REPRESENTATION, Scotch1 law. The name of a plea or statement presented to a lord ordinary of the court of sessions, when his judgment2 is brought under review.
REPRESENTATION OF PERSONS; A fiction of the law, the effect of which is to put the representative in the place, degree, or right of the person represen-ted.
2. The heir represents his ancestor. Bac. Abr. Heir and Ancestor, A. The devisee, his testator; the executor, his testator; the administrator3, his intestate; the successor in corporations, his predecessor4. And generally speaking they are entitled to the rights of the persons whom they represent, and bound to fulfil the duties and obligations, which were binding5 upon them in those characters.
3. Representation was unknown to the Romans, and was invented by the commentators6 and doctors of the civil law. Toull. Dr. Civ. Fr. liv. 3, t. 1, c. 3, n. 180. Vide Ayl. Pand. 397; Dall. Diet. mot Succession, art. 4, §2.
REPRIEVE7, crim. law practice. This term is derived8 from reprendre, to take back, and signifies the withdrawing of a sentence for an interval9 of time, and operates in delay of execution. 4 Bl. Com. 394. It is granted by the favor of the pardoning power, or by the court who tried the prisoner.
3. Reprieves10 are sometimes granted ex necessitate11 legis; for example, when a woman is convicted of a capital offence, after judgment she may allege12 pregnancy13 in delay of execution. In order, however, to render this plea available she must be quick with child, (q. v.) the law presuming, perhaps absurdly enough, that before that period, life does not commence in the foetus. 3 Inst. 17; 2 Hale, 413; 1 Hale, 368; 4 Bl. Com. 395.
4. The judge is also bound to grant a reprieve when the prisoner becomes insane. 4 Harg. St. Tr. 205, 6; 3 Inst. 4; Hawk14 B. 1, c. 1, s. 4; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 757.
REPRIMAND, punishment. The censure15 which in some cases a public office pronounces against an offender16.
2. This species of punishment is used by legislative17 bodies to punish their members or others who have been guilty of some impropriety of conduct towards them. The reprimand is usually pronounced by the speaker.