Letters Of Request

In English ecclesiastical law. An instrument by which a judge of an inferior court waives or remits his own jurisdiction in favor of a court of appeal immediately superior to it. Letters of request, in general, lie only where an appeal would lie, and lie only 'to the next immediate court of appeal, waiving merely the primary jurisdiction to the proper appellate court, except letters of request from the most inferior ecclesiastical court, which may be direct to the court of arches, although one or two courts of appeal may by this be ousted of their jurisdiction as courts of appeal. 2 Add. Ecc. 406. The effect of letters of request is to give jurisdiction to the appellate court in the first instance. See a form of letters of request in 2 Chit. Prac. 498, note (h), by the law of nations, come into the realm, nor can travel himself upon the high seas, or send his goods and merchandise from one place to another, without danger of being seized, unless he has "letters of safeconduct," which, by divers old statutes, must be granted under the great seal, and enrolled in chancery, or else are of no effect; the sovereign being the best judge of such emergencies as may deserve exemption from the general law of arms. But passports or licenses from the ambassadors abroad are now more usually obtained, and are allowed to be of equal validity. Wharton. LETTERS OF SLAINS (or SLANES). Letters subscribed by the relatives of a person who had been slain, declaring that they had received an assythment, and concurring in an application to the crown for a pardon to the offender. These or other evidences of their concurrence were necessary to found the application. Bell, Diet.

In English Ecclesiastical Law. An instrument by which a Judge of an Inferior court waives or remits his own jurisdiction in favor of a court of appeal immediately superior to it Letters of request, in general, lie only where an appeal would lie, and lie only to the next immediate court of appeal, waiving merely the primary Jurisdiction to the proper appellate court, except letters of request from the most inferior ecclesiastical court, which may be direct to the court of arches, although one or two courts of appeal may by this be ousted of their Jurisdiction as courts of appeal; 2 Add. Bed. 406. The effect is to give Jurisdiction to the appellate court in the first instance. See a form in 2 Ghltty, Pr. 498; 3 Steph. Com. 306. The same title was also given to letters formerly granted by the Lord Privy Seal preparatory to granting letters of marque. Letters of request were sent by the king to a foreign prince to aid an injured party to obtain Justice, with a promise to reciprocate the favor. They are still in use. See Thayer, Legal Essays 187.

A formal instrument by which an inferior judge of ecolesiastical jurisdiction requests the judge of a superior court to take and determine any matter which has come before him, thereby waiving or remitting his own jurisdiction. This is a mode of beginning a suit originally in the court of arches, instead of the consistory court

Defined under Letter in Black's Law Dictionary.

A formal instrument by which an inferior judge of ecclesiastical jurisdiction requests the judge of a@ superior court to take and determine any maiter which has come before him, thereby waiving or remitting bis own jurisdiction. This is a mode of beginning a suit originally in the court of arches, instead of the consistory court.