Prerogative

In law, a prerogative is an exclusive right given from a government or state and invested in an individual or group, the content of which is separate from the body of rights enjoyed under the general law of the normative state. It was a common facet of feudal law. The word is derived from O.Fr. prerogative (14c.), M.L. prerogativa "special right," from L. praerogativa "prerogative, previous choice or election," originally (with tribus, centuria) "unit of 100 voters who by lot voted first in the Roman comitia," from praerogativus (adj.) "chosen to vote first."

In modern popular culture usage, the word prerogative has come to mean the egalitarian condition of the right for anyone's own self-determination, e.g., that it is "one's prerogative" to do as they please. The antithesis of the legal historic use of the term, being private exclusion from anyone and determined to the individual from without.

Topics

• Royal prerogative
• Prerogative writ
• Prerogative court
• Extraterritoriality

See also

• Individual rights
• My Prerogative (song)