LORD

See also:

• ADVOCATE (Lat. advocatus, from advocare, to summon, especially in law to call in the aid of a counsel or witness, and so generally to summon to one's assistance)

ADVOCATE  , or king's advocate, the principal law-officer of the crown in Scotland . His business is to act as a public prosecutor, and to plead in all causes that concern the crown . He is at the head of the system of public prosecutions by which criminal justice is administered in Scotland, and thus his functions are of a far more extensive character than those of the English law-officers of the crown . He is aided by a solicitor-general and by subordinate assistants called advocates-depute . The office of king's advocate seems to have been established about the beginning of the 16th century . Originally he had no power to prosecute crimes without the concurrence of a private party; but in the year 1597 he was empowered to prosecute crimes at his own instance . He has the privilege of pleading in court with his hat on .