Free US Law Dictionary

Writ of Certiorari

Certiorari (IPA: [ËŒsɚʃioÊŠ('rÉ›ri, 'rÉ‘ri)]) is a legal term in Roman, English and American law referring to a type of writ seeking judicial review. Certiorari ("to be searched") is the present passive infinitive of Latin certioro, a contraction of certiorem facere ("to search", lit. "to make certain").

Historically, in the United Kingdom, Certioro was issued to bring the record of an inferior court into the King's Bench for review or to remove indictments for trial in that court. It evolves now as a general remedy to bring decisions of an inferior court or tribunal or public authority before the superior court for review so that the court can determine whether to quash such decisions.

Certioro was a highly technical term appearing only in jurisprudential Latin, most frequently in the works of Ulpian, who favored it over the facere form.