Definition
Latin form of "attorney general." The Latinized legal phrase used in formal and historical legal instruments, pleadings, and court records to designate the chief law officer of the Crown or sovereign — the officer responsible for conducting legal proceedings on behalf of the state and advising the government on matters of law. The term is the direct Latin equivalent of the English "attorney general" and appears in older common law sources where Latin remained the formal language of legal record.
Common Confusion
ATTURNATUS GENERALIS should not be confused with ATTURNATUS (or ATTORNATUS), the broader Latin term simply meaning "attorney" or one who has been appointed to act in another's place. The addition of GENERALIS specifies the officer's public and comprehensive character — general authority on behalf of the sovereign — distinguishing the office from a private attorney or even a specialized crown officer. Researchers encountering ATTURNATUS alone in historical records should not assume a reference to the Attorney General.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in Latin-language legal records, Year Books, early plea rolls, and common law treatises predating the gradual abandonment of Latin in English legal proceedings — a process completed for most purposes by the mid-eighteenth century, though Latin persisted in formal instruments longer. Researchers working in manuscript court records, early printed abridgments, or pre-modern English legal sources will encounter ATTURNATUS GENERALIS where a modern document would simply read "Attorney General."
The practical trap is straightforward: a researcher unfamiliar with the Latin form may fail to connect the phrase to the office of Attorney General, or may search for the English title in a corpus where only the Latin form appears. Cross-index accordingly when working with sources from the sixteenth through early eighteenth centuries.
Because the term is purely a Latin rendering of an English title, it carries no independent doctrinal content. Its significance is entirely bibliographic and indexing-related — knowing the Latin form unlocks access to early sources that would otherwise appear to reference an unfamiliar office. The single Burrill citation to Vaughan's Reports (Vaugh. 53) places this usage squarely in seventeenth-century English common law practice.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the entry in minimal form: the Latin phrase, the English translation, and a single citation to Vaughan's Reports. This sparse treatment is characteristic of Burrill's handling of Latin law terms that function as direct translations of recognized English offices rather than as independent legal concepts requiring doctrinal elaboration. No definition of the office itself is provided under this heading — Burrill treats ATTURNATUS GENERALIS as a mere terminological pointer to the English equivalent.
Historical dictionaries more broadly are largely silent on this specific Latin form, addressing the substance of the office under "Attorney General" in its English form. This reflects a division of labor common to the reference literature: Latin terms are catalogued, but doctrinal treatment appears under the vernacular entry. Researchers should not expect to find substantive discussion of the Attorney General's powers or duties under the Latin heading in any historical source.
Jurisdictional Note
The Latin form is specific to English common law sources and jurisdictions historically derived from English practice. American legal records adopted English Latin conventions in the colonial and early federal periods, so ATTURNATUS GENERALIS may appear in American sources through the early nineteenth century, though this is uncommon. Civil law jurisdictions used different terminology entirely.