law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, ''allocatur'' (from med. Lat. ''allocatur'', "it is allowed") refers to the allowance of a

writ In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, a ...

or other

pleading In law as practiced in countries that follow the English models, a pleading is a formal written statement of a party's claims or defenses to another party's claims in a civil action. The parties' pleadings in a case define the issues to be adju ...

.Henry Campbell Black, ''Black's Law Dictionary (Second Edition)'' (1910), p. 60. It may also designate a certificate given by a taxing master, at the termination of an action, for the allowance of costs. The 1910 ''

Black's Law Dictionary ''Black's Law Dictionary'' is the most frequently used legal dictionary in the United States. Henry Campbell Black (1860–1927) was the author of the first two editions of the dictionary. History The first edition was published in 1891 by West ...

(Second Edition)'' described it as: "A word formerly used to denote that a writ or order was allowed", as well as a word "denoting the allowance by a master or

prothonotary The word prothonotary is recorded in English since 1447, as "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. ''prothonotarius'' ( c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the B ...

of a bill referred for his consideration, whether touching costs, damages, or matter of account". The dictionary also defined a "Special allocatur" as the "special allowance of a writ (particularly a writ of error) which is required in some particular cases" and an "Allocatur exigent" as a kind of writ "anciently issued in

outlawry An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

proceedings, on the return of the original writ of exigent".

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...

s, the term is still commonly used to denote permission for an

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, even though the procedure for obtaining discretionary review in the court is now called a petition for allowance of appeal. See Pennsylvania Rule of Appellate Procedure 1112. In most other American courts, the term

certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...

is used.

References

Latin legal terminology Legal procedure {{law-stub