Conforms to the first four (4) requirements:
1. power to fine or imprison for contempt 2. keeps a record of the proceedings 3. proceeding according to the common law (not statutes or codes) 4. the tribunal is independent of the magistrate (judge) 5. generally has a seal (optional)
You will only find all the above Items in Black's Law Dictionary, First, Second, Third, and Fourth Editions. The Fifth and later editions only show items 1 & 2. The powers-that-be could not eliminate items 3 & 4 from the law, so they eliminated them from the reference books.
As
a general rule-of-thumb, older dictionaries are law-oriented; modern ones are more policy-oriented.
