Quia Emptores is a statute passed by the Parliament of England in 1290 during the reign of Edward I that prevented tenants from alienating their lands to others by subinfeudation, instead requiring all tenants who wished to alienate their land to do so by substitution. The statute, along with its companion statute Quo Warranto also passed in 1290, was intended to remedy land ownership disputes and consequent financial difficulties that had resulted from the decline of the traditional feudal system in England during the High Middle Ages. The name Quia Emptores derives from the first two words of the statute in its original mediaeval Latin, which can be translated as "because the buyers". Its long title is A Statute of our Lord The King, concerning the Selling and Buying of Land. It is also cited as the Statute of Westminster III, one of many English and British statutes with that title.
The Normans mandated primogeniture inheritance; here William Duke of Normandy is shown in the Bayeux Tapestry.
Buckfast Abbey in Devon as rebuilt. It originated on land donated by King Cnut in 1018, and became a Cistercian abbey in 1147.
Quia Emptores} allowed freemen to sell their rights to tenancy or rights of inheritance in land.
The legacy of Quia Emptores exists in modern United States land law.
In the English-American common law, quo warranto is a prerogative writ issued by a court which orders someone to show what authority they have for exercising some right, power, or franchise they claim to hold. The writ of quo warranto still exists in the United States, although it is uncommon, but it has been abolished in England and Wales. Quo warranto is also used, with slightly different effect, in the Philippines.
Jose Calida, above, is credited with substantially expanding the quo warranto power, after his arguments were looked upon with favor by the Supreme Court in Republic v. Sereno.
