Definition
A Latin term meaning "we will" or "it is our will." In historical English legal practice, *volumus* functioned as a term of royal command or declaration, appearing as the opening word of a formulaic clause in writs of protection and letters patent. The clause expressed the sovereign's pleasure that a named party be exempted from certain pleas and plaints for a defined period — essentially a royal grant of temporary legal immunity from civil suits.
The clause was standard in its construction. Burrill preserves a representative form: *Volumus etiam quod idem W. interim sit quietus de omnibus placitis et querelis, exceptis, &c.* — "We will also that the same W. be in the meantime quit of all pleas and plaints, excepted, etc." The word itself carried operative legal force: in the vocabulary of royal instruments, *volumus* was not merely descriptive but declaratory, expressing the king's will as a matter of formal record.
Common Confusion
*Volumus* should not be confused with *voluimus* (we wished, past tense) or conflated with *mandamus* (we command), which is a term of judicial compulsion directed downward through the court system. *Volumus* spoke in the sovereign's own voice through administrative instruments — writs and letters patent — rather than through judicial process. The distinction matters because historians and legal researchers occasionally encounter these Latin terms in proximity in medieval and early modern documents, where their different operative functions are easy to blur.
Why It Matters in Research
*Volumus* is a term researchers are most likely to encounter when working with primary sources in English legal history — specifically the formularies, registers, and collections of writs from the medieval and early modern periods. Its significance is paleographic and contextual rather than doctrinal: identifying *volumus* in a document signals that the instrument is a royal writ of protection or letters patent, and that the clause following it grants temporary immunity from suit.
Researchers consulting Burrill gain the most useful navigational guidance here. Burrill's entry includes a direct quotation from the *Registrum Omnium Brevium* (Reg. Orig. 22b), which grounds the term in an actual formulary source and identifies the precise legal function of the clause. Black's entries are briefer and refer to Cowell's *Interpreter* without reproducing the operative language.
The term has no living doctrinal application in modern common law jurisdictions. It will not appear in contemporary statutory or case law research. Its research value is confined to: (1) reading and transcribing historical writs and patent rolls; (2) understanding the structure of royal prerogative instruments; and (3) tracing the early history of legal immunity and protection doctrine.
For researchers working in Law Mind sources on royal prerogative, writs of protection, or the history of letters patent, *volumus* is a signal term — its presence identifies the document type and the nature of the legal benefit being conferred.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core translation ("we will; it is our will") and on the term's function as the opening word of a clause in writs of protection and letters patent. There is no meaningful divergence on substance.
The sources differ in depth. Black's first and second editions are nearly identical: brief, accurate, and reliant on Cowell for authority. Burrill goes further, providing the Latin text of the full clause from the *Registrum Omnium Brevium* and specifying the legal effect — temporary exemption from pleas and plaints — with more precision than Black's achieves. Burrill is the more useful entry for a researcher who needs to understand what the clause actually did, not just what the word means.
Black's first edition appends a note on *voluntarius daemon* (voluntary madman) immediately after the *volumus* entry — a separate term defined as Coke's description of a drunkard who has voluntarily contracted madness through intoxication. This adjacency is a typographical artifact of alphabetical arrangement, not a conceptual connection. Researchers should not read any relationship between the two entries.
What the historical dictionaries do not address: the procedural mechanics of how writs of protection operated in practice, the duration and scope of the immunity granted, or the circumstances under which such writs were issued or challenged. Those questions require consultation of primary sources and secondary historical scholarship beyond the dictionary shelf.
Jurisdictional Note
*Volumus* is a term of English legal history with no current application in any common law jurisdiction. Researchers working in Scottish, Irish, or colonial American legal history may encounter the term in documents derived from English royal practice, but the operative context is the same.