bailiwick

bailiwick (bay-l[schwa]-wik). The office, jurisdiction, or district of a bailiff; esp., a bailiff’s territorial jurisdiction.

— Also termed bailivia; baliva; balliva.

“In the early days a village was called a ‘wick.’ Each village had a bailiff who was its peace officer. His authority was limited to the territory of the wick. A bailiff was popularly referred to as a ‘bailie,’ and before long a bailie’s wick was expressed as his ‘bailiwick.’ And in time this word came to be used to indicate the special territory over which a peace officer exercises his authority as such. Although it may be changed by statute, the normal situation is that the bailiwick of a policeman is his city, the bailiwick of a sheriff is his county and the bailiwick of a state officer, such as a member of the Highway Patrol, is the state.” Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 1096 (3d ed. 1982).


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