JUSTICIAR, or JUSTICIER. A judge, or justice the same as justiciary.

JUSTICIARII ITINERANTES, Eng. law. They were formerly² justices, who were so called because they went from county to county to administer justice. They were usually called justices in eyre, (q. v.) to distinguish them from justices residing at Westminster, who were called justicii residentes. Co. Litt. 293. Vide Itinerant¹.

JUSTICIARII RESIDENTES, Eng. law. They were justices or judges, who usually resided in Westminster; they were so called to distinguish them from justices in eyre. Co. Litt. 293. Vide Justiciarii Itinerantes.

JUSTICIARY, officer. Another name for a judge. In Latin, he was called justiciciarius, and in French, justicier. Not used. Bac. Ab. Courts and their Jurisdiction³, A.

JUSTICIES, Eng. law. The name of a writ⁴ which acquires its name from the mandatory⁵ words which it contains, "that you do A B justice."

2. The county court has jurisdiction in cases where damages are claimed, only to a certain amount; but sometimes suits are brought there, when greater damages are claimed. In such cases, an original writ, by this name, issues out of chancery, in order to give the court jurisdiction. See 1 Saund. 74, n. 1.

JUSTIFIABLE⁶ HOMICIDE. That which is committed with the intention to kill, or to do a grievous bodily injury, under circumstances which the law holds sufficient to exculpate⁷ the person who commits it.

2. It is justifiable, 1. When a judge or other magistrate⁸ acts in obedience⁹ to the law. 2. When a ministerial officer acts in obedience to a lawful¹⁰ warrant, issued by a competent tribunal. 3. When a subaltern officer, or soldier, kills in obedience to the lawful commands of his superior. 4. When the party kills in lawful self-defence.

3. - §1. A judge who, in pursuance of his duty, pronounces sentence of death, is not guilty of homicide; for it is evident, that as the law prescribes the punishment of death for certain offences, it must protect those who are entrusted¹¹ with its execution. A judge, therefore, who pronounces sentence of death, in a legal manner, on a legal indictment¹², legally brought before him, for a capital offence committed within his jurisdiction, after a lawful trial and conviction, of the defendant¹³, is guilty of no offence.

4. - 2. Magistrates¹⁴, or other officers entrusted with the preservation¹⁵ of the public peace, are justified¹⁶ in committing homicide, or giving orders which lead to it, if the excesses of a riotous¹⁷ assembly cannot be otherwise be repressed.

5 - §2. An officer entrusted with a legal warrant, criminal or civil, and lawffully commanded by a competent tribunal to execute it, will be justified in committing homicide, if, in the course of advancing to discharge his duty, he be brought into such perils¹⁸ that, without doing so, he cannot either save his life, or discharge the duty which he is commanded by the warrant to perform. And when the warrant commands him to put a criminal to death, he is justified in obeying it.

6. - §3. A soldier on duty is justified in committing homicide, in obedience to the command of his officer, unless the command was something plainly unlawful.

7. - §4. A private individual will, in many cases, be justified in committing homicide, while acting¹⁹ in self-defence. See Self-defence. Vide, generally, 1 East, P. C. 219; Hawk²⁰. B. 1, c. 28, s. 1, n. 22; Allis. Prin. 126-139; 1 Russ. on Cr. 538; Bac. Ab. Murder, &c., E; 2 Wash. C. C. 515; 4 Mass. 891; 1 Hawkes, 210; 1 Coxes R. 424; 5 Yerg. 459; 9 C. & P. 22; S. C. 38 Eng. C. L. R. 20.