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Act of State

Act of State, means not all governmental acts as it does in the French and Continental Systems but only some of them. The term is next used to designate immunities and prohibitions sometimes created by statutes. The term is also extended to include certain prerogatives and special immunities enjoyed by the sovereign and its agents in the business of internal government. the term is even used to indicate all acts into which, by reason that they are official in character, the Courts may not inquire, or in respect of which an official declaration, is bindings on the Courts, State of Saurashrtra v. Meman Haj Ismail, AIR 1959 SC 1383 (1387): (1960) 1 SCR 537.Means acts done against aliens in exercise of sovereign power of the State. The Municipal Courts debarred from entering into the validity of the Act of State, Secretary of State for India in Council v. Kamachee Boyee Sabha, 7 MIA 476. See also Jahangir v. Secretary of State for India, 6 Bom LR 131; Virendra v. State of Uttar Pradesh, 19...

Pardon

Pardon, forgiveness of a crime; remission of punis-hment.The pardoning of criminals is the peculiar preroga-tive of the sovereign. See 4 Steph. Com., 7th Edn.The sovereign may pardon all offences merely against the Crown and the public, excepting: (1) That to preserve the liberty of the subject, the committing any man to prison out of the realm is, by the Habeas Corpus Act (31 Car. 2, c. 2), made a pr'munire (see that title), unpardonable even by the Crown; and (2) that the sovereign cannot pardon where private justice is principally concerned in the prosecution of offenders--'non potest rex gratiam facere cum injuria et damno aliorum.'Neither at Common Law could the sovereign pardon an offence against a penal statute after information brought; for thereby the informer had acquired private property in his part of the penalty. But the Remission of Penalties Act, 1859, enables the Crown to remit penalties for offences, although payable to parties other than the Crown; and a special power...

Crown

Crown [fr. Couronne, Fr.; corona, Lat.], an ornamental badge of regal power worn on the head by sovereign princes. The word is frequently used when speaking of the sovereign himself, or the rights, duties, and prerogatives belonging to him.The Act of Supremacy (English) (1 Eliz. C. 1), 'restoring to the Crown the Ancient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesistical and Spiritual and abolishing all Foreign Power repugnant to the same,' after repealing 1 & 2 P. & M. c. 8, reviving the Foreign Citations Act,the Act of Appeals, Abolition of Annates Act, the Act of Submission, the Confirmation of Bishops Act, the Archiepiscopal Licenses Act (23 Hen. 8, Contract Act, 1872 '. 9, 20; 24 Hen. 8, c. 12 l 25 Hen. 8, Contract Act, 1872 -. 19-21; 26 Hen. 8, c. 14; 28 Hen. 8, c. 16), and also repealing 1 & 2 P. & M. c. 6 (see HERESY), enacted that-Such jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities and pre-eminences spiritual and ecclesiastical as by any spiritualor ecclesiastical power or authority hath her...

Roman Catholics

Roman Catholics. Very severe laws, commonly called the penal laws, were passed against Roman Catholics, generally under the name of Papists (see that title), after the Reformation, an Act of Elizabeth, for instance, 13 Eliz. c. 2, punishing with the penalties of a pr'munire (see that title) any person bringing into this country any Agnus Dei, cross, picture, etc., from Rome; an Act of James, 3 Jac. 1, c. 5, penalizing the sale or purchase of Popish primers; and an Act of William and Mary (11 & 12 Wm. 3, c. 4), punishing any Papist assuming the education of youth with imprisonment for life. Exclusion from Parliament was effected by the requirement of the Declaration against Trans-ubstantiation (see TRANSUBSTANT- IATION) from members of either House by 30 Car. 2, s. 2, and disfranchisement by the requirements of the Oath of Supremacy by 7 & 8 Wm. 3, c. 27, s. 19; while 7 & 8 Wm. 3, c. 24, effected (until 1791) exclusion from the profession of barrister, attorney, or solicitor by requirin...

Ruling Chief

Ruling Chief, the expression 'Ruling Chief' has not been defined in the Act and must therefore by understood as in common parlance. The meaning of the word 'ruler' as given in Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edn., Vol. 2, p. 1867 is: 'One who, or that which, exercise rule, especially of supreme or sovereign kind.' Normally the expression 'Ruling Chief' connotes 'a person who is endowed with the content of sovereignty and also has the attributes of a sovereign'. According to Black's Law Dictionary, 5th Edn., p. 1252 (See now 7th Edn. P. 1402) the legal conception of 'sovereignty' is stated thus: The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which any independent state is governed; supreme political authority; paramount control of the constitution and frame of government and its administration; the self-sufficient source of political power, from which all specific political powers are derived; the international independence of a state, combined with the right and power of reg...

Royal Assent

Royal Assent. The act by which the Crown agrees to a bill which has already passed both Houses is called 'The Royal Assent,' which may be given by the sovereign in person in the House of Lords, the Commons standing at the bar; or by the Commissioners appointed by the Crown, under the Declaratory Act (33 Hen. 8, c. 21), for that special purpose and for the single occasion. The forms observed in both cases do not vary, and are as follows: The Lords being assembled in their own House, the Sovereign or the Commissioners seated, and the Commons at the bar, the titles of the several bills which have passed both Houses are read, and the king's or queen's answer is declared by the Clerk of the Parliaments in Norman-French. To a bill of supply, the assent is given in the following words: 'Le roy (or, la reyne) remercie ses loyaux sujets, accepte leur benevolence et ainsi le veult.' To a privte bill it is thus declared: 'Soit fait comme il est desire.' And to public general bills it is given in ...

Portiliminium

Portiliminium, denotes the doctrine under which the territory, individuals and property, after having come in time of war under the authority of the enemy, return, either during the war or at its end, under sway of their original sovereign. Their mere possession in the course of war, does not suffice generally to transfer title or sovereignty as against the enemy owner or sovereign. The rights of the owner of sovereign are merely suspended rather than destroyed by temporary loss of possession and the legal state of things existing prior to the hostile occupation is re-established, Singhal's Jurisprudence, p. 259....

Privy seal and privy signet

Privy seal and privy signet. The Privy Seal (privatum sigillum) is a seal of the sovereign under which charters, pardons, etc., signed by the sovereign, pass before they come to the Great Seal,and also used for some documents of less consequence which do not pass the Great Seal at all, such as discharges of recognizances, debts, etc. The Privy Signet is one of the sovereign's seals, used in sealing his private letters, and all such grants as pass his hand by bill signed, which seal is always in the custody of the King's secretaries. There were formerly four clerks of the Signet Office, but by 14 & 15 Vict. c. 82, s. 3, the offices of the clerks of the signet and of the privy seal are abolished. The practice as to the passing of letters under these seals was altered and simplified by the same statute....

Letters of marque

Letters of marque, commissions for extraordinary reprisals for reparation to merchants taken and despoiled by strangers at sea, grantable by the Secretaries of State, with the approbation of the Sovereign and Council; and usually in time of war, etc., ex Merc. 173. The words marque and reprisal are used as synonymous terms, although the latter is, strictly, taking in return; the former passing the frontiers in order to such taking, Du Cange, tit. 'Marcha.'These letters are grantable by the law of nations, wherever the subjects of one state are oppressed and injured by those of another, and justice is denied by that state to which the oppressor belongs. In this case letters of marque and reprisal may be obtained in order to seize the bodies or goods of the subjects of the offending state, until satisfaction be made, wherever they happen to be found; and, in fact, this custom seems dictated by nature. The necessity, however, is obvious of calling in the sovereign power to determine when ...

Court

Court, compensation officer appointed under (English) Bihar Land Reforms Act, 1950 is not a 'Court' within the meaning of s. 195(1)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure Code 1973, Keshab Moroyan Banerjee v. State of Bihar, AIR 2000 SC 485 (490). [Bihar Land Reforms Act (30 of 1950), s. 19]Court, means the principle civil court of original jurisdiction in a district and including the High Court in exercise of the ordinary original civil jurisdiction, having jursidiction to decide the questions forming the subject matter of suit, but does not incude any civil court of a grade inferior to such civil court or any court of small causes.S. 2(*) Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, Raipur Development Authority v. Sarin Construction Company, Raipur, AIR 2006 Chattisgarh 12.The tribunal which is to exercise the jurisdiction for executing the decree in question is 'a court' within the scope of s. 45C of the Banking Companies Act, Ram Narain v. Simla Banking and Industrial Co. Ltd., AIR 1956 S...

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