs.] Chaucer."
The legal use of *remue* tracks closely with the ordinary obsolete English meaning — both mean simply "removed." The gap is not one of meaning but of context: in legal sources, the word appears exclusively within Law French procedural formulas and cannot be understood without knowledge of the removal procedure it describes. A reader encountering it in a medieval or early modern pleading record should treat it as a technical signal, not mere description.
Common Confusion
*Remue* is easily conflated with *remitter* when encountered in Burrill's entry, because Burrill introduces the term in a passage that pivots immediately to a definition of remitter. The two are distinct: *remue* describes the act of removal (a writ being taken away or transferred), while *remitter* is a substantive doctrine by which a person who enters land under a defective later title is treated in law as holding under a superior earlier title. Littleton's definition of remitter, quoted in the Burrill passage, is contextually adjacent to *remue* but conceptually separate from it.
Why It Matters in Research
*Remue* is a navigational hazard rather than a research destination. Researchers working in Year Books, early plea rolls, or abridgements will encounter it as part of set phrases — most commonly *si le brefe soit remue* ("if the writ be removed") — and must recognize it quickly to parse the procedural posture of the case being described. Misreading *remue* as substantively connected to the doctrine of remitter (rather than to writ removal) will send a researcher down the wrong conceptual path.
The term belongs to the stratum of Law French that persisted in English legal records well past the period of active French use, preserved by formulaic pleading conventions. In manuscript sources and early printed abridgements, abbreviation and variant spelling (*remuz*, *remu*) are common. When a corpus search returns *remue*, the surrounding text almost certainly concerns a removal proceeding — a writ being transferred between courts or a matter being lifted out of one procedural frame — and the researcher should pivot to materials on removal jurisdiction and writ practice rather than on the remitter doctrine.
Because the term appears in Burrill within a passage primarily about remitter, researchers using Burrill as a starting point may underestimate how narrow and procedural *remue* itself is. The historical dictionaries do not distinguish clearly between *remue* as a free-standing procedural term and its incidental appearance in remitter-adjacent text.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal shelf source for this term. Burrill translates it correctly — "removed," from Latin *remotum* — and situates it in a passage quoting the Britton (*si le brefe soit remue*) before pivoting to Littleton's treatment of remitter. This editorial arrangement, while understandable, obscures the independent procedural function of *remue*. Burrill does not provide a standalone entry with sufficient depth to distinguish the term's usage in writ-removal contexts from its incidental proximity to remitter doctrine.
No other major historical law dictionaries (Jacob, Cowell, Blount, Tomlin) appear to carry a dedicated entry for *remue*. This is consistent with its character as a working term of pleading rather than a doctrine requiring definition. Webster's 1913 confirms obsolescence in ordinary English by the nineteenth century.
Jurisdictional Note
*Remue* is a term of English common law and appears exclusively in historical English legal sources. It has no meaningful American doctrinal presence and will not appear in American case law or statutes. Researchers in American legal history may encounter it only when working directly with English Year Book materials, abridgements, or treatises cited in early American courts.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See REMITTER for the related but distinct doctrine concerning competing titles to land and the operation of the earlier title.