Habeas Corpus
Definition
A writ requiring whoever holds a person in custody to bring that person before a court and justify the detention, the primary common-law and constitutional remedy against arbitrary or unlawful confinement.
Related terms
- Right to Legal Aid
- The entitlement of an accused person who cannot afford a lawyer to receive one at state expense, recognised as essential to a...
- Custodial Rights
- The set of protections owed to a person once police take them into physical custody, including protection from violence, timely medical examination...
- Exclusionary Rule
- A rule that evidence obtained in violation of constitutional or statutory search-and-seizure requirements cannot be used at trial. Applied strictly and automatically...
- Judicial Precedent
- A prior court decision that binds later courts of equal or lower rank when facts are materially similar, giving a single ruling...
- Right to Speedy Trial
- The guarantee that a criminal case will be tried within a reasonable time, so that pre-trial detention does not itself become a...
- D.K. Basu Guidelines
- Eleven requirements for arrest and detention issued by the Supreme Court in D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal to prevent custodial...
- Fair Trial
- The bundle of procedural guarantees, including an independent tribunal, adequate notice of the charge, and a genuine opportunity to answer it, that...
- Miranda Warning
- The statement of rights that US police must deliver to a suspect before custodial interrogation, required by the Supreme Court's 1966 decision...
- Presumption of Innocence
- The rule that the prosecution carries the burden of proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt and the accused is treated as innocent until...
- Prohibition of Torture
- An absolute, non-derogable rule barring torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of any person in custody, with no exception for the...
- Right Against Self-Incrimination
- The protection against being compelled to be a witness against oneself, most often invoked to bar coerced confessions and compelled testimony.
Explained in these topics
- Human Rights of the Accused and of Persons in Custody
- Landmark Judgments on Criminal Justice Reforms (NET Unit V)A writ compelling whoever holds a person in custody to produce that person before a court and justify the detention in law.
- Landmark Judgments That Reshaped Criminal JusticeA writ ordering that a detained person be brought before a court so the legality of their detention can be tested, historically the primary judicial check on u...