prerogative

/prsrogatav/ An exclusive or peculiar right or privilege. The special power, privilege, immunity, right 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 court or legislature

@ prerogative court

In old English law, a court established for the trial of all testamentary causes, where the deceased left bona notabilia 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, before a judge appointed by the archbishop, called the "judge of the prerogative court," from whom an appeal lay to the privy council. The jurisdiction of these courts became obsolete with the transfer of the testamentary jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts to the Chancery Division of the High Court

@ prerogative law

That part of the common law of England which is more particularly applicable to the king

@ prerogative writs

In English law, the name was 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 involved a direct interference by the government with the liberty and property of the subject, and therefore were justified only as an exercise of the extraordinary power (prerogative) of the crown.

In America, issuance is now generally regulated by statute, and such are generally referred to as extraordinary writs or remedies. Such writs have been abolished in the federal and most state courts with the adoption of Rules of Civil Procedure. The relief formerly available by such writs is now available by appropriate action or motion under the Rules of Civil Procedure.

See Rule 81.

These writs are the writs of mandamus, procedendo, prohibition, quo warranto, habeas corpus, and certiorari

+ prerogative writs

Those issued by the exercise of the extraordinary power of the crown (the court, in modern practice) on proper cause shown; namely, the writs of procedendo, mandamus, prohibitigio, quo warranto, habeas corpus, and certiorari

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