Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

county palatine

Hist. A county in which the lord held certain royal privileges, such as the right to pardon a felon or to have indictments recite that offenses were committed against the lord's - rather than the king's - peace. 0 In England, there were three such counties: Chester, Durham, and Lancaster. The separate legal systems in these counties was slowly eliminated; the last vestiges of a separate system were abolished by the Courts Act (1971). Cf. proprietary government under GOVERNMENT.