In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.
The term has traditionally been used to refer to any person who holds a general power of attorney to represent a principal in all matters. In the common law tradition, anyone who repr...
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In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.
The term has traditionally been used to refer to any person who holds a general power of attorney to represent a principal in all matters. In the common law tradition, anyone who represents the state, especially in criminal prosecutions, is such an attorney. Although a government may designate some official as the permanent attorney general, anyone who comes to represent the state in the same way, even if only for a particular case, is an attorney general, and when that is a private individual, he may be distinguished from the permanent official as being a private or pro tempore attorney general. Although most nations primarily use full-time professional prosecutors in criminal cases, this is a fairly recent development,...
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