Petition of right

This article is about the pre-1948 contractual remedy against the Crown. For the 1628 Act of Parliament that forms part of the constitutional prelude to the English Civil War, see Petition of Right.

In English law, a petition of right was a remedy available to subjects to recover property from the Crown.[1]

Before the Crown Proceedings Act 1947, the British Crown could not be sued in contract. However, as it was seen to be desirable that Crown contractors could obtain redress, lest they be inhibited from taking on such work, the petition of right came to be used in such situations, especially after the Petitions of Right Act 1860 simplified the process. Before the petition could be heard by the courts, it had to be endorsed with the words fiat justitia on the advice of the Home Secretary and Attorney-General.[1] This Latin phrase was normally translated as "Let right be done".

One of the most famous causes célèbres in English law, the Archer-Shee case, arose out of proceedings on a petition of right.[2][3]

Section 1 of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947 allows claims for which a petition would previously have been demanded to be brought in the courts directly as against any other defendant. However, a petition and fiat still appear to be necessary for personal claims against the monarch.[1]

  1. ^ a b c Bradley & Ewing (2003) pp770-771
  2. ^ Keedy, Edwin (June 1939). "A Petition of Right: Archer-Shee and the King". University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Journal. 87 (8): 895–931. doi:10.2307/3309184. JSTOR 3309184.
  3. ^ Lewis, Geoffrey (2006). Carson: The Man Who Divided Ireland. Hambledon Continuum. p. 288. ISBN 978-1-85285-570-3.