visitorial en · ADJ
Etymology
From visitor + -ial.
Meanings
-
(not-comparable) Of, pertaining to, or having the power to make an official visitation
The court, he wrote, has always understood that visitorial powers are “quite separate” from the power to enforce the law, and the attorney general was acting in the role of “sovereign-as-law-enforcer” in seeking the information.
2009 June 30, John Schwartz, “Justices Rule That States Can Press Bank Cases”, in New York Times: