Crossword clues for mandamus
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mandamus \Man*da"mus\, n. [L., we command, fr. mandare to command.] (Law) A writ issued by a superior court and directed to some inferior tribunal, or to some corporation or person exercising authority, commanding the performance of some specified duty.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1530s, "writ from a superior court to an inferior one, specifying that something be done," (late 14c. in Anglo-French), from Latin, literally "we order," first person plural present indicative of mandare "to order" (see mandate (n.)).
Wiktionary
n. (context legal English) A common law prerogative writ that compels a court or government officer to perform mandatory or purely ministerial duties correctly.
WordNet
n. an extraordinary writ commanding an official to perform a ministerial act that the law recognizes as an absolute duty and not a matter for the official's discretion; used only when all other judicial remedies fail [syn: writ of mandamus]
Wikipedia
Mandamus ("We command") is a judicial remedy in the form of an order from a superior court, to any government subordinate court, corporation, or public authority—to do (or forbear from doing) some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do (or refrain from doing)—and which is in the nature of public duty, and in certain cases one of a statutory duty. It cannot be issued to compel an authority to do something against statutory provision. For example, it cannot be used to force a lower court to reject or authorize applications that have been made, but if the court refuses to rule one way or the other then a mandamus can be used to order the court to rule on the applications.
Mandamus may be a command to do an administrative action or not to take a particular action, and it is supplemented by legal rights. In the American legal system it must be a judicially enforceable and legally protected right before one suffering a grievance can ask for a mandamus. A person can be said to be aggrieved only when he is denied a legal right by someone who has a legal duty to do something and abstains from doing it.
Mandamus may refer to:
- Mandamus or writ of mandamus, one of the prerogative writs in common law
- Mandamus River in New Zealand
Usage examples of "mandamus".
Madison, in the case both of appointees by the President and Senate and by the President alone, a purely ministerial act which has been lodged by statute with the Secretary of State and the performance of which may be compelled by mandamus unless the appointee has been in the meantime validly removed.
The decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia denying mandamus was reversed by the Supreme Court, and the case remanded.
At an early time, therefore, the federal courts established the rule that mandamus can be issued only when authorized by a constitutional statute and within the limits imposed by the common law and the separation of powers.
In the first place the construction of the 13th Section of the Judiciary Act, if not erroneous, was unnecessary since the section could have been interpreted, as it afterward was, merely to give the Court the power to issue mandamus and other writs when it had jurisdiction but not for the purpose of acquiring jurisdiction.
James Briskin, who has been speaking to you on these facilities, is hereby ordered to cease and desist, and a writ of mandamus is issued forthwith requiring him to show just cause why he should be free to pursue any further political activity.
No mandamus could locate the depleted whilom Breyfawkes as he had entered into an ancient moratorium, dating back to the times of the early barters, and only the junior partner Barren could be found, who entered an appearance and turned up, upon a notice of motion and after service of the motion by interlocutory injunction, among the male jurors to be an absolete turfwoman, originally from the proletarian class, with still a good title to her sexname of Ann Doyle, 2 Coppinger's Cottages, the Doyle's country.
The prison authorities have refused to keep him any longer, and now he is suing them for damages, and is trying to get a writ of mandamus to compel them to take him back and let him serve out the rest of the sentence!
He was about to make some trouble over this, until I reminded him that there was a writ of mandamus almost as old as Coroners Courts, by which I could haul him up to the Lord Chief Justice.