What is "faculty of advocates"

Advocate \Ad"vo*cate\, n. [OE. avocat, avocet, OF. avocat, fr. L. advocatus, one summoned or called to another; properly the p. p. of advocare to call to, call to one's aid; ad + vocare to call. See Advowee, Avowee, Vocal.]

1. One who pleads the cause of another. Specifically: One who pleads the cause of another before a tribunal or judicial court; a counselor.

   Note: In the English and American Law, advocate is the same as ``counsel,'' ``counselor,'' or ``barrister.'' In the civil and ecclesiastical courts, the term signifies the same as ``counsel'' at the common law.

2. One who defends, vindicates, or espouses any cause by argument; a pleader; as, an advocate of free trade, an advocate of truth.

3. Christ, considered as an intercessor.

   We have an Advocate with the Father.
   --1 John ii. 1.

   Faculty of advocates (Scot.), the Scottish bar in Edinburgh.

   Lord advocate (Scot.), the public prosecutor of crimes, and principal crown lawyer.

   Judge advocate. See under Judge.

Faculty \Fac"ul*ty\, n.; pl. Faculties. [F. facult?, L. facultas, fr. facilis easy (cf. facul easily), fr. fecere to make. See Fact, and cf. Facility.]

1. Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated; capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power or capacity for any of the well-known classes of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or gift; power; as, faculties of the mind or the soul.

   But know that in the soul Are many lesser faculties that serve Reason as chief.
   --Milton.

   What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty !
   --Shak.

2. Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.

   He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous temperament.
   --Hawthorne.

3. Power; prerogative or attribute of office. [R.]

   This Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek.
   --Shak.

4. Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence, to do a particular thing; authority; license; dispensation.

   The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free from his promise.
   --Fuller.

   It had not only faculty to inspect all bishops' dioceses, but to change what laws and statutes they should think fit to alter among the colleges.
   --Evelyn.

5. A body of a men to whom any specific right or privilege is granted; formerly, the graduates in any of the four departments of a university or college (Philosophy, Law, Medicine, or Theology), to whom was granted the right of teaching (profitendi or docendi) in the department in which they had studied; at present, the members of a profession itself; as, the medical faculty; the legal faculty, etc.

6. (Amer. Colleges) The body of person to whom are intrusted the government and instruction of a college or university, or of one of its departments; the president, professors, and tutors in a college.

   Dean of faculty. See under Dean.

   Faculty of advocates. (Scot.) See under Advocate.

   Syn: Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness; cleverness; readiness; ability; knack.

The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a constituent part of the College of Justice and is based in Edinburgh.

Advocates are privileged to plead in any cause before any of the courts of Scotland, including the Sheriff Courts and District Courts, where counsel are not excluded by statute.