WARRANT, an act, instrument, or obligation, whereby a person authorizes another to do something which he otherwise had not a right to do.
A warrant may be granted in extraordinary cases by the privy council, or secretaries of state; but ordinarily by justices of the peace. This they may do in any cases
Warrant. cases where they have a jurisdiction over the offence, in order to compel the person accused to appear before them: for it would be absurd to give them power to examine an offender, unless they had also a power to compel him to attend, and submit to such examination. And this extends undoubtedly to all treasons, felonies, and breaches of the peace; and also to all such offences as they have power to punish by statute. Sir Edward Coke indeed hath laid it down, that a justice of the peace cannot issue a warrant to apprehend a felon upon bare suspicion; no, not even till an indictment be actually found: and the contrary practice is by others held to be grounded rather upon connivance than the express rule of law; though now by long custom established. A doctrine which would in most cases give a loose to felons to escape without punishment; and therefore Sir Matthew Hale hath combatted it with invincible authority and strength of reason: Maintaining, 1. That a justice of peace hath power to issue a warrant to apprehend a person accused of felony, tho' not yet indicted; and, 2. That he may also issue a warrant to apprehend a person suspected of felony, though the original suspicion be not in himself, but in the party that prays his warrant; because he is a competent judge of the probability offered to him of such suspicion. But in both cases it is fitting to examine upon oath the party requiring a warrant, as well to ascertain that there is a felony or other crime actually committed, without which no warrant should be granted; as also to prove the cause and probability of suspecting the party against whom the warrant is prayed. This warrant ought to be under the hand and seal of the justice, should set forth the time and place of making, and the cause for which it is made, and should be directed to the constable, or other peace-officer, (or it may be to any private person by name), requiring him to bring the party either generally before any justice of the peace for the county, or only before the justice who granted it: the warrant in the latter case being called a special warrant. A general warrant to apprehend all persons suspected, without naming or particularly describing any person in special, is illegal and void for its uncertainty; for it is the duty of the magistrate, and ought not to be left to the officer, to judge of the ground of suspicion. And a warrant to apprehend all persons, guilty of a crime therein specified, is no legal warrant: for the point upon which its authority rests, is a fact to be decided on a subsequent trial; namely, whether the person apprehended thereupon be really guilty or not. It is therefore in fact no warrant at all; for it will not justify the officer who acts under it: whereas a warrant, properly penned (even though the magistrate who issues it should exceed his jurisdiction), will, by statute 24 Geo. II. c. 44. at all events indemnify the officer who executes the same ministerially. And when a warrant is received by the officer, he is bound to execute it, so far as the jurisdiction of the magistrate and himself extends. A warrant from the chief, or other justice of the court of king's-bench, extends all over the kingdom; and is teleted, or dated, England; not Oxfordshire, Berks, or other particular county. But the warrant of a justice of the peace in one county, as Yorkshire, must be backed, that is, signed by a justice of the peace in another, as Middlesex, before it can be executed there.
Formerly, regularly speaking, there ought to have been a fresh warrant in every fresh county; but the practice of backing warrants had long prevailed without law, and was at last authorised by stat. 23 Geo. II. c. 26. and 24 Geo. II. c. 55. And now, by statute 13 Geo. III. c. 31. any warrant for apprehending an English offender, who may have escaped into Scotland, and vice versa, may be indorsed and executed by the local magistrates, and the offender conveyed back to that part of the united kingdoms in which such offence was committed.