OUTLAW, is a term applied to one who flees from justice, or who wilfully neglects or refuses to appear and answer for a transgression in obedience to the process of a competent court. The punishment consequent on such contumacy is termed outlawry, and consists in an exclusion from the benefits and protection of the law, thus disqualifying the defendant from maintaining any action real or personal. From the Conquest until nearly the reign of Mary, an outlaw might be lawfully killed like a wild beast by any one who met him. This was especially the case if he resisted seizure; "but when once taken," says Bracton (iii. c. 14), "his life and death were in the king's hands; and if any man then killed him, he must answer for it, as in the case of any other homicide." Sufficient notice of the process of the court, and satisfactory evidence of his disobedience, is essential before a person can be outlawed. As a security for making the defendant aware of the process of court, three successive writs of capias are issued against him, and failing his appearance, a writ of exigent, requiring the sheriff to call him in five successive courts, is then sued out; and if he does not render himself up at the fifth call, judgment of outlawry is at once pronounced against him. At the same time that the exigent is issued, moreover, it is provided, as an additional security, that the sheriff shall make three proclamations of the defendant in notorious places in the county of his residence a month before the sentence of outlawry. In the case of contumacy on prosecutions for civil actions and inferior crimes, only one writ of capias is necessary before the exigent is awarded. Outlawry entails the forfeiture of the goods and chattels of the outlaw. It was formerly necessary for the outlaw to be restored to his law by the crown; but in modern times it is usual for the courts to reverse outlawries upon motion.