R. 1028325 220594493 2008-06-20T16:47:40Z Eugene van der Pijll 22016 {{For|the letter of the alphabet|R}} {{For|the album by R. Kelly|R. (album)}} '''R.''' is an abbreviation of the [[Latin]] word ''[[Rex]]'' ([[Monarch|King]]) or ''[[Queen regnant|Regina]]'' ([[Monarch|Queen]]) and is used as notation in British criminal prosecutions to mean ''"[[the Crown]]"'' or ''"[[state|the State]]"'', which is represented by the current [[British monarchy|monarch]]. It is often seen written as ''"R. v Defendant"'' which would be read as ''"the Crown against the Defendant"''. In jurisdictions that are [[republic]]s, there is no Monarch and no one person embodies the state, so the prosecuting party is not any individual but rather either the State in and of itself, or (in some locations) the state ''on the behalf of'' the people it governs. An example of the former would be federal criminal cases in the [[United States]] (such as, for instance, the murder of persons in a building owned or operated by the United States government), which being prosecuted by the [[Government of the United States|United States federal government]] would be termed ''United States v Defendant''. On the other hand, most [[U.S. state]]s, when prosecuting an offense, typically couch their case in terms of representing the people of the state, so if John Doe robbed a bank in [[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]], the case would be referred to as ''the People of the State of [[Michigan]] v John Doe''. [[Category:Latin legal phrases]] {{Latin-legal-phrase-stub}}