In international law. A public officer, clothed with high diplomatic powers, commissioned by a sovereign prince or state to transact the international business of his government at the court of the country to which he is sent Ambassador is the commissioner who represents one country in the seat of government of another. He is a public minister, which, usually, a consul is not. Brown. Ambassador is a person sent by one sovereign to another, with authority, by letters of credence, to treat on affairs of state. Jacob.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
international law. A public minister sent abroad by some sovereign state or prince, with a legal commission and authority to transact business on behalf of his country with the government to which he is sent. He is a minister of the highest rank, and represents the person of his sovereign. 2. The United States have always been represented by ministers plenipotentiary, never having sent a person of the rank of an, ambassador in the diplomatic sense. 1 Kent’s Com. 39, n. 3. Ambassadors, when acknowledged as such, are exempted, absolutely from all allegiance, and from all responsibility to the laws. If, however, they should be so regardless of their duty, and of the object of their privilege, as to insult or openly to attack the laws of the government, their functions may be suspended by a refusal to treat with them, or application can be made to their own sovereign for their recall, or they may be dismissed, and required to depart within a reasonable time. By fiction of law, an ambassador is considered as if he were out of the territory of the foreign power; and it is an implied agreement among nations, that the ambassador, while he resides in the foreign state, shall be considered as a member of his own country, and the government he represents has exclusive cognizance of his conduct, and control of his person. The attendants of the ambassador are attached to his person, and the effects in his use are under his protection and privilege, and, generally, equally exempt from foreign jurisdiction. 4. Ambassadors are ordinary or extraordinary. The former designation is exclusively applied to those sent on permanent missions; the latter, to those employed on particular or extraordinary occasions, or residing at a foreign court for an indeterminate period.