What is CONSERVATORS OF THE PEACE? Definition of CONSERVATORS OF THE PEACE in Black's Law Dictionary - Legal dictionary - Glossary of legal terms.
Officers authorized to preserve and maintain the public peace. In England, these officers were locally elected by the people until the reign of Edward III, when their appointment was vested in the king. Their duties were to prevent and arrest for breaches of the peace, but they had no power to arraign and try the offender until about 1360, when this authority was given to them by act of parliament, and ",then they acquired the more honorable appellation of justices of the peace." 1 Bl.Comm. 351.
Even after this time, however, many public officers were styled "conservators of the peace," not as a distinct office but by virtue of the duties and authorities pertaining to their offices. In this sense the term may include the king himself, the lord chancellor, justices of the king's bench, master of the rolls, coroners, sheriffs, constables, etc. 1 BI.Comm. 350. See Smith v. Abbott, 17 N.J.L. 358. In Texas, the constitution provides that county judges shall be conservators of the peace. Const.Tex. art. 4, § 15; Jones v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 65 S.W. 92. The Constitution of Delaware (1831) provides that: "The members of the senate and house of representatives, the chancellor, the judges, and the attorney-general shall, by virtue of their offices, be conservators of the peace throughout the state; and the treasurer, secretary, and prothonotaries, registers, recorders, sheriffs, and coroners, shall, by virtue of their offices, be conservators thereof within the counties respectively in which they reside."
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