A petitioner is a
person
A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
who pleads with governmental institution for a
legal remedy or a redress of grievances, through use of a
petition.
In the courts
The petitioner may seek a legal remedy if the state or another private
person
A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
has acted unlawfully. In this case, the petitioner, often called a
plaintiff, will submit a plea to a
court
A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...
to resolve the dispute. The person against whom the action is taken is known as a
respondent.
To the government
On the other hand, the petitioner may be complaining against the
law it to "... make no law... abridging... the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances".
A petitioner need not seek a change to an existing law. Often, petitioners speak against (or in support of)
legislative proposals as these progress.
The Whig party
A group of 17th century English politicians became known as Petitioners, due to their support of the
Exclusion Bill, a bill which would prevent the succession to the throne of the
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
James, Duke of York
James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II of England, Charles II, on 6 February 1 ...
, the heir apparent of
King Charles II. After the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
passed the Bill, Charles dissolved Parliament; when a new Parliament was elected shortly afterwards, Charles simply refused to summon it to meet. The Petitioners got their name from the many petitions they sent to Charles urging him to summon Parliament; they were opposed by the
Abhorrers, who resisted the Exclusion Bill and were in no hurry to see a pro-Exclusion Bill Parliament meet. In the heat of the dispute, the two factions traded insulting epithets; with the result that the Petitioners became known as the
Whigs and their opponents as
Tories.
[{{Cite web , title=Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). The later Stuarts. , url=https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/The-later-Stuarts#ref483164 , access-date=November 21, 2024 , website=In Encyclopaedia Britannica]
See also
*
Petition
*
Special Leave Petitions in India
*
Old Order German Baptist Brethren, also called "Petitioners"
References
Common law legal terminology
Judicial legal terminology
Civil law legal terminology