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COURT OF HONOR

A court having jurisdiction to hear and redress injuries or affronts to a man’s honor or personal dignity, of a nature not cognizable by the ordinary courts of law, or encroachments upon his rights In respect to heraldry, coat-armor, right of precedence, and the like. It was one of the functions of the Court of Chivalry (q. 17.) in England to sit and act as a court of honor. 3 Bl. Comm. 104. The name is also given in some European countries to a tribunal of army officers (more or less distinctly recognized by law as a “court”) convened for the purpose of inquiring into complaints affecting the honor of brother officers and punishing derelictions from the code of honor and deciding on the causes and occasions for fighting duels, in which officers are concerned, and the manner of conducting them.

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