Prerogative

In a general sense, a personal privilege, power, or right of superior character. In English law, it is especially used of the distinct authority vested in the crown; the special power, pre-eminence, or privilege which the king has, over and above other persons, in right of his crown. Cowel. It is but little used of any distinctive rights known in the United general expressions, as in saying that a person vested with an office is entitled to all the rights, privileges, prerogatives, &c., which belong to it. Prerogative — from prcB and rogo, to ask or demand, before or above others — is a word of large extent, including all the rights which, by law, the king hath as chief of the kingdom, and as intrusted with the execution of the laws. Jamb. Prerogative court. The name of an ecclesiastical court in England, established for the trial of all testamentary causes where the deceased had left hnna notabilia (q. v.) within two different dioceses; in which case the probate of his will belonged to the archbishop of the province. All causes relating to wills, administrations, or legacies of such persons were originally cognizable therein before a judge appointed by the archbishop, called the judge of the prerogative court. This jurisdiction was transferred to the court of probate {q. v.), which, by the judicature acts, 1873 and 1875, is itself merged in the supreme court of judicature. In New Jersey, the prerogative court is the court of appeal from decrees of the orphans' courts in the several counties of the state. The court is held before the chancellor, under the title of the ordinary.

Prerogative writ

Several of the great common-law writs, particularly mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto, habeas corpus, and certiorari, have been called prerogative writs, because, as employed in England, they involved, originally, an exercise of the extraordinary powers of the crown. They differ from other writs mainly in two points: they do not issue as of mere course, nor without some probable cause being shown why the extraordinary powers of the crown should be called in to the party's assistance. They are generally directed not to a sheriff or other public officer, but to the parties themselves, whose acts are the subject of complaint. (3 Bl. Com. 132; 3 Steph. Com. 629.) So far as the expression that mandamus or other writ is a prerogative writ, can be used in the United States with any distinct meaning other than that of mere historical reference, the sense is, that the writ does not a high judicial discretion; the court is not bound to grant it, but holds the power to do so, subject to considerations of the general public welfare. But the cases proper for issue of these writs have been so largely defined by statutes, that the doctrine of judicial discretion in using them is greatly abridged.