Note 10 — Chapter I

Habeas corpus ad subjiciendum are the first words of the writ to the gaoler, meaning that he is to have the person (of the prisoner) to produce before the court (so habeas corpus ad testificandum are the first words of a writ for producing a prisoner to give evidence). The writ was anciently called corpus cum causâ, because it required the return of the cause of detention, as well as of the body imprisoned. The principle of the writ was contained in the Magna Charta of King John, which enacted that “no freeman should be imprisoned but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” It was used between subject and subject in the time of Henry VI., and against the crown in that of Henry VII., so that it was fully recognized as law long before the re-enactments in the reign of Charles I., and the Habeas Corpus Act of Charles II., 1679.