justice of the peace

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justice of the peace

n. pl. justices of the peace Abbr. JP

An official, especially one associated with a town or county, with judicial power over certain civil cases involving small amounts of damages and certain criminal cases involving minor offenses, as well as exercising other limited powers, such as the power to perform marriages and to authorize arrests.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

justice of the peace

1. (Law) (in Britain) a lay magistrate, appointed by the crown or acting ex officio, whose function is to preserve the peace in his or her area, try summarily such cases as are within his or her jurisdiction, and perform miscellaneous administrative duties

2. (Law) (in Australia and New Zealand) a person authorised to administer oaths, attest instruments, and take declarations

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

jus′tice of the peace′

a local public officer having authority to try minor civil and criminal cases, administer oaths, solemnize marriages, etc.

[1325–75]

justice of the peace

A magistrate empowered to try some minor cases and administer oaths.

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Noun

justice of the peace - a local magistrate with limited powers

law, jurisprudence - the collection of rules imposed by authority; "civilization presupposes respect for the law"; "the great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order"

magistrate - a lay judge or civil authority who administers the law (especially one who conducts a court dealing with minor offenses)

justice of the peace

noun

A public official who decides cases brought before a court of law in order to administer justice:

judge, jurisprudent, jurist, justice, magistrate.

Translations

Friedensrichter

giudice di pace

Justice of the Peace

n (Brit) → giudice m di pace

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

"The justice of the peace died just as our second prosperous epoch began, and luckily for us, his successor had formerly been a notary in Grenoble who had lost most of his fortune by a bad speculation, though enough of it yet remained to cause him to be looked upon in the village as a wealthy man.

Dufau, the justice of the peace, was a late comer, but he in an equal degree deserves the gratitude of the people here.

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Mrs Western said, "she knew the law much better; that she had known servants very severely punished for affronting their masters;" and then named a certain justice of the peace in London, "who," she said, "would commit a servant to Bridewell at any time when a master or mistress desired it."

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I mean no disparagement to the excellent voyager (I honor him for a veteran), but in so important a matter it was certainly an oversight not to have procured for every crystal a sworn affidavit taken before a Greenland Justice of the Peace. In addition to those fine engravings from Garnery, there are two other French engravings worthy of note, by some one who subscribes himself h.

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Richard Dana, a justice of the peace. He administered an oath to Mr.

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I propose to place myself under the protection of a justice of the peace; and this is a memorandum of my statement.

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And the next afternoon, at five, she and Billy were to go before a justice of the peace and be married.

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He advised Jake to ride to town tomorrow, go to a justice of the peace, tell him he had knocked young Shimerda down, and pay his fine.

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Before he left Stratford he wrote nothing unless it may have been a few scoffing verses against the Justice of the Peace who punished him for poaching.

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(I think he was a corn-handler), and a man of good sense, stood to his business, would not discharge me without going to a justice of the peace; and I insisted upon it too.

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The crowd filed up the aisles: the aged and needy postmaster, who had seen better days; the mayor and his wife -- for they had a mayor there, among other unnecessaries; the justice of the peace; the widow Douglass, fair, smart, and forty, a generous, good-hearted soul and well-to-do, her hill mansion the only palace in the town, and the most hospitable and much the most lavish in the matter of festivities that St.

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Some rushed off to spread the news and tell the justice of the peace and have an inquest, and me and Tom lit out for the house.