“The first use of the writ to challenge imprisonment was in cases of privilege; an officer of a central court, or a litigant there, could be released from imprisonment in another court by writ of privilege in habeas corpus form. The Court of Chancery at the same time developed a similar procedure for reviewing the cause of imprisonment in an inferior tribunal; this species of writ was called corpus cum causa, and it became a common remedy against the misuse of borough jurisdiction in the fifteenth century.” J.H. Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History 168 (3d ed. 1990).
corpus cum causa
corpus cum causa (kor-p[schwa]s k[schwa]m kaw-z[schwa]). [Law Latin “the body with the cause”] Hist. A writ issuing out of Chancery to remove both a person and a record from an inferior court in order to review a judgment issued by the inferior court.
