Definition
A Latin term from old English legal practice meaning "to return" or "to re-deliver." It appears in medieval writs and pleading records to describe the obligation to restore something — most commonly distrained animals or goods — to the party from whom they were taken. The term functions primarily as a verb form embedded in procedural formulas rather than as a standalone substantive legal concept.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering RETURNARE will almost always find it inside formulaic writ language rather than in discursive legal text. Two specific constructions appear repeatedly in historical records:
First, the phrase "returnabit domino averia capta" — he shall return to the lord the beasts taken — arises in the context of distraint (distress), the medieval procedure by which a lord or creditor seized a debtor's cattle or chattels as security for performance of an obligation. RETURNARE here signals the procedural remedy available to the distrainee: a right to have seized animals restored, typically through the writ of replevin or a related process.
Second, "returnari facias" — you cause to be returned — is a command form directed at a sheriff or other officer, ordering restoration of goods. Researchers should treat this as a writ command in the imperative register, parallel in structure to better-known writs such as "venire facias" or "scire facias."
The practical research trap is treating RETURNARE as a freestanding writ name. It is not a writ title but a verbal element that appears within writ texts. When indexing or searching digitized Year Books, plea rolls, or Registrum Brevium entries, searches on the noun forms (replevin, distress) will surface more relevant material than searches on RETURNARE alone. The term belongs to the procedural vocabulary of distress and replevin, and those are the conceptual entry points for substantive research.
Because RETURNARE is confined almost entirely to pre-modern English practice, researchers working in American colonial records or post-1800 common law sources are unlikely to encounter it except in treatise quotations citing Bracton or the Register of Writs. It has no meaningful American successor form.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the essential documentation for this term, identifying it squarely as old English practice Latin and supplying the two core phrases with their sources: Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae (fol. 156) for the distraint formula, and the Registrum Judiciale (fol. 61b) for the "returnari facias" command form.
The Bracton citation is significant because Bracton's treatment of distraint and its remedies is among the most systematic in early English jurisprudence. The Reg. Jud. citation points to a formulary of judicial writs — a practitioner reference for drafting — which confirms that RETURNARE was live procedural vocabulary, not merely scholarly Latin.
No significant divergence exists among historical sources on this term because coverage is thin. Burrill appears to be the primary modern dictionary authority. Researchers should not expect competing definitions; the term is narrow, technical, and largely obsolete. The absence of entries in later American dictionaries (Black's, Bouvier's) reinforces that the term did not survive transplantation into American legal practice.
Jurisdictional Note
RETURNARE is a term of exclusively English origin, embedded in the medieval common law of distraint. It has no recognized American jurisdictional counterpart. Research use is essentially limited to English legal history, Bracton scholarship, and the history of replevin.