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REX Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

Lat. The king. The king regarded as the party prosecuting in a criminal action; as in the form of entitling such actions, “Rex v. Doe.” Rex debet esse sub lege quia lex facit rerem. The king ought to be under the law, because the law makes the king. 1 Bl. Comm. 239. Rex est legalis et politicus. Lane, 27. The kiug is both a legal and political person. Rex est lex vivens. Jenk. Cent. 17. The king is the living law. Rex est major singulis, minor uni- versis. Bract. 1. 1, c. 8. The king is greater than any single person, less than all. Rex hoc solum non potest faccre quod non potest injuste agere. 11 Coke, 72. The king can do everything but an injustice. Rex non debit esse snb liomine, sed sub Deo et sub lege, quia lex facit re- gem. Bract, fol. 5. The king ought to be under no man, but under God and the law, because the law makes a king. Broom, Max. 47. Rex non potest peccare. The king cannot do wrong; the king can do no wrong. 2 Bolle, 304. An ancient and fundamental principle of the English constitution. Jenk. Cent. p. 9, case 10; 1 Bl. Comm. 240. Rex nunquam moritur. The king never dies. Broom, Max. 50; Branch, Max. (5th Ed.) 197; 1 Bl. Comm. 249.

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