Restitutio

Restitutio is a Latin noun meaning restoration, reinstatement, or return to the original state. The root rests on restituere, “to put back.” In legal contexts, restitutio refers to a remedy aimed at undoing the effects of a wrongful act by restoring the party to the position they would have held if the wrong had not occurred. The most common formulation is restitutio in integrum (restoration to the whole form), which seeks to restore both property and status to their pre‑injury conditions whenever feasible. In Roman law and subsequent civil‑law traditions, restitutio is a principle used to reverse unjust enrichment; it may involve returning property, its value, or replacing it with equivalent measures, possibly with interest.

In modern civil procedure and contract law, restitution differs from damages or compensation: damages compensate for losses; restitution attempts to undo the wrong by restoring the exact situation, or as nearly as possible. When restitution cannot be achieved (for example, when goods are irretrievably lost), courts may award monetary restitution or other equitable remedies.

Beyond law, restitutio appears in art and archaeology to describe the restoration of artifacts to their original conditions, and in ethics or theology to denote a moral or spiritual restoration.

The standalone term restitutio is mainly of historical or scholarly use, with the longer phrase restitutio in integrum being the more common, especially in Latin‑language legal and philosophical writings.