Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

CIVIL ACTION

CITIZEN

206

inhabitant of a city.) When it is designed to designate an inhabitant of the country, or one amenable to the laws of the nation, "sub ject" is the word there employed. CITIZENSHIP. The status of being a citizen, (?. t>.) CITY. In England. An incorporated town or borough which is or has been the see of a bishop. Co. Litt. 108; 1 Bl. Comm. 114; Cowell. A large town incorporated with certain privileges. The inhabitants of a city. The citizens. Worcester. In America. A city is a municipal cor poration of a larger class, the distinctive feat ure of whose organization is its government by a chief executive (usually called "mayor") and a legislative body, composed of repre sentatives of the citizens, (usually called a "council" or "board of aldermen,") and oth er officers having special functions. CITY OF LONDON COURT. A court having a local jurisdiction within the city of London. It is to all intents and purposes a county court, having the same jurisdiction and procedure. CIVIL. In its original sense, this word means pertaining or appropriate to a member of a civitas or free political community; nat ural or proper to a citizen. Also, relating to the community, or to the policy and govern ment of the citizens and subjects of a state. In the language of the law, it has varioni significations. In contradistinction to bar barous or savage, it indicates a state of society reduced to order and regular government; thus, we speak of civil life, civil society, civil government, and civil liberty. In contradis tinction to criminal, it indicates the private rights and remedies of men, as members of the community, in contrast to those which are public and relate to the government; thus, we speak of civil process and criminal process, civil jurisdiction and criminal juris diction. It is also used in contradistinction to mili tary OT ecclesiastical, to natural ox foreign; thus, we speak of a civil station, as opposed to a military or an ecclesiastical station; a civil death, as opposed to a natural death; a civil war, as opposed to a foreign war. Story, Const. § 791. CIVIL ACTION. In the civil law. A personal action which is instituted to com pel payment, or the doing some other thing which is purely civil.

of propositions of law sought to be estab lished. CITIZEN. In general. A member of a free city or jural society, (civitas,) possess ing all the rights and privileges which can be enjoyed by any person under its constitu tion and government, and subject to the cor responding duties. In American law. One who, under the constitution and laws of the United States, has a right to vote for civil officers, and him self is qualified to fill elective offices. One of the sovereign people. A constitu ent member of the soveieignty, synonymous with the people. 19 How. 404. A member of the civil state entitled to all its privileges. Cooley, Const. Law, 77. The term "citizen" has come to us derived from antiquity. It appears to have been used in the Roman government to designate a person who had the freedom of the city, and the right to exercise all political and civil privileges of the government. There was also, at Rome, a partial citizenship, in cluding civil, but not political, rights. Complete sitizenship embraced both. 15 Ind. 451. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. Amend. XIV. Const. U. S. There is in our political system a government of each of the several states, and a government of the United States. Each is distinct from the others, and has citizens of its own, who owe it al legiance, and whose rights, within its jurisdiction, it must protect. The same person may be at the same time a citizen of the United States and a cit izen of a state; but his rights of citizenship under one of these governments will be different from those he has under the other. The government of the United States, although it is, within the scope of its powers, supreme and beyond the states, can neither grant nor secure to its citizens rights or privileges which are not expressly or by implica tion placed under its jurisdiction*. All that cannot be so granted or secured are left to the exclusive protection of the states. 92 U. S. 542. "Citizen" and "inhabitant" are not synonymous. One may be a citizen of a state without being an inhabitant, or an inhabitant without being a citi zen. 4 Har. (Del.) 883. " Citizen " is sometimes used as synonymous with "resident;" as in a statute authorizing funds to be distributed among the religious societies of a township, proportionably to the number of their members who are citizens of the township. 11 Ohio, 24. In English law. An inhabitant of a city. 1 Rolle, 138. The representative of a city, in parliament. 1 Bl. Cornm. 174. It will be perceived that, in the English usage, the word adheres closely to its original mean ing, as shown by its derivation, {civis, a free

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