advocation

advocation

in canon law and Scots law, the transfer to itself by a superior court of an action pending in a lower court; in modern Scots law an appeal in respect of procedural matters or where the matter has not been determined by trial.

Collins Dictionary of Law © W.J. Stewart, 2006

ADVOCATION, Scotch law. A writing drawn up in the form of a petition, called a bill of advocation, by which a party in an action applies to the supreme court to advocate its cause, and to call the action out of an inferior court to itself. Letters of advocation, are the decree or warrant of the supreme court or court of sessions, discharging the inferior tribunal from all further proceedings in the matter, and advocating the action to itself. This proceeding is similar to a certiorari (q.v.) issuing out of a superior court for the removal of a cause from an inferior.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.