CERTIORARI, or Cm•rionn l'ACI AS, in the law of England, is a writ which issues out of the Court of Chancery or King's Bench, for the purpose of removing the records of a cause from au inferior to a superior court, into which the writ is returnable, in order that the party coinplaining inay have the more speedy and effec tual justice.
This writ is usually had, after indictment found, and before trial, to remove the indictment, with all die pro ceedings thereupon, from any inferior court of criminal jurisdiction, into the Court of King's Bench, which is the sovereign ordinary court in criminal causes. A certiorari is frequently issued for one or other of the following purposes. 1. To consider and determine the validity of appeals or indictments, and the proceedings thereupon ; and to quash or confirm them accordingly. 2. The indictment is removed into the Court of King's Bench, or before the justices of nisi /lrius, when it is suspected that a partial or insufficient trial will be had in the court below. 3. In order to plead the king's pardon in the superior court. 4. To issue process of
outlawry against the offender in those places where the process of the inferior judges will not reach him.
A certiorari lies in all judicial proceedings in which a writ of error does not lie ; and the proceedings of all inferior jurisdictions, erected by act of parliament, are returnable in the King's Bench. When a writ of cer tiorari has been issued, and delivered to the inferior court, it supersedes the jurisdiction of that court, and renders all subsequent proceedings therein erroneous and illegal, unless the record be remanded to the court below by the King's Bench. The writ may be granted at the instance either of the prosecutor or the defendant ; the former as a matter of right, the latter as a matter of discretion.
Indictments found by the grand jury against a peer are transmitted by certiorari into the Court of Parliament. or into that of the Lord High Steward of Great Britain. Sec Blackstone's Comment. b. iv. ch. 2 1. ; and Jacob's Law. Dict. (z)