Procuration (Lat. procurare, to take care of) is the action of taking care of, hence management, stewardship, agency. The word is applied to the authority or power delegated to a procurator, or agent, as well as to the exercise of such authority expressed frequently by procuration (per procurationem), or shortly per pro., or simply p.p.

A common usage of per procurationem occurs in business letters, which are often signed on behalf of another person. For example, given a secretary authorized to sign a letter on behalf of the president of a company, the signature takes the form:

p.p. Secretary's Signature

President's Name

or

President's Name

p.p. Secretary's Signature

Commonly in practice, an alternative form is used:

Secretary's Signature

p.p. President's Name

The correct usage is the subject of some debate; largely depending on whether one interprets per procurationem as "through the agency of" or "on behalf of". http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?docid=PSR/PS200210/NAT/ATO/00001 http://www.wordwizard.com/ch_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7221

In ecclesiastical law, procuration is the provision of necessaries for bishops and archdeacons during their visitations of parochial churches in their dioceses. Procuration originally took the form of meat, drink, provender, and other accommodation, but was gradually changed to a sum of money. Procuration is an ecclesiastical due, and is therefore suable only in a spiritual court. In those dioceses where the bishops estates have vested in the ecclesiastical commissioners procurations are payable to the commissioners who, however, have abandoned their collection (Phillimore, Ecc. Law, 2nd ed., 1895, pp. 1051, 1060).

Procuration is also used specifically for the negotiation of a loan by an agent for his client, whether by mortgage or otherwise, and the sum of money or commission paid for negotiating it is frequently termed procuration fee.

Finally, English criminal law makes the provision or attempted provision of any person under twenty-one years of age for the purpose of illicit intercourse (prostitution) an offence, known as procuration - compare procuring.

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