Action taken in law without request from another party
In
law, sua sponte (
Latin: "of his, her, its or their own accord") or suo motu ("on its own motion")[1] describes an act of authority taken without formal prompting from another
party.[2] The term is usually applied to actions by a
judge taken without a prior
motion or request from the parties. The form nostra sponte ("of our own accord") is sometimes used by the court itself, when the action is taken by a multi-member court, such as an
appellate court, rather than by a single judge. (Third parties describing such actions would still refer to them as being taken by the court as a whole and therefore as sua sponte.) While usually applied to actions of a court, the term may reasonably be applied to actions by government agencies and individuals acting in their official capacities.[3]
One situation in which a party might encourage a judge to move sua sponte occurs when that party is preserving a
special appearance (usually to challenge
jurisdiction), and therefore cannot make motions on its own behalf without making a
general appearance. Judges commonly act sua sponte when they determine that the court does not have
subject-matter jurisdiction[4] or that the case should be moved to another judge because of a
conflict of interest,[5] even if all parties disagree.
The
75th Ranger Regiment (
United States Army Rangers) uses Sua Sponte as their regimental motto, referring to the Rangers' ability to accomplish tasks with little to no prompting and to recognize that a Ranger volunteers three times: for the U.S. Army, Airborne School, and service in the 75th Ranger Regiment.[14]