Law Atlas

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

Hue and cry

Criminal Law and Procedure Doctrine
Origin 1285 (Statute of Winchester)

In common law, a hue and cry is the process by which bystanders are summoned to help apprehend a criminal who has been witnessed committing a crime. The origin of the phrase is debated: some trace it to an Anglo-French rendering of the Latin hutesium et clamor, meaning a horn and shouting, while others regard it as a legal doublet combining the Old French huer, to shout, and crier, to cry, both carrying essentially the same meaning. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Origin Period
1285 (Statute of Winchester) 1
Core Principle
Bystanders are summoned by outcry and obliged to join the pursuit of a criminal witnessed committing a crime. 1
Origin Period
Origin Period (category)
Medieval / Pre-1500 1
Classification
Doctrine Category
Criminal Law 2
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 Hue and cry (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Hue and cry (Wikipedia)
  • History, Statute of Winchester
    By the Statute of Winchester of 1285 (13 Edw. 1. St. 2. c. 4), it was provided that anyone, either a constable or a private citizen, who witnessed a crime shall make hue and cry.
  • History, obligation to pursue
    all able-bodied men between the ages of fifteen and sixty, upon hearing the shouts, were obliged to assist in the pursuit of the criminal.
  • In Legal System: Common Law, Introduction
    In common law, a hue and cry is a process by which bystanders are summoned to assist in the apprehension of a criminal who has been witnessed in the act of committing a crime (cf.
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Hue and cry
a process by which bystanders are summoned to assist in the apprehension of a criminal who has been witnessed in the actView 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.