Law Atlas

How The Law Decides
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Doctrine

Caput lupinum

Criminal Law and Procedure Doctrine

Caput lupinum, literally wolf's head, and the related phrase caput gerat lupinum, translated as may he wear a wolfish head, are terms used in the English legal system and its derivatives. The terms were used in medieval England to designate a person pronounced by the authorities to be a dangerous criminal, who could thus be killed without penalty. The wolf's head image treats such a person as a dangerous animal, a reading that follows from the literal meaning of the Latin. The source article is brief and does not describe the procedure for pronouncing someone a wolf's head, nor how long the usage lasted, so those details remain for later depth work.

Facts
Classification
Doctrine Category
Criminal Law 2
Origin Period
Origin Period (category)
Medieval / Pre-1500 1
Connections

In Area Of Law

Entity-backed identity for the doctrine category value this doctrine already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a doctrine entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.

In Legal System

Source Caput lupinum (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Caput lupinum (Wikipedia)
  • Lead section
    The terms were used in medieval England to designate a person pronounced by the authorities to be a dangerous criminal, who could thus be killed without penalty.
  • In Legal System: English Law, Wikipedia lead paragraph
    'may he wear a wolfish head') are terms used in the English legal system and its derivatives. The terms were
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Caput lupinum
terms used in the English legal system... to designate a person pronounced by the authorities to be a dangerous criminal, who could thus be killed without penaltyView the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.