electoral fraud

The taking such measures, in order to secure their fair right of voting to the electors in a particular interest, must be considered rather as an act of official favouritism, than as an electoral fraud.

1839, Charles Buller, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, The Report and Despatches of the Earl of Durham:

He has saddled the finances of the Principality with the costs of a huge electoral fraud.

1882, M. Valentine Chirol, “Bulgaria”, in The Fortnightly Review, volume 36, page 293:

In addition to the strength of the Social Democratic candidates, I also examined the relationship between other political factors and the incidence of electoral fraud.

2015, Isabela Mares, From Open Secrets to Secret Voting:

(politics) Illegal interference with the process of an election, especially with the intent to stage a desired election outcome.


preclearance

en-noun

preclearance (countable and uncountable, plural preclearances)

The great state of Alabama believes that preclearance is a relic of the past.

(US, law) Advance approval by a federal court or the Department of Justice for changes to voting regulations in certain states under the 1965 Voting Rights Act.


cramdown

(law) A requirement that certain creditors accept a plan of reorganization in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring.


assaultive

This man is not only very very sick, but I believe he is definitely a Potential Assaultive.

1962, Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, New York: Signet, page 134:

Extreme assaultives were operationally defined as those who were convicted of murder, manslaughter, or attempted murder. Moderate assaultives included persons convicted of wounding with intent to cause serious bodily harm, malicious or unlawful wounding, and assault.

1980, Curt R. Bartol, chapter 8, in Criminal Behavior: A Psychosocial Approach,, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, page 223:

(psychiatry, criminology) A person who assaults others.


antigraft

Gabon charged five journalists and antigraft campaigners on Friday with trying to incite rebellion […].

2009 January 10, “Gabon: President’s Critics Charged”, in New York Times, sourced from Reuters:

(politics) Opposed to or working against graft


anticorruption

en-adj

anticorruption (comparative more anticorruption, superlative most anticorruption)

more anticorruption (comparative)
most anticorruption (superlative)

/ˌæntiːkəˈɹʌpʃən/

The government recently started an anticorruption campaign.

In the fight against corruption, ADB staff members are supported by an elaborate anticorruption framework, consisting of policy, operational, and administrative provisions, which may sometimes be daunting to navigate. Inquiries to ADB's Office ...

2011, Asian Development Bank, Frequently Asked Questions on Anticorruption and Integrity, Asian Development Bank, →ISBN:


flowthrough

en-noun

flowthrough (countable and uncountable, plural flowthroughs)

Deverbal from flow through, from flow + through.

(taxation) A legal entity intended to not incur (income) taxation at the entity, but solely at the beneficiaries.


stickman

In some cases, when the property is taken from the drunken man, one of the women on some pretext steps to the door and passes it to the “stickman” standing outside, who then makes off with it.

1861, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor; […], volume IV (Those that Will Not Work), London: Griffin, Bohn, and Company, […], →OCLC, page 282:

It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed any warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers, whizzers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere in the crowds, in the underground, on railway trains […]

1976, Michael Harrison, Beyond Baker Street: A Sherlockian Anthology, page 117:

(UK, slang, archaic) A pickpocket's accomplice who takes the stolen goods in case the pickpocket is searched.


psyop

A psychological operative; a person who participates in psychological operations.


nullius in bonis

From Latin nūllīus (“of no one”) (genitive of nūllus) + in + bonīs (“goods, property”) (ablative of bōna).

...but being the case of a singing bird, though reclaimed, as it is a thing of base nature, it must be considered as nullius in bonis.

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume IV, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book iv:


W.D.N.C.

w:United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina

(law) Initialism of United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, as used in case citations.


M.D.N.C.

w:United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina

(law) Initialism of United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, as used in case citations.


E.D.N.C.

w:United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

(law) Initialism of United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, as used in case citations.


aubaine

From French aubain (“an alien”) (as in droit d’aubaine), from Old French aubene, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Latin alibi (“elsewhere”) or from Frankish *alibanus (“of or belonging to another ban”).

der

(historical, law) The inheritance of goods from a foreigner who died in a country where he was not naturalised.


sublessor

The sublessor insisted on being there.

2009 January 18, Joyce Cohen, “Run Away and Join the City”, in New York Times:

(property law) A tenant (or lessee) that grants a sublease; one who sublets.


bluecoat

The shot wounded Thomas Lord, a 73-year-old former New York City police officer from Suffolk, Va., and a bluecoat with the Seventh New York Volunteer Cavalry.

2009 January 18, Ralph Blumenthal, “Re-enactor Is Indicted in Shooting of a Yankee”, in New York Times:

(US history) A soldier or officer in the Union army during the American Civil War


yeggman

1915, W. M. McCarty, practically every thug, yeggman and ex-convict in the land:

(cant, slang) a person who breaks open safes, a burglar; a yegg.


appellee

From Anglo-Norman, from Old French apelé.

After winning in the lower court, the appellee hoped she would win again in the appeals court.


antismuggling

Israel’s foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, was in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the antismuggling effort with European officials.

2009 January 23, Isabel Kershner, “Hamas to Start Paying Gaza Residents Compensation and Reconstruction Aid”, in New York Times:

(law enforcement) Acting to combat or prevent smuggling


posttrial

Baker notes only that Robert "saw his mother only once" after their posttrial estrangement[…].

1988 January 8, James Krohe Jr., “Reading: Last Among First Ladies”, in Chicago Reader:


borstal training

The court could sentence them to 'Borstal training', which meant that they were detained in a Borstal institution for an indeterminate period of between six months and two years.

1989, Richard Meredith Jackson, J. R. Spencer, Jackson's Machinery of Justice, page 277:

(British, law, historical) The sentencing of young offenders to a special prison.


supermax

From super- + max (as in maximum security prison).

Kaczynski had been held in the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge.

2023 June 11, “‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski died by suicide in prison – report”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:


kleptarchy

First, there is this great outstanding fact: that from the day of our independence the soul of the American people has been growing more and more democratic, and where the spirit of democracy is, whatever the institutional maladjustment, even a kleptarchy cannot go far wrong.

1920, Frederick Albert Cleveland, Arthur Eugene Buck, The budget and responsible government: a description and interpretation of the struggle for responsible government in the United States, The Macmillan Company:

Kleptocracy; rule by one or more thieves.


antiviolence

And one-quarter of teenagers in relationships say they have been called names or harassed by their partner through cellphones and text messages, according to a study commissioned by the clothing company Liz Claiborne, which sponsors antiviolence programs.

2009 January 27, Stephanie Clifford, “Teaching Teenagers About Harassment”, in New York Times:

(law enforcement, sociology) Acting against or opposing violence.


RD

en-noun

RD (countable and uncountable, plural RDs)

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of reporting district.


W.D. La.

w:United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, as used in case citations.


E.D. La.

w:United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, as used in case citations.


M.D. La.

w:United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, as used in case citations.


company time

Since I suffered the injury on company time, why shouldn't I also be able to get surgery and do recovery on company time?

2003, Shaquille O'Neal, quoted in Tim Brown, "Shaq's Not Back in Time", Los Angeles Times, February 11, 2003, Sports, Part 4, page 7

What employers find is that if workers are allowed to schedule in that time, many will do those errands on personal rather than company time.

2000, Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and what to Do about it, page 91:

Coordinate term: personal time

(business, law, human resources) A time in which an employee is being compensated by their employer, and for which the employer is therefore responsible for the welfare of the employee, and also in which the employee is expected to refrain from engaging in personal interests.


jumpout

“Well, I figured if the jumpouts came they wouldn′t search her,” says Rosa Lee. “They′d search me but they wouldn′t find nothing.”

1997, Leon Dash, Rosa Lee: A Mother and Her Family in Urban America, page 33:

(US, slang) A plainclothes narcotics officer.


sweatbox

They shoved me in the back of a police van and started driving to the cop shop. I was sitting in the sweatbox, wondering how the Dibble had got onto me so quickly, when I heard a voice from another section of the van say, 'Are you P from Macclesfield?'

2013, Colin Blaney, Hotshot: The Story of a Little Red Devil:

[…] she was finally hustled into a sweatbox, as prisoners and prison staff called it, and was off to meet her new home for the foreseeable future.

(UK, slang) A compartment in a police van to hold a prisoner being transported.


ameliorative waste

(law) An improvement to an estate that changes its character such that a holder of a future interest in the estate can recover damages against the owner who permitted the improvement to be be made, even if the change actually increases the value of the estate.


panda car

/ˌpændə ˈkɑː/

/ˌpændə ˈkɑɹ/

From the original black and white colouring of the automobiles, like that of a giant panda.

(UK, Ireland, law enforcement, informal) A police car; specifically (historical), one with a broad white stripe painted around its middle on a darker-coloured or, originally, black background.


prisonlike

en-adj

prisonlike (comparative more prisonlike, superlative most prisonlike)

more prisonlike (comparative)
most prisonlike (superlative)

“The prisonlike conditions, this form of detention, is not necessary,” said Michelle Brané, who heads the detention and asylum program at the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

2007 February 22, Rachel L. Swarns, “2 Groups Compare Immigrant Detention Centers to Prisons”, in New York Times:

Resembling or characteristic of a prison


supervoting

The Ochs-Sulzberger family owns about a 19 per cent equity stake in the company and controls it through a special class of supervoting shares.

2009 January 21, “New York Times gets Mexican bailout”, in Toronto Star:

(law, finance) Having greater than normal voting rights.


antigang

These changes occurred independent of any antigang program (CIN is the first of its kind in Chicago) and bore no relation to the number of officers in the Chicago Police Department's Gang Crimes Unit.

1988 March 4, Dan Cohen, “Our Gang”, in Chicago Reader:

(law enforcement) Intended to combat or reduce the activity of criminal gangs

antigangue

intended to combat or reduce the activity of criminal gangs


antinarcotics

Since 1993, the United States has twice helped set up special antinarcotics forces here, only to watch their commanders become embroiled in the drug trade themselves.

2007 March 5, James C. Mckinley Jr., “In Guatemala, Officers’ Killings Echo Dirty War”, in New York Times:

(law enforcement) Intended to combat narcotics trade or production


hometowned

hometowned (comparative more hometowned, superlative most hometowned)

more hometowned (comparative)
most hometowned (superlative)

(law, US) discriminated against by a local judge


region-free

a region-free DVD player

Made or distributed without the ability to enforce regional lockout.


curatorship

(law) legal and financial guardianship under which the ward is an adult


transfer agent

(law) An entity designated by a publicly-traded corporation to keep track of the ownership of the corporation's stocks and bonds

명의개서 대리인

entity that keeps track of stock and bond ownership


preemptive right

en-noun

preemptive right (plural preemptive rights)

(law) The right of shareholders to maintain a constant percentage of a company's shares by receiving a proportionate fraction of any new shares issued, thus preempting any dilution

Vorkaufsrecht

right of shareholders to preempt dilution


flying squad

A rapid-response unit of a police force.


countersuit

Stanford, which filed a countersuit against the two men seeking repayment of certain loans, denied the men’s accusations.

2009 February 13, Julie Creswell, “U.S. Agents Scrutinize Texas Firm”, in New York Times:

(law) A lawsuit filed against a party that has filed a suit against one.


counterevidence

counterevidence (countable and uncountable, plural counterevidences)

Having been strongly pressed to do so, I gave counter-evidence, and I believe, in the opinion of the Commission, demolished the Doctor a second time.

1838, David King, “Two lectures, in reply to the speeches of Dr. Chalmers on church extension”, in Hume Tracts, Glasgow: David Robertson, page 21:

As the alternative norms and counterevidences are uncovered, it is the evaluator's task to determine inconsistency, contradiction, and subterfuge, and then to render his own verdict.

1975, Edward Kelly, “Curriculum Evaluation and Literary Criticism: Comments on the Analogy”, in Curriculum Theory Network, volume 5, number 2, page 102:

People persevere in asserting all sorts of things in the face of apparent counterevidence.

2007, Daniel A. Weiskopf, “Patrolling the Mind’s Boundaries”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 2, page 273:

(philosophy, law, sciences) Evidence which tends to disprove a claim or hypothesis.


resentence

en-verb

resentence (third-person singular simple present resentences, present participle resentencing, simple past and past participle resentenced)

resentences (present singular third-person)
resentencing (participle present)
resentenced (participle past)
resentenced (past)

Also on Tuesday, the founder of Adelphia Communications, John J. Rigas, left, and his son Timothy, are expected to be resentenced in the accounting scandal that led to the company’s collapse.

2007 June 25, “Looking Ahead”, in New York Times:

(law, transitive) To issue a new sentence for certain crimes


unexercised

Shelby W. Bonnie, the former chief executive, agreed to reprice 700,000 unexercised shares, the company said yesterday in a statement.

2007 January 30, Bloomberg News, “CNet Restatement Goes Back to 1996”, in New York Times:

(finance, law) Not having been exercised


TFA

Trade Facilitation Agreement
w:Trade Facilitation Agreement

(international law) Initialism of Trade Facilitation Agreement.


impermissibly

en-adv

impermissibly (comparative more impermissibly, superlative most impermissibly)

more impermissibly (comparative)
most impermissibly (superlative)

The laws have been resisted and challenged by Democrats who argue that they exaggerate the dangers and incidence of voter fraud while impermissibly sacrificing voter access.

2007 September 26, Linda Greenhouse, “Justices Agree to Hear Case About Voter ID Laws”, in New York Times:

(chiefly law) In a way or to an extent that is not permissible.


imprisonable

an imprisonable offence

(law, of an offence) Carrying a sentence of imprisonment.


nonparty

(law) Not a party (involved person or entity), or unrelated to a party.


nonparty

Juries may not, however, use punitive damages to punish a defendant directly for harms that the defendant visited on nonparties.

2007, Brian H. Bornstein, Richard L. Wiener, Robert Schopp, Civil Juries and Civil Justice: Psychological and Legal Perspectives:


disproven

(archaic, Scots law) Not proven, in a legal case where the jury verdict has inconclusive evidence for conviction, but sufficient to suspect guilt


WDC

woman detective constable
woman detective constable#English

(UK, law enforcement, historical) Initialism of woman detective constable, a former police rank.


unpatentable

(law) Not patentable; that cannot be patented.


GRAE

(law, US) Initialism of generally recognized as effective.


GRAS

(US, law) Acronym of generally recognized as safe: a designation by the FDA that a chemical or substance added to food is considered safe by experts.


ANDA

In general, there are two major types of prescription drug applications to obtain agency product approval, which are NDA and ANDA.

2021, Julia Huang, “What Is A CBE 30 Filing? What Is A PAS? What's The Difference Between ANDA And NDA?”, in Pharmaceutical Online:

(law) Initialism of Abbreviated New Drug Application.


sub nom.

From Latin sub nomine, literally "under the name".

(law) Used in case citations to designate a case that has a different name before one court than it did before a previous court.


subletter

(property law, real estate) Synonym of sublessor.


illegal number

(law) a number that represents information which is illegal to possess, utter or propagate. Any information that can be represented in binary format is, ipso facto, representable as a number, and therefore if the information itself is illegal in some way, the pure number itself may be called illegal.


antiobscenity

Some said that the antiobscenity laws were an infringement of free speech.


mainpernor

From Middle English meynpernour, from Anglo-Norman mainprenour, from mainprendre + -our. See modern French main, preneur.

(law, historical) In England in the Middle Ages, a surety (kind of guarantor), under the old writ of mainprise, for a prisoner's appearance in court at a day.


subpoena ad testificandum

en-noun

subpoena ad testificandum (plural subpoenas ad testificandum)

(law) A writ issued by court authority to compel the attendance of a witness at a judicial proceeding; disobedience may be punishable as a contempt of court.


regnal year

(law) A year in the reign of a monarch, beginning on the day of accession, the set of which are numbered ordinally. Formerly laws in the United Kingdom were identified in part by the regnal year of the monarch, and this practice is still followed in some Commonwealth countries.


debtor in possession

debtor in possession (plural debtors in possession)

(finance, law, US) A natural person or corporation that has filed a bankruptcy petition, but remains in possession of property upon which a creditor has a lien or similar security interest. Such a business may continue to operate its business under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.


hangable

a hangable offence


present sense impression

present sense impression (plural present sense impressions)

(law) A statement made by a person (the declarant) that conveys his or her sense of the state of an event or the condition of something, made spontaneously while the person was perceiving (i.e. contemporaneous with) the event or condition, or immediately thereafter.


depone

en-verb

depone (third-person singular simple present depones, present participle deponing, simple past and past participle deponed)

depones (present singular third-person)
deponing (participle present)
deponed (participle past)
deponed (past)

From Latin depono (“lay down, deposit, entrust”).

uder

These two females did afterwards depone that Mr. Willet in his consternation uttered but one word

1841, Charles Dickens, chapter LIV, in Barnaby Rudge:

The said William Aitken, being of new solemnly sworn, &c., depones he is a Burgess of Hawick, and had the property of a house which he now liferents, the fee being disponed to his son-in-law, Bailie Robert Scot, for the use of his son William, his daughter, Bailie Scot's wife, having paid the price of the house; depones sixty years ago Gilbert Elliot was tenant in Nether Southfield, who broke Hawick Common by plowing a part of it, which the Deponent saw at the Common-Riding when the Magistrates and other persons at the Common-Riding potched the ground he had plowed, and was then sown that he might not reap the crop of this.

1898, R. S. Craig, Adam Laing, The Hawick Tradition of 1514: The Town's Common Flag and Seal, page 240:

(intransitive, law) To testify, especially in the form of a deposition.

(transitive, law) To take the deposition of; to depose.


capital crime

(law) Any crime that is punishable by death.


eruv

eruvs (plural)
eruvim (plural)
eruvin (plural)

From Hebrew עירוב / עֵרוּב (eirúv, “mixture”).

Sam is sad that people don't visit him at home on Shabbos because he lives outside the eruv.

“We live in a day and age,” he continued, “where if you don’t have an eruv, you’re taking yourself off of many people’s lists.”

2007 August 12, Jake Mooney, “A Slender Thread to Knit a Neighborhood”, in New York Times:

‘Fat’ is the word you hear shouted in the playground, or on the street – it's never allowed over the threshold of the house. My mum won't have that filth in her house. At home, together, we are safe. It's like an eruv for the slow and soft.

(Jewish law, most commonly) An eruv chatzerot; ritual aggregation of properties that allows Jews observing traditional Shabbat rules to carry burdens across property lines.

érouv

eruv chatzerot, ritual aggregation of domains

(Jewish law) One of the other types of eruv; an eruv tavshilin or eruv techumin.


arrest warrant

(law) An official document that authorizes law-enforcement officials to arrest a named person and to bring that individual before a court of law or other authority.


disappropriate

/dɪsəˈpɹəʊpɹɪeɪt/

The appropriation may be severed, and the church become disappropriate, two ways.

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(law) Severed from the appropriation or possession of a spiritual corporation.


horning

en-noun

horning (countable and uncountable, plural hornings)

From Middle English hornynge; equivalent to horn + -ing.

(law, Scotland) The issuing of letters of horning.


pareve

/ˈpɑː.ɹə.və/

Borrowed from Yiddish פּאַרעוו, פּאַרעווע (parev, pareve), of uncertain origin. Suggestions include:
* Perhaps from Middle High German bar (“bare, naked”), from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“bare, naked”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰosós, from *bʰos- (“bare, barefoot”), and thus cognate with English bare.
* Perhaps from a West Slavic source such as Czech párový (“occurring in pairs”), because according to Jewish dietary laws, meat and milk cannot be combined, but as pareve food contains neither, it can be paired with either meat dishes or milk dishes.

bor

פּאַרעוו, פּאַרעווע

My mom made a pareve casserole with soy hot dogs.

"Parev ice" includes Kosher ice and means the substance intended for sale for human consumption which resembles ice-cream and which— / (a) is usually known as Parev ice or Kosher ice, and / (b) contains no milk or milk derivatives, […]

1970, Statutory Instruments, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, →OCLC, page 4249:

There are on the market many items which resemble such dairy products as coffee cream, sour cream and whipped cream both in taste and appearance but actually are pareve. These are customarily served in the original container to show that the product is pareve despite the dairy appearance.

1990, Bonne Rae London, “Introduction to Kashruth: Why Keep Kosher?”, in Hi-tech Jewish Cooking: Recipes for the Microwave, Processor, Blender and Crock Pot, New York, N.Y.: Shapolsky Publishers, →ISBN, page 4:

A food product containing neither meat nor milk, or derived from either is neutral. The Yiddish word parev (parve) or the Hebrew word stam is used to describe this third category. The neutral (parev) category includes (1) everything which grows from the soil: vegetables, fruits, nuts, coffee, spices, sugar, salt, (2) all kosher fish, (3) eggs, and (4) items manufactured from chemicals. Parev foods may be eaten or cooked with either dairy or meat products.

1991, Hayim Halevy Donin, “The Dietary Laws: A Diet for the Soul”, in To Be a Jew: A Guide to Jewish Observance in Contemporary Life: Selected and Compiled from the Shulhan Arukh and Responsa Literature, and Providing a Rationale for the Laws and the Traditions, New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, →ISBN, page 113:

After eating parve food cooked in a meat pot or cut with a meat knife, does one need to wait six hours to eat dairy? Parve food that was cooked in a meat pot [but without any meat in the pot, such as fish cooked in a meat pot] does not require a wait of six hours before dairy may be eaten. […] [Note that our discussion here applies only to dairy food eaten after parve food, not together with it.]

2002 July, Doniel Yehuda Neustadt, דיוני הלכה [Diyune Halakhah]: The Weekly Halachah Discussion: A Review of Practical Halachic Topics Related to the Parashah of the Week, 2nd rev. edition, Jerusalem, Nanuet, N.Y.: Feldheim Publishers, →ISBN, page 205:

From the marketing perspective, most manufacturers would prefer that products not inherently dairy (such as cheese snacks) enjoy a Pareve status. In many situations, however, considerations other than the status of ingredients may make it necessary to confer a Dairy (or Dairy Equipment) status to otherwise potentially Pareve products. Examples of such situations may include: / The equipment used to cook or heat the inherently Pareve items is also used to process dairy products. In such situations, the equipment may require a Kosherization from dairy to Pareve productions, a process which may prove impractical.

2009, Zushe Yosef Blech, Kosher Food Production, 2nd edition, Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, page 201:

In true kosher cooking, meat and dairy should never be combined. Pareve margarine is made up of 100 percent vegetable oil. Dairy margarine has milk as one of the ingredients plus perhaps added vegetable oil. This is why when cooking a meat or dairy meal, if the recipe requires butter or margarine, I substitute it with pareve margarine.

2011, Avrom Honig, “Bubbe” [pseudonym], “Quick Notes on Keeping Kosher”, in Feed Me Bubbe: Recipes and Wisdom from America's Favorite Online Grandmother, Philadelphia, Pa.: Running Press, →ISBN:

(Jewish law) Of food: that has no meat or milk in any form as an ingredient.


recess appointment

en-noun

recess appointment (plural recess appointments)

(US, law) The appointment by the President of the United States of a person to an office that normally requires approval of the United States Senate, but who is appointed without such approval because the Senate is in recess.


C.D. Cal.

w:United States District Court for the Central District of California

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Central District of California, as used in case citations.


N.D. Cal.

w:United States District Court for the Northern District of California

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Northern District of California, as used in case citations.


E.D. Cal.

w:United States District Court for the Eastern District of California

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, as used in case citations.


S.D. Cal.

w:United States District Court for the Southern District of California

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Southern District of California, as used in case citations.


Cal.

(law) Abbreviation of California, as used in case citations.


nonprosecution

It has been the Justice Department’s preference in the Bush administration to resolve criminal investigations of large corporations with so-called nonprosecution or deferred prosecution agreements.

2008 March 11, Philip Shenon, “New Guidelines Ahead of Ashcroft Testimony”, in New York Times:

(law) Of or pertaining to a decision not to prosecute


senior status

(US, law) In the United States federal court system, a form of semi-retirement in which a judge continues to engage in judicial activities including the disposition of cases on a limited basis.


unsworn

In her court documents, Prince said […] that his diagnosis was derived from comments made by 10 skaters in unsworn affidavits.

2007 December 27, Richard Sandomir, “Garden Settles a Lawsuit Filed by a Former Rangers Cheerleader”, in New York Times:


ordalian

From Middle English ordal (“ordeal”) + -ian (compare Medieval Latin ordalium), equivalent to ordeal + -ian.

(law, obsolete) Of or relating to trial by ordeal.


ICMP

For 10 years, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has been assembling data on the 40,000 civilians who disappeared in the wars that followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

2006, Sally Lehrman, “Missing No Longer”, in Scientific American, 295 (3): 18:

(law) Initialism of International Commission on Missing Persons.


Whiteacre

(law) A placeholder name of a fictitious or hypothetical estate in land commonly used to discuss the rights of various parties to a piece of real property.


Greenacre

(law) A fictitious or hypothetical estate in land, commonly used to discuss the rights of various parties to a piece of real property.


alveus

Borrowed from Latin alveus (“a hollow, cavity; the channel or bed of a river”).

bor

(construction, law) The bed or channel of a river, specifically that followed by the river flowing in its natural or ordinary course.


Ga.

(law) Abbreviation of Georgia, as used in case citations.


S.D. Ga.

w:United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, as used in case citations.


S.D. Ill.

w:United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, as used in case citations.


N.D. Ga.

w:United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, as used in case citations.


M.D. Ga.

w:United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, as used in case citations.


C.D. Ill.

w:United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, as used in case citations.


blocking patent

en-noun

blocking patent (plural blocking patents)

(law) A patent relating to a particular area of technology which prevents another patent from being used because the other patent relies on technology covered by the first.

障礙專利

patent which prevents another patent from being used


N.D. Ill.

w:United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

(law) Abbreviation of United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, as used in case citations.


patent pool

A patent pool is an arrangement in which patents of different firms that are relevant to a certain standard or technology are licensed as a package, and the resulting royalties are distributed among those firms (called the licensors).

2001, Rudi Bekkers, Mobile Telecommunications Standards: GSM, UMTS, TETRA, and ERMES, Artech House, →ISBN, page 250:

A patent pool can be an effective way of resolving conflicting rights.

2002, Mark A. Glick, Lara A. Reymann, Richard Hoffman, Intellectual Property Damages, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 213:

(law) A consortium of companies which agree to crosslicense patents relating to a particular technology, often to avoid the problem of blocking patents.


habendum

From Latin, neuter singular gerundive of habeo (“have", "own", "possess”): "that which must or should be possessed".

(law, dated) The part of a deed that formally defines the extent of ownership or tenancy granted.


jizya

jizya (usually uncountable, plural jizyas)

From Arabic جِزْيَة (jizya), from Middle Persian 𐭢𐭦𐭩𐭲 (gzyt /gazīd/), 𐭢𐭦𐭩𐭲𐭪𐭩 (gzytky /gazīdag/, “poll-tax”).

Ending jizya lifted a real burden on the poor, and promised, at least symbolically, a greater equality between the followers of different faiths.

2016, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, published 2017, page 122:

(Islam, historical) A per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria.


detainer

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman detener, from Old French detenir. By surface analysis, detain + -er (action noun suffix). First attested in the 17th century.

surf

On Monday, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency placed a similar detainer on Melvin Jovel, 18, who on Sunday was the sixth person to be arrested in the case.

2007 August 21, Kareem Fahim, “Presidential Candidate Blames Killings on Newark Sanctuary Policy”, in New York Times:

Scott Weber, the field office director for the enforcement office in Newark, said that in roughly a third of the cases, his agency would file a detainer or immigration charges; another third involved individuals who could be deported after their court cases; and the rest might be United States citizens or legal residents.

2008 March 23, Kareem Fahim, “Immigration Referrals by Police Draw Scrutiny”, in New York Times:

Officer Torres’s lawyer, Paul S. Missan, said on Saturday that he had been told by a prison official in Pennsylvania that a detainer was lodged against his client, meaning he was likely to face federal charges.

2008 April 13, Christine Hauser, “U.S. Officials Are Expected to Charge Police Officer”, in New York Times:

(law) The right to keep a person, or a person's goods or property, against his will. A type of custody.


condescendence

en-noun

condescendence (countable and uncountable, plural condescendences)

From French condescendance, from condescendre, from Late Latin condescendere (“to let oneself down, stoop, condescend”), from Latin com- (“together”) + descendere (“to come down”). See condescend.

der

(Scots law) An articulate statement annexed to a summons, setting forth the allegations in fact upon which an action is founded.


reasonable doubt

en-noun

reasonable doubt (countable and uncountable, plural reasonable doubts)

“[Michael Cohen]’s the human embodiment of reasonable doubt,” said [Todd] Blanche when capping off his list of 10 reasons why the jury should not convict his client.

2024, Story Hinckley, The Trump trial heads to the jury – and a historic decision, in: The Christian Science Monitor, 2024-05-29

(law) A degree of uncertainty to which a reason can be assigned; in those jurisdictions influenced by English common law, the minimum degree of uncertainty required to acquit a defendant.


cybercrook

It is widely recognized that you are far more likely to be swindled by a waiter at a restaurant than an evil cybercrook.

2001, Duncan Grey, The Internet in School:

The cybercrook has realized that stealing the next version of the Coca-Cola recipe or Windows software is worth more than a $10 million heist.

2005, Hedieh Nasheri, Economic Espionage and Industrial Spying:


codefendant

(law) Any of several defendants answering the same charge.


carryback

Current theft loss rules typically allow losses to be carried back three years and forward 20 years, but the I.R.S plan will allow carrybacks of as many as five years, generally if the loss is for a small business with gross annual receipts of less than $15 million.

2009 March 18, Lynnley Browning, “I.R.S. Plans a Deduction for Madoff Victims”, in New York Times:

(accounting, taxation) An income tax loss or credit that can be applied to offset previously taxed income or taxes paid, respectively.


USCA

United States Code Annotated
w:United States Code Annotated

(law) Initialism of United States Code Annotated, a commonly used annotated version of the United States Code.


United States Code

(law) A compilation of the statutes of the United States federal government, with sections arranged by topic rather than by date of enactment, and with superseded and expired sections removed.


registerable

(law) That can be registered (as of a trademark).


thoughtcrime

thoughtcrime (countable and uncountable, plural thoughtcrimes)

/ˈθɔːtˌkɹaɪm/

From thought + crime, coined by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

A crime committed by having unorthodox, unofficial, controversial or socially unacceptable thoughts.


legal aid

Free or low-cost service in the field of law, for the indigent.

法律援助

free or low-cost service in the field of law


antivandalism

(law enforcement) Opposing or proscribing vandalism.


carryforward

(accounting, taxation) An income tax loss or credit not usable in the current year that can be applied to offset income or taxes paid, respectively, in subsequent tax years.


disclosable

en-adj

disclosable (comparative more disclosable, superlative most disclosable)

more disclosable (comparative)
most disclosable (superlative)


boost

Unknown. The verb is first recorded 1815; the noun, 1825. Compare Scots boost (“to move; drive off; shoo away”), bost, boast (“to threaten; scold”), Middle English boosten, bosten (“to threaten”).

cog

A push from behind, as to one who is endeavoring to climb.

(physics) A coordinate transformation that changes velocity.

(automotive engineering) A positive intake manifold pressure in cars with turbochargers or superchargers.


boost

en-verb

boost (third-person singular simple present boosts, present participle boosting, simple past and past participle boosted)

boosts (present singular third-person)
boosting (participle present)
boosted (participle past)
boosted (past)

(transitive, medicine) To give a booster shot to.

(transitive, engineering) To amplify; to signal boost.


perp walk

From perp + walk. First use appears c. 1980. See cite below.

... as well-dressed masters of the universe did the ritualized perp walk with their expensive Armani suit jackets draped over their handcuffs.

1980, Paul Fussell, Abroad - British Literary Traveling Between the Wars, page 114:

FBI agents gave former WorldCom executives Scott Sullivan and David Myers the same star treatment, parading the handcuffed quarry in an early-morning perp walk and prompting Sullivan's lawyer to complain about “the unfair taint of the current political climate.”

2002 August 12, Daniel Eisenberg et al., “Jail To The Chiefs?”, in Time:

(chiefly US, idiomatic, law enforcement) The intentional public display before news cameras of a person in police custody, especially someone famous or notorious, for the purpose of satisfying public interest, demonstrating the effectiveness of the authorities, or shaming the person.


case report

(law) An account of a legal action which has been tried and decided, usually including the judgment(s) verbatim, together with a headnote explaining the legal issues determined, intended for the information of legal professionals.


(US, taxation) The main form for US individual income tax filing.


(US, taxation) A form reporting one's compensation as an employee during a year at an employer or personal income taxation.


Absolutely bewildered by the concept of taxes, he’d brought his 1099s to the nearest outpost of a national accounting chain to seek help.

2023 October 19, Brendan I. Koerner, “Watch This Guy Work, and You’ll Finally Understand the TikTok Era”, in Wired, →ISSN:

(US, taxation) A form reporting one's nonemployment income from a given source for a year.


compositry

This article examines issues in composite drawing and examines different methods for conducting witness interviews necessary to compositry.

1988, F. J. Domingo, "Forensic Art: Concepts and Approaches in Composite Interviewing," Journal of Forensic Identification, vol. 38, no. 6, p. 259, annotation

In recent decades, other attempts have been made at three-dimensional compositry, most notably by Fernado Poncé of the Los Angeles Police Department.

2001, Karen T. Taylor, Forensic Art and Illustration, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 206:

The single most common proportional mistake in both compositry and fine art portraits is making the nose too long in relation to the face drawn.

2007, Lois Gibson, Forensic Art Essentials: A Manual for Law Enforcement Artists, →ISBN, page 41:

(illustration) The use, especially in law enforcement, of ready-made images of portions of an object to compose a picture of the entire object, such as the face of a person described by eyewitnesses.


auditee

(management, accounting, taxation) One subjected to an audit.


D.W.I.

The only time he got into trouble with the law was when he was cited for D.W.I. in college.

(law) Initialism of driving while intoxicated.


TPO

en-noun

TPO (countable and uncountable, plural TPOs)

(medicine, law) Acronym of treatment, payment, and (healthcare) operations.


superficies

Borrowing from Latin superficiēs (“top, surface”), from super- (“above, over”) + faciēs (“form, configuration, shape”). Doublet of surface.

af

(law) A building intimately associated with the land on which it is built.


beartrap

(law enforcement, automotive, traffic) A radar trap used by police to catch speeders.


tippee

If tippees trade on the information, knowing it was given improperly, they, too, can be found guilty of insider trading, says attorney Jared Kopel

2002 October 17, “Tips on insider trading How an investor can avoid the problems”, in San Francisco Chronicle:

(US, law, finance) A recipient of inside information.


inside information

Must a corporation issue a news release if it becomes aware that material inside information has leaked out? "It should make an immediate announcement,"

1968 September 12, “SEC Calls 'Insider' Cases Beneficial to Public”, in New York Times:

Recently, the hedge-fund industry has been shaken by allegations that it exploits inside information.

2011 July 18, John Cassidy, “Mastering the Machine”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN:

(US, law, finance) Information obtained by or from a person in a position of trust (a director, an employee, a consultant) that affects the price of publicly traded securities.

內幕信息

information obtained by or from a person in a trusted position


COP

en-noun

COP (countable and uncountable, plural COPs)

COP stands for conference of the parties under the UNFCCC, and the annual meetings have swung between fractious and soporific, interspersed with moments of high drama and the occasional triumph (the Paris agreement in 2015) and disaster (Copenhagen in 2009).

2019 December 2, Fiona Harvey, “Climate crisis: what is COP and can it save the world?”, in The Guardian:

conference of the parties
conference of the parties#English

(law, politics) Initialism of conference of the parties; also CoP or Cop.


extenuating circumstance

extenuating circumstance (plural extenuating circumstances)

(law, or general usage, chiefly in the plural) Any fact that mitigates or lessens a crime.


cyberpolice

The cyberpolice on Prodigy had busted me. Evidently, you can call the authorities from a button on your computer and complain when profanity is being used.

The cyberpolice and their elite masters are living under the sign of virtual catastrophe (that is, anticipating the electronic disaster that could happen)...

2004, Malcolm Miles, Tim Hall, Iain Borden, The city cultures reader:

Syria is not the only Arab state with a hyperactive cyberpolice.

A police force that patrols the Internet or cyberspace.


pseudonymization

pseudonymization (usually uncountable, plural pseudonymizations)

(computing, law) The replacement of all data (in a database etc) that identifies a person with an artificial identifier or pseudonym.

pseudonymisation

replacement of all data that identifies a person with an artificial identifier or pseudonym


grease someone's palm

en-verb

grease someone's palm (third-person singular simple present greases someone's palm, present participle greasing someone's palm, simple past and past participle greased someone's palm)

greases someone's palm (present singular third-person)
greasing someone's palm (participle present)
greased someone's palm (participle past)
greased someone's palm (past)

I was never guilty of disloyalty to King Lewis, but I killed my wife's mother, pardieu!—which the judge seemed to think almost as vile, till I sent a friend to grease his palm with the last sou of my patrimony.

1891, Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 11, in The Blue Pavilions:

We arrived at Almaty Airport, and from the moment the customs officer made it obvious in his fractured English that our entrance would be made easier if we greased his palm, we realised that all our Anglo-Saxon assumptions about how societies are run were not very relevant here.

2008 August 9, Tim Reynolds, “Traveller's tale”, in Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, retrieved 2009-04-08:

चाय-पानी (cāy-pānī, literally “tea-water”)

да́ть на ла́пу (dátʹ na lápu, literally “give onto a pad”)

подма́зать (podmázatʹ, literally “to oil”)


sub judice

The logic of phrases such as "knows that" is still very much sub judice in logic.

2000, Graham Priest, Logic: A Very Short Introduction:

(law, of a case or matter before a court) Under consideration; being presently considered, litigated, or adjudicated.


lubrication payment

en-noun

lubrication payment (plural lubrication payments)

A lubrication payment is a small payment to low-level business people or government officials to "grease the wheels" of business.

1995, Mark E. Mendenhall et al., Global Management, →ISBN, page 145:

Lubrication payments are made with requests for a person to perform a task faster or more efficiently, whereas subornation is an act of asking officials to neglect their duties or do something illegal.

2001, Y. H. Wong, Thomas K. Leung, Guanxi: Relationship marketing in a Chinese context, →ISBN, page 105:

(idiomatic, business, ethics, euphemistic) A bribe or extorted money, usually relatively small in amount, provided to a low-level government official or business person, in order to expedite a business decision, shipment, or other transaction, especially in a country where such payments are not unusual.


grease payment

Critics say there is no distinction between extortion and bribery, and that the distinction between a payoff (illegal) and a "grease" payment made to speed along normal duties (legal under the act) is unclear.

1981 July 28, Peter Grier, “US curb on overseas bribes: too prim, or simply proper?”, in Christian Science Monitor, retrieved 2009-04-09:

An important legal distinction is the difference between bribery and “grease payments,” which are paid in these countries not to affect someone’s decision-making but to speed the process of dealing with government.

2007 October 30, Mike Rast, “Webinar Prepares Local Companies for Cultural Gaps with India, China”, in globalatlanta.com, retrieved 2009-04-09:

(chiefly US, idiomatic, business, law, ethics) A bribe or extorted money, usually relatively small in amount, provided to a low-level government official or business person, in order to expedite a business decision, shipment, or other transaction, especially in a country where such payments are not unusual.


patent troll

From patent + troll (“in folklore, a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills, or under bridges”), a reference to trolls in folktales who block the path of travellers or threaten to harm them unless some payment is made.

On one hand, the new law may intend to enhance the application of new technologies and discourage patent trolls. On the other hand, the new law attempts to further bring the Patent Law in line with the international treaties and laws in other areas (e.g., antimonopoly law).

1990, William P. Streng, Allen D. Wilcox, editors, Doing Business in China: (People’s Republic of China), volume 2, New York, N.Y.: Matthew Bender, →ISBN, page 278:

So favorable was the Federal Circuit's treatment of patents, in fact, that reinventing, nonmanufacturing speculators who would acquire one or more patents with a view toward using their leverage to reap large damages awards, leading to the sobriquet, patent "trolls," began to emerge as plaintiffs who would often put entire industries in patent peril. Thus was born (or became more common) the "patentee" who neither invented nor practiced the subject matter of its invention, but rather, sought to profit by licensing its patent under the threat of litigation, injunctive relief and substantial damages in the propatent climate that the Federal Circuit's views had created.

1992, Roger M. Milgrim, Milgrim on Trade Secrets, volume 2, Newark, N.J.: LexisNexis, →ISBN:

Most companies are reluctant to get the best return on their most valuable assets. [...] Being publicly branded a patent "troll" adds to the turmoil. Patent trolls are controversial not because of the destruction attributed to them, but because they strike at the heart of the complex relationship between innovation and commerce. The term has become synonymous with the unfair assertion of IP rights and extortion of damage payments.

2006, Bruce [M.] Berman, “Roadblocks or Building Blocks?”, in Bruce Berman, editor, Making Innovation Pay: People Who Turn IP into Shareholder Value, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 3:

Recently, firms that specialize in acquiring patents purely for litigation—often derided as ‘patent trolls’ by the targets of their lawsuits—have emerged as significant players in some technology markets.

2006, Timothy S. Simcoe, “Open Standards and Intellectual Property Rights”, in Henry Chesbrough, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Joel West, editors, Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part II (Institutions Governing Open Innovation), page 175:

During the early 21st century, a number of patent and licensing enforcement companies (PLECs), more commonly referred to as "patent trolls," emerged. Their only business is to acquire patents and then sue infringers.

2008, Lindsay Moore, Lesley Craig, “The Law in Flux”, in Intellectual Capital in Enterprise Success: Strategy Revisited, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part II (The Changing Rules), page 54:

The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-03-26, page 55:

Because software patents can cover vast areas of territory, they are the weapon of choice for "patent trolls": people or companies that hold patents but make no products, and bring patent-infringement lawsuits against companies that do make products, offering to settle for less than the cost of fighting the suit.

2014 March 28, Robin Feldman, “Slowing the patent trolls”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2014-03-29:

(patent law, informal, derogatory) A company, person, etc., that owns and enforces patents in an aggressive and opportunistic manner, often with no intention of producing, marketing, or promoting the subjects of the patents.


lawfare

/ˈlɔːfɛə(ɹ)/

[…] Watch […] proceeded to the door, which he tried, and there discovered that that official had not only taken his parole d'honneur [word of honour; promise], but had adopted the additional security of turning the key; and knowing that circumstance had vacated the pre-existent treaty between them, by all the rules of civilised nations, whether in lawfare or warfare, he proceeded at once to the window; whereform, the ostler having brought him, by pre-arrangement, a ladder, he descended in safety to the yard; […]

[1842], [Henry Downes Miles], chapter X, in Will Watch: A Tale of the Coast. […], London: W. M. Clark, […], →OCLC, page 79:

The canton is clearly reduced, but not to the status of a mere private corporation. It stil is a state with standing in cort to wage some lawfare for itself and for its folk.

1959, William G[orham] Rice [Jr.], “The Political-legal Frontier”, in Law among States in Federacy: A Survey of Decisions of the Swiss Federal Tribunal in Intercantonal Controversies, Appleton, Wis.: C. C. Nelson Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 318:

And we hear that the construction unions now are bitter over the environmentalists' dragging construction projects into the courts, delaying them for years. "Lawfare" the hard hats call this.

1975 April 21, Victor Riesel, “Inside labor”, in The Daily Standard, number 44, Sikeston, Mo.: C. L. Blanton, Jr., →OCLC, page 2, column 8:

Lawfare, as defined by [George Walker] Bush Administration officials, is a terrorist tactic. Yet to anyone trained in English and American jurisprudence, not to mention the thinking that has dominated the Anglo-Saxon legal world at least since 1688, those who are accused of engaging in lawfare are simply exercising well-established legal rights and liberties. Indeed, the lawfare doctrine is the conceptual framework that best reveals the degree to which the Bush Administration has effectively declared war on the rule of law itself.

2007 July, Scott Horton, “State of Exception: Bush’s War on the Rule of Law”, in Roger D. Hodge, editor, Harper’s Magazine, volume 315, number 1886, New York, N.Y.: Harper’s Magazine Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 74–75:

[T]he data suggest that the one area of competition where China does not enjoy an advantage is in the legal sphere. This is surprising given the Chinese emphasis on lawfare and the "Three Warfares" in its strategic literature. The Philippines has been more active in using legal tactics, and China has been in a reactive mode.

2015 August, Christopher D. Yung, Patrick McNulty, “An Empirical Analysis of Claimant Tactics in the South China Sea”, in Strategic Forum, number 289, Washington, D.C.: NDU Press for the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9, column 2:

The PRC [People's Republic of China]'s version of PW [Political Warfare] is all encompassing. It is Total War that goes beyond traditional Liaison Work (building coalitions in a "United Front" to support the PRC and to "disintegrate" enemies) and the "Three Warfares" (strategic psychological warfare, overt and covert media manipulation, and the use of "Lawfare") to include use of violence and other forms of destructive attacks.

2019 March, Kerry K. Gershaneck, “Enhancing Japan–U.S. Military Cooperation to Support the Indo-Pacific Strategy”, in 國防雜誌 = National Defense Journal, volume 34, number 1, Taoyuan, Taiwan: National Defense University, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 30:

Earlier this year the [Australian] environment minister, Sussan Ley, said the "lawfare that is such a part of today's environmental landscape can be crippling to business as well as to environmental organisations". […] GreenLaw found […] strong evidence that public interest litigants are not abusing court processes to disrupt and delay proponents.

2020 June 18, Lisa Cox, quoting Sussan Ley, “Claims major projects are being delayed by environmental ‘lawfare’ dismissed in new research”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-05-10:

International scrutiny had driven Chinese authorities away from extrajudicial detention towards forms of "lawfare" and weaponising criminal prosecutions, Ms [Rayhan] Asat said.

2024 August 23, Max Walden, “China’s Uyghur Policies a ‘Racialised Atrocity Crime’, Harvard Law Scholar Finds”, in ABC News, Sydney, N.S.W.: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, archived from the original on 2024-08-30:

(informal) The bringing of legal proceedings against an opponent, often only to attack, harass, or intimidate.


cyberspeech

An entire book should be written just about the issue of who controls cyberspeech.

1994, Pat Califia, Patrick Califia-Rice, Public sex: the culture of radical sex:

Correspondingly, White analyzes and rebuts the justifications that are offered by government officials and others who seek to censor cyberspeech...

2006, Amy E White, Virtually obscene: the case for an uncensored internet:

It is the exception for "true threats" that has received the greatest amount of attention in contemporary cyberspeech cases.

2007, William A Kaplin, Barbara A Lee, The Law of Higher Education:

In these instances, public school educators should tread carefully before attempting to discipline students for cyberspeech that occurs off school grounds...

2008, Charles J Russo, Encyclopedia of Education Law:

Speech on the Internet or in cyberspace (especially in discussions of free speech).


time served

The defendant was not innocent, but he was let go with time served.

(law) Time spent in remand awaiting trial, when credited after a guilty verdict usually by subtracting from the sentence.


commutative justice

commutative justice (usually uncountable, plural commutative justices)

(law) The state resulting from fair and free exchange.


hard time

hard time (countable and uncountable, plural hard times)

They had a hard time putting the self-assembly furniture together without a manual.

The day passed without further incident. As did the next. And then the next. Until, eventually, Agnes began to have a hard time believing that anything strange had ever happened at all.

(colloquial, countable) Difficulties; a difficult time; trouble.


advance fee scam

advance fee scam (plural advance fee scams)

(criminology) A consumer fraud that involves obtaining a relatively small amount of money from the victim in advance of some large deferred benefit, such as a job, a high rate of return, or a share of embezzled money.


several

en-adj

several (comparative more several, superlative most several)

more several (comparative)
most several (superlative)

From Anglo-Norman several, from Medieval Latin sēparālis, from Latin sēpar (“separate”). By surface analysis, sever + -al.

(law) Separable, capable of being treated separately.


date-rape

en-verb

date-rape (third-person singular simple present date-rapes, present participle date-raping, simple past and past participle date-raped)

date-rapes (present singular third-person)
date-raping (participle present)
date-raped (participle past)
date-raped (past)


marital rape

en-noun

marital rape (countable and uncountable, plural marital rapes)


gang-rape

en-verb

gang-rape (third-person singular simple present gang-rapes, present participle gang-raping, simple past and past participle gang-raped)

gang-rapes (present singular third-person)
gang-raping (participle present)
gang-raped (participle past)
gang-raped (past)

(transitive, intransitive) To perpetrate a gang rape.


human right

A row has erupted after a judge spoke in court about the “fundamental human right” of a man to have sex with his wife.

2019 April 2, Owen Bowcott, “English judge says man having sex with wife is 'fundamental human right'”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A basic right that all humans should be guaranteed by virtue of them being a human.

ܙܸܕ݂ܩܵܐ ܐ݇ܢܵܫܵܝܵܐ

ziḏqā nāšāyā

ܙܸܕ݂ܩܹ̈ܐ ܐ݇ܢܵܫܵܝܹ̈ܐ

ziḏqē nāšāyē


releasee

(law) The party that is given a release.


subrogee

(law) The party acting on behalf of the subrogor in a subrogation.


subrogor

(law) The party on whose behalf another party (the subrogee) acts in a subrogation.


retrocession

en-noun

retrocession (countable and uncountable, plural retrocessions)

Compare French rétrocession. See retrocede.

(law) The return of land, rights, etc. previously ceded.


smash and grab

smash and grab (countable and uncountable, plural smash and grabs)

a smash and grab raid

(often attributively) A robbery where a window of a shop or other premises is smashed and items are grabbed as quickly as possible.


suretyship

/ˈʃʊəɹɪtiːʃɪp/

/ˈʃɔːɹətiːʃɪp/

as a man desperately swimming drowns him that comes to help him, by suretyship and borrowing they will willingly undo all their associates and allies […].

, vol.1, New York Review of Books, 2001, p.290

(law) An accessory agreement through which one binds oneself for another already bound, either in whole or in part, as for one's debt, default or miscarriage; the assumption of liability for the obligations of another.


neonaticide

neonaticide (countable and uncountable, plural neonaticides)

But critics of the law said mothers who immediately kill their babies after giving birth, a practice known as neonaticide, are usually in deep denial about their pregnancies.

2007 February 4, Cara Buckley, “Brooklyn Girl Threw Away Her Newborn Son, Police Say”, in New York Times:

The murder of a newborn within 24 hours of birth.


unserved

(law) yet to be served (prison sentence)


emphyteutic

2002, https://web.archive.org/web/20130514055900/http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gl/p-174/p-174-e.html
An emphyteutic lease agreement dated November 30, 1992, is for a term of 99 years.

(law) Of, pertaining to, or subject to emphyteusis


partial-birth abortion

partial-birth abortion (plural partial-birth abortions)

Intact dilation and extraction
intact dilation and extraction

(US, law, colloquial) Intact dilation and extraction.


emphyteusis

From Latin emphyteusis, from Ancient Greek ἐμφύτευσις (emphúteusis, “tenure of a type of leasehold”).

der

The term “emphyteusis” first appeared late in the twelfth century. It remained a rather artificial term, appearing in official documents but rare in leases themselves until the later thirteenth century. It clearly meant a long-term lease but lawyers expended a certain amount of energy trying to relate emphyteusis to other categories of usufruct (ius in re aliena). Opinion divided, broadly speaking, between those who regarded emphyteusis as resembling normal establishments of peasants by lease, and those who saw an emphyteutic tenure as a sort of fief.

1991, Paul Freedman, The Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 147:

(law) A right to enjoyment of property with a given stipulation that the property will be improved or maintained in an agreed upon manner; long leasehold

emfiteusi

qualified right to enjoyment of property


antitrafficking

(law enforcement) Serving to counter arms or drug trafficking.


presentative

en-adj

presentative (comparative more presentative, superlative most presentative)

more presentative (comparative)
most presentative (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Late Latin praesentativus (“that presents for consideration”) + English -ive (suffix signifying belonging or relating to, of the nature of, serving to, or tending to, forming adjectives). Praesentativus is from Latin praesentātus (“presented, exhibited, or shown”) + -īvus (suffix forming adjectives); while praesentātus is the perfect passive participle of praesentō (“to present, exhibit, or show”), from praesēns (“at hand, present; existing; immediate; prompt; propitious; (grammar) present”) (the present active participle of praesum (“to be before something; to be in charge of; to command, lead; to preside or rule over”), from prae- (prefix meaning ‘before, in front; in charge’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- (“before; in front”)) + sum (“to be, exist, have”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”))) + -tō (frequentative suffix). The English word is analysable as present + -ative.
The noun sense (“construct that serves to present something, or draw it to the attention of the interlocutor”) is derived from adjective sense 3 (“serving to present something, or draw it to the attention of the interlocutor”).

der

Mrs. Ellen Gulſton, Relict of Theodore Gulſton, Doctor of Phyſick, a very Learned Man, being poſſeſſed of the Impropriate Parſonage of Bardvvell in Suffolk, did firſt procure from the King leave to annex the ſame to the Vicarage, and to make it Preſentative; and having formerly the Donation of the Vicarage, ſhe gave them both thus annexed freely to St. John’s College in Oxon: Expreſſing many Godly Reaſons in a pious Letter of her Grant, to advance the Glory of God to her Povver, &c.

1704, Henry Spelman, “An Account of the Worth of This Treatise, Taken Out of the Epistle to Sir Henry Spelman’s History of Tythes”, in De Non Temerandis Ecclesiis, Churches Not to Be Violated. A Tract of the Rights and Respects Due unto Churches. […], 6th edition, London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […]; republished in Two Tracts […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], 1704, →OCLC:

Advowsons are also either preſentative, collative, or donative. An advowſon preſentative is where the patron hath a right of preſentation to the biſhop or ordinary, and moreover to demand of him to inſtitute his clerk, if he finds him canonically qualified: and this is the moſt uſual advowſon.

1766, William Blackstone, “Of Incorporeal Hereditaments”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book II (Of the Rights of Things), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 22:

(ecclesiastical law) Of a benefice, or the advowsons, tithes, etc., associated with a benefice: that a patron has the right to present.


pickpocketing

en-noun

pickpocketing (countable and uncountable, plural pickpocketings)

Copperfield says he turned his pockets inside out to reveal nothing in them, even though he was carrying his passport, wallet and cellphone. "Call it reverse pickpocketing," Copperfield told The Palm Beach Post for Wednesday's editions.

2006 April 26, “David Copperfield tricks robbers”, in USA Today, sourced from Associated Press, archived from the original on 2010-04-30:

The act of stealing from the pocket of a passerby; the crime committed by a pickpocket.


extra-statutory

(law) Over and above that covered by statute


anticensorship

en-adj

anticensorship (comparative more anticensorship, superlative most anticensorship)

more anticensorship (comparative)
most anticensorship (superlative)

The war between parents and children over control of the Internet is mirrored in the technological world’s battles over filters and monitoring software; there are anticensorship Web sites like peacefire.org that show how to circumvent blocking software.

2007 April 14, Alina Tugend, “Tools to Keep the Web Safe for Children”, in New York Times:

Acting against or opposed to censorship.


lingchi

The face of the dying man in the lingchi video monotonously evokes Maria Falconetti in Carl Theodor Dreyer ’s 1928 “Passion of Joan of Arc.”

2007 July 25, Roberta Smith, “Figures Moving as if in a Trance Across an Isolated, Lawless Island”, in The New York Times:

death by a thousand cuts
death by a thousand cuts

A form of execution used in China from roughly 900 to 1905 C.E., the "death by a thousand cuts", in which the condemned was killed by methodical removal of body parts with a knife.


Jack the Ripper

September 1888, Jack + the + ripper, from the Dear Boss letter.

Keep this letter back till I
do a bit more work. then give
it out straight. My knife's so nice
and sharp I want to get to work
right away if I get a chance.
Good luck.
Yours truly
Jack the Ripper
Dont mind me giving the trade name

1888 September 25, Jack the Ripper, Dear Boss Letter, London, page 2:

Two communications of an extraordinary nature, both signed "Jack the Ripper," have been received by the Central News Agency, the one on Thursday last and the other yesterday morning. The first - the original of which has been seen by Major Smith, the Assistant Commissioner of the City Police - was a letter, bearing the E.C. postmark, in which reference was made to the atrocious murders previously committed in the East-end, which the writer confessed, in a brutally jocular vein, to have committed; stating that in the "next job" he did he would "clip the lady's ears off" and send them to the police, and also asking that the letter might be kept back until he had done "a bit more work." The second communication was a postcard, and as above stated, it was received yesterday morning. It bore the date, "London, E., October 1," and was as follows: - "I was not codding, dear old Boss, when I gave you the tip. You'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work to-morrow. Double event this time. Number One squealed a bit; couldn't finish straight off. Had not time to get ears for police. Thanks for keeping the last letter back till I got to work again." The postcard was sent to Scotland Yard. No doubt is entertained that the writer of both communications, whoever he may be, is the same person.

1888 October 2, The Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2004-08-10:

Nothing whatever has been discovered during the week to throw light upon the Whitechapel murders. The police entertain the belief, as we gather from the remarks of Mr. Crawford, the City Coroner, who is inquiring into the murder in Mitre Square, that they possess a fairly accurate description of the person of the murderer. He has, however, for the present, disappeared into space, unless it is he who writes certain letters signed "Jack the Ripper." The police think this is the case, and if so, he is an educated or partly educated man, of extreme audacity, intoxicated with the evil pride of crime, and resolute to commit more murders.

1888 October 13, “NEWS OF THE WEEK.”, in The Spectator, number 3,146, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1379, column 1:

Many of the dead were never identified simply because whole families died together and there was no one left to say who they were. One woman, named Elizabeth Stride, claimed to have been one of the survivors of the sinking, although there was no proof of this. She would later go down in history as the third victim of Jack the Ripper.

2018 September 14, Derek Coleman, “Old superstition comes true with tragic consequences”, in AP News, archived from the original on 2023-12-03:

Six weeks after Maxwell reported the sewage seepage this summer, an MDC inmate charged with robbing a bank said the toilet in his cell had been broken for three days.
"I do not care if the defendant is Jack the Ripper, we treat people under our care with respect and decency," U.S. District Judge William Kuntz said in a July 27 hearing about the toilet, which a prosecutor said was fixed ahead of the hearing. "This is an ongoing disgrace."

2021 November 18, Luc Cohen, quoting William Kuntz, “Ghislaine Maxwell sex crimes trial highlights conditions at Brooklyn jail”, in Noeleen Walder, Aurora Ellis, editors, Reuters, archived from the original on 2021-11-18, United States:

A supposed individual who was an unidentified 19th century serial killer in England, who has become part of folklore.


Germanist

en-adjective

Germanist (comparative more Germanist, superlative most Germanist)

more Germanist (comparative)
most Germanist (superlative)

Borrowed from German Germanist, along the model of earlier English Romanist (“scholar of Romance languages”). By surface analysis, German + -ist, doublet of Germanicist.

m+

The Germanist view also led to the description of post-Roman lawcodes as Germanic law, and, in archeology, to the new types of rural settlement which replaced the old Roman villas being called 'Germanic', and to the new burial forms, like furnished inhumation (with grave-goods), similarly being ascribed to Germanic influence.

2005 [1995], “The Barbarian invasions”, in The New Cambridge Medieval History (The New Cambridge Medieval History), volume 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 36:

(historiography, law) Pertaining to the school of thought which downplays or denies the continuity of legal and cultural institutions between Rome and later medieval Europe, highlighting the role of external influences and innovation in the decline of the Roman Empire.


urka

Russian у́рка (úrka, “professional criminal, career criminal, thug, thief”)

uder

He then proceeds to describe the daily calendar of violence at the camp: one urka sprinting flat-out after another urka “with a bloody mattock in his hand, a pig methodically clubbing a fascist to the ground, a workshy snake slicing off the remaining fingers of his left hand.”

2007 January 9, Michiko Kakutani, “Love, Bludgeoned and Bent by the Camps”, in New York Times:


nonfrivolous

In a Dec. 29 meeting with the parties in the case, Chancellor Chandler said that while he was certain Caremark would argue forcefully that its directors exercised their duties of care and loyalty to the company’s owners, he also concluded that “there is a tenable argument on the other side, and nonfrivolous claims here on the other side, that at least need to be tested against a fuller record.”

2007 January 11, Gretchen Morgenson, “A Public Pension Fund Sues Directors of Caremark Rx”, in New York Times:


seise

en-verb

seise (third-person singular simple present seises, present participle seising, simple past and past participle seised)

seises (present singular third-person)
seising (participle present)
seised (participle past)
seised (past)

From Middle English seisen, from Old French seisir (“to put in possession of", "to take possession of”), from Early Medieval Latin sacīre, from Frankish *sakjan (“to sue, bring a legal charge against”), from Proto-Germanic *sakōną (“to charge, seek legal action against”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to track”). Cognate with Old High German sahhan (“to argue, scold”), Old English sacian (“to strive, contend”). More at sake.

cog

There a baron was created and seised by the king in a single act. His tenure was a function of his personal relationship with his lord king.

1997, Nigel Saul, The Oxford illustrated history of medieval England, page 74:

(transitive, law) To vest ownership of an estate in land (to someone).

He then died intestate; and I observed that his heir-at-law was not actually seised of Whiteacre, the possession of which became vacant on his ancestor's death

1878, Joshua Williams, The Seisin of the Freehold, page 55:

Where the appeal committee is seised, it shall meet at the earliest 14 days, except in duly justified cases, and at the latest 6 weeks, after the date of referral.

2011, Article 3 section 7, Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011, Official Journal of the European Union L 55/15

(transitive, law, with of) To put in possession.


counterappeal

Republican senators said that slow roll calls were not allowed, leading to a flurry of appeals and counterappeals that left the house in a standoff lasting into the evening, just as some Republican lawmakers were eager to get away to fund-raisers that they were holding.

2007 January 17, Michael Cooper, “Budget Reform Pact Augurs a More Transparent Albany”, in New York Times:

(law) An appeal lodged in response to an earlier appeal.


derain

en-verb

derain (third-person singular simple present derains, present participle deraining, simple past and past participle derained)

derains (present singular third-person)
deraining (participle present)
derained (participle past)
derained (past)

(law, transitive) Obsolete spelling of deraign.


deraign

deraign (third-person singular simple present deraigns, present participle deraigning, simple past and past participle deraigned)

deraigns (present singular third-person)
deraigning (participle present)
deraigned (participle past)
deraigned (past)

From Middle English dereinen, from Old French deraisnier (“to explain, defend, to maintain in legal action by proof and reasonings”), from Late Latin derationare (“to discourse, contend in law”).

der

(law, obsolete, transitive) To prove or to refute by proof, especially on threat of combat.


counterplea

(law) A plea made in opposition to another.


legal positivism

en-noun

legal positivism (countable and uncountable, plural legal positivisms)

(law) A school of thought in jurisprudence in which the law is seen as separated from moral values, i.e. the law is posited by lawmakers (humans).

法律實證主義

legal school of thought in jurisprudence


precharge

(law) The period of time before the person is charged with a crime.


lex dubia non obligat

A Latin sentence; from lēx (“law”) + dubia (“doubtful”) + nōn (“not”) + obligat (“is binding”).


bar review

/ˈbɑɹ ɹɪˌvju/

/ˈbɑː ɹɪˌvjuː/

(US, law) A course of study designed to prepare someone to take a bar examination.


holding cell

A cell in a police station or courthouse in which a prisoner is held temporarily, pending charge, trial or sentencing.


laojiao

From Chinese 勞教／劳教 (láojiào) (an abbreviation of 勞動教養／劳动教养 (láodòng jiàoyǎng)).

zh-l

勞教／劳教 (láojiào)

勞動教養／劳动教养 (láodòng jiàoyǎng)

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

(historical) A system of administrative detentions in the People's Republic of China in which penal labour is done for a small salary, generally used to detain people who have committed minor crimes.


measurage

en-noun

measurage (usually uncountable, plural measurages)

(law, economics) A toll or duty based on the volume of a material; or, the right to collect such a toll or duty.


adjunction

adjunction (countable and uncountable, plural adjunctions)

From Latin adjunctio, from adjungere: compare French adjonction, and see adjunct.

(law) The joining of personal property owned by one to that owned by another.


murder in the second degree

murder in the second degree (countable and uncountable, plural murders in the second degree)

Second-degree murder
second-degree murder#English


delictual

en-adj

delictual (comparative more delictual, superlative most delictual)

more delictual (comparative)
most delictual (superlative)

(law) Derived from a delict (analogous to a tort).


cessor

If there be lord and tenant, and the tenant take a wife, and afterwards cesseth, upon which the lord bringeth a cessavit, and recovers, and enters into the tenancy, and the tenant dies: it seems clear, that the wife shall have dower; for no laches or default can be deemed in the wife as to the cessor. But some say, the wife shall not have dower in this case, because the cessor does not lie in any act done by the husband; but it is his not doing...

1827, John Perkins, A Profitable Book, Treating of the Laws of England:

(law) In English law, one who is dilatory, negligent, and delinquent in his duty or service, and who thereby incurred the danger of the law, and was liable to have the writ of cessavit brought against him.


obstruction of justice

en-noun

obstruction of justice (countable and uncountable, plural obstructions of justice)

(law) Interference with the administration of law and justice, as by ignorance of a justification, fraud of evidential validity, or not disclosing discovery of facts, or by doing damage to a witness, officer, juror.


unfair competition

(law) In commercial law and specifically competition law, any of various distinct violations or criminal offenses that may give rise to civil causes of action (being taken to court), usually including antitrust violations such as restraint of trade and predatory pricing, trademark infringement, passing off or palming off, and misappropriation of trade secrets.


restraint of trade

restraint of trade (countable and uncountable, plural restraints of trade)

(law) An agreement that prevents fair competition on the open market, such as an agreement by one party to hire a second party to work within a profession on the condition that the second party will not compete against the first.


passing off

(law) The act of misrepresenting the origin of a product.


foreseeability

foreseeability (usually uncountable, plural foreseeabilities)

Probably the most powerful and most uniform social policy crystallized in the various rules and doctrines of tort law is to be found in the concept of foreseeability or expectability of certain harms from certain types of conduct.

1932 May 1, Fowler Vincent Harper, “Foreseeability Factor in the Law of Torts”, in Notre Dame Law Review, volume 7, number 4, Notre Dame, I.N.: Notre Dame Law School, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 468:

"If you foresee the event and you go forward, then you are criminally negligent," she said, adding, "This was a boat that navigated on the waters of Lake George since 1979. In terms of criminal negligence, there clearly wasn't the foreseeability that there may be in civil negligence."

2007 February 6, Danny Hakim, quoting Kathleen B. Hogan, “Two Misdemeanor Charges in Lake George Capsizing”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-26:

The foreseeability of that outcome is precisely why the Chinese government has preemptively been pooh-poohing the court and its legitimacy over the past few weeks, and lining up a ragtag set of allies to support its cause. This group includes none of the countries most affected by China's expanded maritime activities, and it features those reliant on Chinese aid or trade.

2016 July 12, James Fallows, “David vs. Goliath in the South China Sea: David Wins, at Least This Round”, in The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-10:

While examining a boy's eyes the optometrist failed to spot symptoms of a brain condition. The court overturned the conviction for gross negligence manslaughter on the grounds that it undermined the legal test of "foreseeability", which requires proof of a "serious and obvious risk of death" at the time of the error.

2017 August 11, Richard Vize, “Will the healthcare data revolution spell the end for doctors' autonomy?”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-18:

(especially law) The quality of being foreseeable; predictability.


palming off

It is sufficient that the complainant is entitled to the custom—the good-will—of a business and that this good-will is injured or is about to be injured, by the palming off of the goods of another as his.

1917, Harry Dwight Nims, The Law of Unfair Competition and Trade-Marks, page 27:

(law) The act of misrepresenting a counterfeit product as the genuine article.


canonist

(law) An expert in canon law; canon lawyer


OCB

(law enforcement) Initialism of organized crime bureau.


laughing heir statute

laughing heir statute (plural laughing heir statutes)

(law) A statute that prohibits inheritance from passing to an heir who is too distantly removed from the deceased.


laughing heir

(law) In the law of inheritance, an heir who is legally entitled to inherit the property of a person who has died, even though that heir is only distantly related to the deceased, and therefore has no reason to feel bereaved over the death.


prudent man rule

prudent man rule (plural prudent man rules)

Prudent man rules also require that greater financial and legal responsibility be attached to any imprudent action by corporate officers.

2005, World Bank with International Monetary Fund, Financial sector assessment: a handbook, page 455:

(law, investment) A standard for the duty of a fiduciary with responsibility over investments.


standard of identity

standard of identity (plural standards of identity)

(US, Canada, law) A government regulation establishing the criteria which must be met before a product may be labeled as being a certain food.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Food and Drug Administration
standard of identity


artificially sweetened

standards of identity
standard of identity

(standards of identity) Sweetened with saccharin, sodium saccharin, or a combination of both.


Nuremberg defense

Nuremberg defense (plural Nuremberg defenses)

/ˈnjʊəɹəmbəːɡ dɪˈfɛns/

Albert Speer
Alfred Rosenberg
Franz von Papen
Hans Frank
Nuremberg Charter
Nuremberg trials
Rudolf Hess
Wilhelm Frick

An allusion to a defense used by former Nazi officials prosecuted during the Nuremberg trials after World War II. The trials were held in Nuremberg in Bavaria, Germany.

“‘Nuremberg defense’, universally pleaded in war crimes trials,” is in actuality the Nuremberg nondefense, universally rejected in war crimes trials. It is a pity that the law of the Nuremberg Tribunal is so little understood after the passage of nearly a quarter of a century.

1970 September, R. R. Baxter, “‘Nuremberg Defense’ Beclouded [letter]”, in Richard B. Allen, editor, ABA Journal: The Lawyer’s Magazine, volume 56, Chicago, Ill.: American Bar Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 818, column 2:

Recognition of the reliance on an official interpretation of the law defense for government officials and private citizens may initially seem to be the same as the Nuremberg defense of “I was just following orders.”

1978, Stephen M. Kristovich, “United States v. Barker: Misapplication of the Reliance on an Official Interpretation of the Law Defense”, in California Law Review, volume 66, number 44, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California School of Law, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-09-04, page 840:

“It seems like he's [Charles Graner's] wanting to do the Nuremberg defense: ‘I was following orders,’” says Thomas Moran, a Houston attorney and a former military lawyer.

2005 January 6, Laura Parker, “Court-martial begins for Abu Ghraib figure”, in USA Today, archived from the original on 2019-05-21:

(ethics, international law, idiomatic) An explanation offered as an excuse for behaving in a criminal or wrongful manner, claiming that one acted in this way because one was ordered by others (particularly superiors) to do so.

bevel is bevel

A relatively novel legal issue was raised by dissenters who contended that they did not so much oppose war in general as the Viet Nam war in particular. This contention, which became known as the Nuremberg defense, was raised by some young men who did not qualify as conscientious objectors and who were prosecuted for refusing to submit to induction.

1967, “The Nuremberg Defense”, in Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, volume 25, part 2, Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 936, column 1:

In United States v. Berrigan, a Federal court in Maryland laid down a legal blueprint for the treatment of war protest cases where an attempt was made to invoke the "Nuremberg defence." Father Philip Berrigan and three others stood charged with injuring the property of the United States Government, mutilating records filed in a public office of the United States, and hindering the administration of the Military Selective Service Act.

1980 January, Gary Komarow, “Individual Responsibility under International Law: The Nuremberg Principles in Domestic Legal Systems”, in The International and Comparative Law Quarterly, volume 29, number 1, London: British Institute of International and Comparative Law, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 28:

Even during the Vietnam War, in the Pentagon Papers case, a standing objection would not have barred the assertion of a Nuremberg defense by those who committed the civil disobedience.

1985 October, Jules Lobel, “The Limits of Constitutional Power: Conflicts between Foreign Policy and International Law”, in Virginia Law Review, volume 71, number 7, Charlottesville, Va.: Virginia Law Review Association, →DOI, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, footnote 452, page 1158:

[pages 413–434] The modern Nuremberg Defenses are the antithesis of the original defense: criminal defendants today build a defense based on the reasoning and principles used by the Allied nations to convict Germans at Nuremberg. There are essentially two modern Nuremberg Defenses: the Citizen's Duty and the Citizen's Privilege. [...] Under the Citizen's Duty defense, defendants assert that they could be held liable for complicity with international crimes if they fail to take action to prevent such crimes. [...] [page 416] Under the Citizen's Privilege formulation of the Defense, the Nuremberg Principles are joined with the statutory and common law privileges allowing citizens to prevent crime. This then creates a "citizen's privilege" to break domestic law.

1989 January, Frank Lawrence, “The Nuremberg Principles: A Defense for Political Protestors”, in Hastings Law Journal, volume 40, number 2, San Francisco, Calif.: Hastings College of the Law, University of California, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-01-05, part II (The Modern Nuremberg Defenses), pages 413–414 and 416:

The American judiciary's narrow interpetation of the standing requirement under the Nuremberg Principles has eviscerated the Nuremberg defense and limited its application to a narrow range of cases. [...] The judiciary, in rejecting defendants' standing to raise the Nuremberg defense, ignores the recognized privilege of citizen intervention to prevent the commission of a crime.

1991 fall, Matthew Lippman, “Nuremberg: Forty Five Years Later”, in Connecticut Journal of International Law, volume 7, number 1, Hartford, Conn.: Connecticut Journal of International Law Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1; republished in Guénaël Mettraux, editor, Perspectives on the Nuremberg Trial, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, →ISBN, part IX (Lowering the Procedural Barriers: Recognizing the Nuremberg Defense for Political Protestors), page 539:

An area in which one may indeed use the international defence, like the Nuremberg defence, though with little success, is opposition to nuclear weapons and other situations where civil disobedients set themselves against military combat. [...] Therefore, civil disobedients' interference in the production of weapons is not criminally culpable, but rather clearly excusable as avoiding the violation of a more serious law. Although this defence has had little success so far, it is worth brandishing and counts amongst the defences preferred by civil disobedients.

2004, María José Falcón y Tella, “The Positive Aspect”, in Peter Muckley, transl., Civil Disobedience (Monographs on International Law and Human Rights; 7), Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, →ISBN, page 216:

Three nuns, Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson and Ardeth Platte, were jailed for between 30 and 41 months for attempting in 2002 a 'citizen weapons inspection', public exposure and symbolic disarmament of a Minuteman III nuclear missile silo near New Raymer, Colorado. [...] At their trial in 2003, however, US District Judge Robert Blackburn barred the jury from hearing international law and Nuremberg defences.

2011, Michael Head, “Espionage, Official Secrets and Sabotage”, in Crimes against the State: From Treason to Terrorism, Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, →ISBN; republished Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2016, →ISBN, page 143:

(US law, by extension) An explanation offered as a defense to criminal or wrongful behavior, claiming that one is justified in not obeying a governmental order or a domestic law because the order or law is itself unlawful.


garnishor

(law) A person who garnishes; one who obtains a garnishment against another.


notitia criminis

From Latin nōtitia (“renown”) + crīminis, genitive of crīmen (“verdict”).

(law) A notice conveyed to a prosecutor that a crime is alleged to have occurred.


subleaser

(property law, informal) Synonym of sublessor.


fieri facias

From Middle English fieri facias, from Medieval Latin fierī faciās (“thou should cause it to be done”), which is not a normal Classical Latin construction but a calque from Romance causatives from faciō and infinitive (attested since Late Latin).

der

(law) In English law, a writ of execution issued after judgment obtained in a legal action for debt or damages.


exclusionary rule

en-noun

exclusionary rule (plural exclusionary rules)

(US, law) A doctrine which requires that evidence obtained as the result of an illegal act on the part of law enforcement personnel (such as a warrantless search, or continued questioning a witness who has invoked the right of counsel) must therefore be excluded from being admitted as evidence in a trial. This rule does not apply in civil proceedings, although statutes sometime specifically provide for exclusion of such evidence.


colourable

Glauce, what needs this colourable word, / To cloke the cause, that hath it selfe bewrayd?

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(now rare, sometimes law) Deceptive; fake, misleading.

(law) In appearance only; not in reality what it purports to be, hence counterfeit, feigned.


defeasible fee

(law) An estate in land that may be divested from its current owner upon the occurrence of an event set forth by the grantor in the grant.

fee simple subject to condition subsequent

fee simple subject to executory limitation


possibility of reverter

possibility of reverter (plural possibilities of reverter)

fee simple determinable
fee simple determinable

(law) Where a grantor of an estate in land has created a fee simple determinable (a condition on the grant which would give the grantor the right to reclaim ownership of the property), the grantor's remaining interest in the property.


permissive waste

(law) The legally compensable destruction of the value of property through the failure of a life tenant to maintain the property to the point where it falls into disrepair.


estate in land

(law) An interest in land that is or may become possessory of a physical area of land, almost always with a set geographic location; real estate; real property.


fee simple subject to condition subsequent (plural fee simples subject to condition subsequent)

(law) A defeasible fee created with language reserving the right of the grantor to reclaim ownership of the land upon the occurrence of a specified condition (e.g. "if X event occurs, grantor reserves the right to reenter and retake"); upon occurrence of the condition, the grantor may decide to retake ownership or not.

or fee simple subject to executory limitation

fee simple subject to executory interest


contingent remainder

contingent remainder (plural contingent remainders)

Joe leaves property "to Mike for life, and then to Mike's oldest surviving child"; since it is not known who will be Mike's oldest surviving child at the time of Mike's death, ownership of the property is a contingent remainder.

(law) An interest in property that is owned by a party that can not be identified until the interest vests.


fee simple subject to executory interest (plural fee simples subject to executory interest)

Joe gives Mike an estate in land "so long as no alcohol is brought onto the property, in which case the property will go to Harry"; this creates a fee simple subject to executory limitation- if alcohol is brought onto the property, Harry automatically takes ownership.

(law) A defeasible fee created with clear durational language expressing a condition (e.g. "so long as", "until", "while") which causes ownership of a property to revest in a third party identified by the grantor if that condition comes about.


fee simple determinable

fee simple determinable (plural fees simple determinable)

Joe gives Mike an estate in land "so long as no alcohol is brought onto the property"; this creates a fee simple determinable - if alcohol is brought onto the property, ownership of the land automatically reverts to Joe.

(law) A defeasible fee created with clear durational language expressing a condition (e.g. "so long as", "until", "while") which causes ownership of a property to revert to the grantor upon the occurrence of that condition.


right of entry

(law) Where a grantor has created a fee simple subject to condition subsequent, and the condition of the grant has come to pass, the right of the grantor to physically reclaim ownership of the land.


power of termination

power of termination (countable and uncountable, plural powers of termination)


executory interest

executory interest (plural executory interests)

Joe gives land "to Mike, but if Harry graduates from law school, to Harry". Harry has an executory interest which he can realize by graduating from law school; Mike owns the land subject to Harry's executory interest.

(law) A third-party interest in an estate in land created by the conditions of a grant wherein the grantor gives the land to a second party, but with said land going to a third party upon the occurrence of a condition; an interest created subject to a fee simple subject to executory interest.


fee simple subject to executory limitation (plural fee simples subject to executory limitation)

fee simple subject to executory interest#English

(law) Synonym of fee simple subject to executory interest


vested remainder subject to open

vested remainder subject to open (plural vested remainders subject to open)

vested remainders subject to open (plural)

(law) A future interest held by a member of a class, for which the interest is certain to vest, but for which new members may enter the class before the interest vests, thereby reducing each member's share of the total interest.


life estate pur autre vie

life estate pur autre vie (plural life estates pur autre vie)

From life estate + Old French pur ("for"), autre ("another"), vie ("life").

Joe gives property "to Mike for the life of Bob"; Joe has created a life estate pur autre vie for Mike, but when Bob dies, the property automatically reverts to Joe.

(law) An estate in land which is given by a grantor to a party only for the duration of the life of a third party, and for which ownership will revert to another upon the death of that third party.


right of reentry

right of reentry (plural rights of reentry)

(law) The right of a person who has traveled out of their country of citizenship to cross the border upon return to that country.


character reference

character reference (plural character references)

A statement concerning the character of a person, typically for submission during a job application or court proceeding.


vested remainder

vested remainder (plural vested remainders)

(law) A future interest in an estate in land which is certain to vest at some future point.