MANDAMUS, WRIT OF

originally a formal order issued by the English crown commanding an official to perform a specific act within the duty of his office (Latin mandamus, we command). It later became a judicial writ issuing from the Court of King's (Queen's) Bench, in the name of the sovereign, at the request of individual suitors whose interests were alleged to be adversely affected by the failure of an official to act as his duty required. It is not awarded as a matter of right but rather at the discretion of the court and is thus largely controlled by equitable principles. The writ is not ordinarily granted when an alternative remedy is available, and it is never granted when the official to whom it would be directed has legal discretion either to perform the act demanded or to abstain from doing so. In Anglo-American legal systems, mandamus is used by courts of superior jurisdiction to compel the performance of a specific act refused by a lower court, such as the hearing of a case falling within the latter's authority.