Prerogative

An exclusive or peculiar privilege. The special power, privilege, immunity or advantage vested in an official person, either generally or in respect to the things of his office or in an official body, as a conrt or legislature. See Attorney General v. Blossom, 1 Wis. 317; Attorney General v. Eau Claire, 37 Wis. 443.

In English law. That special pre-eminence which the king (or queen) has over and above all other persons, in right of his (or her) regal dignity. A term used to denote those rights and capacities which the sovereign enjoys alone, in contradistinction to others. 1 Bl. Comin. 239.

— Prerogative court. In English law. A court established for the trial of ali testamentary causes, where the deceased left bono motabilia within two different dioceses; in which case the probate of wills belonged to the archbishop of the province, by way of special prerogative. And all causes relating to the wills, administrations, or legacies of such persons were originally cognizable herein, bsfore a judge appointed by the archbishop, calied the "judge of the prerogative court," from whom an appeal lay to the privy council. 3 Bl. Comm. 66; 3 Steph. Comm. 482. 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." See In re Coursen's Will, 4 N. J. Eq. 413; Flanigan v. Guggenheim Smelting Co., 63 N. J. Law, 647, 44 Atl. 762; Robinson v. Fair, 128 U. S. 53, 9 Sup. Ot. 30, 32 In Ed. 415.

— Prerogative law. That part of the common law of England which is more particularly applicable to the king. Com. Dig. tit "Ley," A.

— Prerogative writs. In English law, the name is given, to certain' judicial writs issued by the courts only upon proper cause shown, never as a mere matter of right, the theory being that they involve a direct interference by the government with the liberty and property of the subject, and therefore are justified only as an exercise of the extraordinary power (prerogative) of the crown. In America, a theory has sometimes been advanced that these writs should issue only in cases publici juris and those affecting the sovereignty of the state, or its franchises or prerogatives, or the liberties of the people. But their issuance is now generally regulated by statute, and the use of the term "prerogative," in describing them, amounts only to a reference to their origin and history. These writs are the write of mandamus, procedendo, prohibition, quo warranto, habeas corpus, and certiorari. See 3 Steph. Comin. 629; Territory v. Ashenfelter, 4 N. M. 93, 12 Pac. 879; State v. Archibald, 5 N. In 359, 66 N. W. 234; Duluth Elevator Co. v. White, 11 N. D. 534, 90 N. W. 12; Attorney General v. Eau Claire, 37 Wis. 400.