REPRESENTATION, Scotch law. The name of a plea or statement presented to a lord ordinary of the court of sessions, when his judgment is brought under review.

REPRESENTATION OF PERSONS; A fiction of the law, the effect of which is to put the representative in the place, degree, or right of the person represen-ted.

2. The heir represents his ancestor. Bac. Abr. Heir and Ancestor, A. The devisee, his testator; the executor, his testator; the administrator, his intestate; the successor in corporations, his predecessor. And generally speaking they are entitled to the rights of the persons whom they represent, and bound to fulfil the duties and obligations, which were binding upon them in those characters.

3. Representation was unknown to the Romans, and was invented by the commentators and doctors of the civil law. Toull. Dr. Civ. Fr. liv. 3, t. 1, c. 3, n. 180. Vide Ayl. Pand. 397; Dall. Diet. mot Succession, art. 4, §2.

REPRIEVE, crim. law practice. This term is derived from reprendre, to take back, and signifies the withdrawing of a sentence for an interval of time, and operates in delay of execution. 4 Bl. Com. 394. It is granted by the favor of the pardoning power, or by the court who tried the prisoner.

3. Reprieves are sometimes granted ex necessitate legis; for example, when a woman is convicted of a capital offence, after judgment she may allege pregnancy in delay of execution. In order, however, to render this plea available she must be quick with child, (q. v.) the law presuming, perhaps absurdly enough, that before that period, life does not commence in the foetus. 3 Inst. 17; 2 Hale, 413; 1 Hale, 368; 4 Bl. Com. 395.

4. The judge is also bound to grant a reprieve when the prisoner becomes insane. 4 Harg. St. Tr. 205, 6; 3 Inst. 4; Hawk B. 1, c. 1, s. 4; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 757.

REPRIMAND, punishment. The censure which in some cases a public office pronounces against an offender.

2. This species of punishment is used by legislative bodies to punish their members or others who have been guilty of some impropriety of conduct towards them. The reprimand is usually pronounced by the speaker.