Contumacy is a stubborn refusal to obey authority or, particularly in law, the willful contempt of the order or summons of a court (see contempt of court).
The term is derived by etymologists from the Latin word contumacia, meaning "firmness" or "stubbornness".
This writ took the place of the de excommunicato capiendo in 1813, by an act of George III (see excommunication).
[1] In the U.S., while contumacy was not expressly mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, the courts have long asserted an inherent power of judges to punish such refusal, which in this context is known as contempt of court.
[citation needed] The U.S. Supreme Court recognized federal courts' inherent power to imprison a person for contumacy in 1812 in United States v. Hudson & Goodwin without a reference to a definition of contumacy in common or statutory law.