TECHNICAL LEGAL ENGLISH

HOT PORSUIT
DOCTRINE

GRICELDA SAGRARIO
LOZANO GARCIA
MARCH 8TH 2022 ESTEFANIA D'AGOSTINO CERVANTES
1184899
WHAT IS HOT
PURSUIT?

Hot pursuit (also known as fresh or immediate pursuit) refers to the

urgent and direct pursuit of a criminal suspect by law enforcement
officers, or by belligerents under international rules of engagement
for military forces. Such a situation grants the officers in command
powers they otherwise would not have.
 The “hot pursuit” doctrine provides that police may pursue a fleeing felony suspect
into a home, without a warrant, when they have probable cause to make an arrest
and when they set that arrest in motion in a public place. Lower courts were divided
on whether the “hot pursuit” doctrine extended to the pursuit of misdemeanor
suspects. Some courts adopted a categorical rule that the Fourth Amendment
permits an officer’s warrantless search of a home during the hot pursuit of a fleeing
misdemeanor suspect.
ON COMMON LAW
Hot pursuit has long formed a part of English common law. The
principle can be traced back to the doctrine of distress damage
feasant, which allowed a property owner to detain animals
trespassing on his land to ensure that he was compensated for
the damage they had caused.
 UNITED STATES LAW
Under United States law, hot pursuit is an exigent circumstance that allows police to arrest a criminal
suspect on private property without a warrant, which would generally be a violation of the Fourth
Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches, seizures, and arrests. The Supreme Court first
articulated this principle in Warden v. Hayden in 1967.
 The Supreme Court of Canada held in R. v.

CANADIAN
Macooh in 1993 that the right of a police
officer in hot pursuit to make an arrest on
private property, which it described as "well

LAW settled at common law", extended to summary

offences as well as indictable offenses.
 INTERNATIONAL LAW

The international law principle of hot pursuit is comparable in certain

respects to the common law principle, but was probably conceived
independently.

It began to coalesce into a general custom of international relations

during the early years of the 20th century, although the general
principle had been advanced before in national legislation such as the
British Hovering Acts.