Cities are not part of counties
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2/21/2008
Virginia, the Old Dominion, follows the old English distinction between cities and counties. A city in Virginia is not part of a county and a county has no jurisdiction over a city. This is unique in the United States. Under old English common law, a county was the area controlled by an Earl (English equivalent to a Count). A city was granted a Royal charter which placed it directly under the protection of the Crown with special privileges. A county police officer has no authority in a city and vice versa (except in the case of "hot" pursuit).
A Virginia city is granted its charter by the General Assembly (the oldest democratic legislative body in the new world). Cities can petition the General Assembly to annex part of a neighboring county but not the opposite.
To complicate matters, there are cities and counties with the same name that have no relationship with each other (the City of Richmond is about 50 miles from the County of Richmond).
The final confusion is that because Virginia is over 400 years old, there are relics of old jurisdictions which no longer exists. There is a Charles City County but the actual City of Charles disappeared several centuries ago!
Jeff | Richmond, VA