free bench

From free + bench, after Anglo-Norman franc banc (“frank bank”).

In most manors, free-bench consists of one half of the husband's copyhold; although, in others, it consists of a third or fourth part, and in some few, of the whole copyhold.

1808, William Cruise, A Digest of the Laws of England Respecting Real Property, page 329:

The widow enjoyed the right of freebench, that is, of succession to a portion of her late husband's holding, ranging from a quarter to the whole, according to local manorial custom.

1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 541:

Some widows in Brigstock also probably sold free bench lands, despite the customary restriction on such sales.

1987, Judith M Bennett, Women in the Medieval English Countryside, page 165:

(law, historical) A married woman's entitlement to the use of her husband's lands or property after he dies; or the land and property itself considered as such an entitlement.


sue out

en-verb

sue out (third-person singular simple present sues out, present participle suing out, simple past and past participle sued out)

sues out (present singular third-person)
suing out (participle present)
sued out (participle past)
sued out (past)

to sue out a writ in chancery; to sue out a pardon for a criminal

(transitive, law) To petition for and take out, or to apply for and obtain.


declinatory plea

en-noun

declinatory plea (plural declinatory pleas)

(UK, law, obsolete) The plea of sanctuary or of benefit of clergy, before trial or conviction.


knight service

Land became fully devisable with the abolition of knight-service in 1660, but magnates continued to inherit property which was tied up in strict settlements, giving the current representative of the family no more than a life-tenancy.

1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 585:

If they were not heiresses, a lord's daughters were sometimes married off to his knights, but the latter […] might well need an incentive such as a cash payment, land or a reduction in their knight service.

2002, Christopher Gravett, English Medieval Knight 1200-1300, page 43:

(historical, law) The military service a knight owed to his chief lord as a condition of holding title to his lands and rank.


criminal code

(law) A document which compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law.

قَانُون جِنَائِيّ

document which compiles a particular jurisdiction's criminal law


valuable consideration

valuable consideration (countable and uncountable, plural valuable considerations)

a purchasor for a valuable consideration, without notice, might hold the land discharged of any trust or confidence .

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

(law) An equivalent or compensation having value given for a thing purchased, such as money, marriage, services, etc.


pragmatic sanction

pragmatic sanction (plural pragmatic sanctions)

(law, historical) A sovereign's solemn decree on a matter of primary importance, having the force of law.


letters of horning

In untechnical language, we may describe letters of horning as the authority by which a person, directed by the decree of a court of justice to pay or perform anything, is ordered to comply therewith.

1876, A concise law dictionary by Herbert Newman Mozley and George Crispe Whiteley, barrister at law:

(law, historical, Scotland) The process or authority by which a person, directed by the decree of a court of justice to pay or perform anything, is ordered to comply.


wand of peace

DEFORCEMENT being a crime which has a distinct punishment affixed to it, the messenger, it has been argued, when relisted, should break his wand of peace, and protest for remeid of law]]

1806, Gilbert Hutcheson, Pennyslvania Law Journal:

(law, Scotland, historical) A wand, or staff, carried by the messenger of a court, which was broken when deforced (that is, hindered from executing process), as a symbol of the deforcement, and protest for remedy of law.


vadium vivum

Borrowed from Medieval Latin vadium vivum (“living pledge”).

bor+

(law, historical) A living pledge, which exists where an estate is granted until a debt is paid out of its proceeds.


soc and sac

From Old English sōcen and sacan, equivalent to the Anglo-Norman oyer and terminer.

King John granted to the prior and convent, in all their manors and lands, sac, soc, tol, and theam, infangenthef, and outfangenthef, with the ordeals or judgment by fire, water, and iron, and a common gallows in each manor; with a view of frankenpledge, and assize of bread and ale, of all their tenants […]

1806, Francis Bloomfield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Vol. IV, p. 517

(UK, law, historical) The right of a lord to hear and decide legal cases on his estate without recourse to other courts.


ex delicto

From Latin ex (“from”) + dēlictō, ablative singular of dēlictum (“transgression”).

This act [An Act anent the Aliment of Poor Prisoners 1696 (chapter 32; Parliament of Scotland)] was clearly intended to regulate the case of civil debts; but the question occurred whether by civil debts was meant debts ex contractu, or debts also ex delicto; and the Court were at first of opinion that debtors, whose debts arose ex delicto, were not entitled to the benefit of the statute. […] The opinion was however given up by the Court in 1787; and debts, though arising ex delicto, were held to be civil debts in the sense of the act, and as such, did not exclude the debtor from the benefit of the statute.

1815, Robert Bell, A Dictionary of the Law of Scotland: Intended for the Use of the Public at Large, as Well as of the Profession, 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed by Alex. Smellie, for John Anderson & Company, Edinburgh; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, London, →OCLC, page 13:

Personal actions are in form ex contractu or ex delicto, or, in other words, are for breach of contract, or for wrongs unconnected with contract. […] [T]hose for wrongs are case, trover, replevin, and trespass vi et armis.

1837, Joseph Chitty with Thomas Chitty, A Treatise on the Parties to Actions, and on Pleading: With Second and Third Volumes, Containing Precedents of Pleadings, and Copious Directory Notes, 7th American edition, volume I, Springfield, Mass.: G. and C. Merriam, →OCLC, page 110:

[I]t was held that the Missouri statute did not apply to disqualify the plaintiff as a witness in an action against a railroad company for the alleged wrongful act of one of its conductors in putting her off the train, by reason of the death of the conductor before the trial, “as this is not an action on contract, but ex delicto […]”

1916, Burdett A. Rich, Henry P. Farnham, George H. Parmele, editors, The Lawyers Reports Annotated: 1916D, Rochester, N.Y.: Lawyers' Co-operative Pub., →OCLC, page 812:

The confusion as to the legal effects of breach of the due diligence obligation derives from the general lack of full understanding of its role in the structure of State responsibility. There are many schools of thought as to the character of this obligation in the context of both liability ex delicto and of liability sine delicto.

2002, M[algosia] A. Fitzmaurice, “International Protection of the Environment”, in Recueil des cours = Collected Courses of The Hague Academy of International Law 2001, volume 293, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, →ISBN, page 243:

Obligations ex delicto are those arising from a tort, an illegal act other than a breach of contract, and are enforced by giving to the obligee compensatory money damages equivalent to the amount of his loss. […] Roman law separated the obligations ex delicto tort into two categories: (1) where the party was actively and knowingly involved in the tort, which has developed into intentional tort; and (2) where the party was mistakenly involved, which has developed into negligence.

2014, David Orozco with Kevin McGarry and Lydie Pierre-Louis, “The Human Rights-related Aspects of Indigenous Knowledge in the Context of Common Law Equitable Doctrines and the Kiobel Decision”, in Robert C. Bird, Daniel R. Cahoy, Jamie Darin Prenkert, editors, Law, Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Gap, Cheltenham, Glos.: Edward Elgar Publishing, →ISBN, page 196:

(law, postpositive) Of a legal obligation: arising from a delict or tort, or some other wrongful act.


ex delicto

The diviſion of obligations, into thoſe ariſing from a contract, or quaſi ex contractu; from a delict, or quaſi ex delicto, takes place in the law of England [marginal note]. […] Obligations civil, in a large ſenſe, may be divided into ſuch as ariſe from a contract, or quaſi contract; or from a delinquency and crime, or a quaſi delinquency, as they are termed in the civil law.

1751, Andrew MacDowall Bankton, An Institute of the Laws of Scotland in Civil Rights: With Observations Upon the Agreement or Diversity Between Them and the Laws of England. In Four Books. After the General Method of the Viscount of Stair's Institutions., volume I, Edinburgh: Printed by R. Fleming, for A. Kincaid and A[lexander] Donaldson, and sold by them and other Booksellers, →OCLC, page 104:

Actio personalis moritur cum persona. – A personal action dies with the person. [i.e. An action merely personal, arising ex delicto, for a tort, but not an action arising ex contractu, from contract.[…]] […] [Ex delicto — From tort.]

1824, Thomas Branch with William Waller Hening, Principia Legis et Æquitatis: Being an Alphabetical Collection of Maxims, Principles or Rules, Definitions, and Memorable Sayings, in Law and Equity; Interspersed with such Law Terms, and Latin Words and Phrases as most Frequently Occur, in the Study and Practice of the Law, 1st American edition, Richmond: T. W. White, →OCLC, pages 12 and 43:

What the Romans said is that, whereas some obligations arose ‘ex delicto’ (that is, from a delict or wrong), others arose ‘quasi ex delicto’ (and likewise for contract).

2009, Eric Descheemaeker, The Division of Wrongs: A Historical Comparative Study, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 43:

(law, postpositive) From a delict or tort, or some other wrongful act.


ex contractu

From Latin ex (“from”) + contractū (ablative singular of contractus (“contract”)).

This act [An Act anent the Aliment of Poor Prisoners 1696 (chapter 32; Parliament of Scotland)] was clearly intended to regulate the case of civil debts; but the question occurred whether by civil debts was meant debts ex contractu, or debts also ex delicto; and the Court were at first of opinion that debtors, whose debts arose ex delicto, were not entitled to the benefit of the statute. [...] The opinion was however given up by the Court in 1787; and debts, though arising ex delicto, were held to be civil debts in the sense of the act, and as such, did not exclude the debtor from the benefit of the statute.

1815, Robert Bell, A Dictionary of the Law of Scotland: […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed by Alex. Smellie, for John Anderson & Company; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, →OCLC, page 13:

Personal actions are in form ex contractu or ex delicto, or, in other words, are for breach of contract, or for wrongs unconnected with contract. Those upon contracts are principally assumpsit, debt, covenant, and detinue [...]

1837, Joseph Chitty, Thomas Chitty, A Treatise on the Parties to Actions, and on Pleading: […], 7th American edition, volume I, Springfield, Mass.: G. and C. Merriam, →OCLC, page 110:

In drawing the pleadings, and framing the declaration of the cause of action against a husband, or an executor, in respect of the funeral expenses of the wife or the testator, it must be stated, in order to show a good legal ground of action ex contractu upon the record, that the things furnished were supplied at the request of the husband, or the executors, and a promise to pay for them must be alleged.

1847, C[harles] G[reenstreet] Addison, A Treatise on the Law of Contracts and Rights and Liabilities Ex Contractu, London: W. Benning & Co., →OCLC, page 213:

The leading distinction between obligations ex contractu and obligations quasi ex contractu is, that in the former one chooses to bind himself to another, in the latter he is placed in such circumstances that he is thereby bound to another.

1874, Thomas Collett Sandars, The Institutes of Justinian: With English Introduction, Translation and Notes, 5th edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 379:

Obligations quasi ex contractu are those, for the most part, for which a liability is implicit in a relation and is imposed by law, though not created or undertaken by any direct act of the obligor.

1936, C[harles] Reinold Noyes, The Institution of Property: A Study of the Development, Substance and Arrangement of the System of Property in Modern Anglo-American Law, New York, N.Y., Toronto, Ont.: Longmans, Green and Co.; London: Humphrey Milford, →OCLC, page 212:

(law, postpositive) Of a legal obligation: arising from a contractual relationship.

ugovorno

of a legal obligation: arising from a contractual relationship


ex contractu

The diviſion of obligations, into thoſe ariſing from a contract, or quaſi ex contractu; from a delict, or quaſi ex delicto, takes place in the law of England [marginal note]. [...] Obligations civil, in a large ſenſe, may be divided into ſuch as ariſe from a contract, or quaſi contract; or from a delinquency and crime, or a quaſi delinquency, as they are termed in the civil law.

1751, Andrew MacDowall Bankton, An Institute of the Laws of Scotland in Civil Rights: With Observations Upon the Agreement or Diversity Between Them and the Laws of England. In Four Books. […], volume I, Edinburgh: Printed by R. Fleming, for A. Kincaid and A[lexander] Donaldson, […], →OCLC, page 104:

Actio personalis moritur cum persona. – A personal action dies with the person. [i.e. An action merely personal, arising ex delicto, for a tort, but not an action arising ex contractu, from contract. [...]]

1824, Thomas Branch, William Waller Hening, Principia Legis et Æquitatis: Being an Alphabetical Collection of Maxims, Principles or Rules, Definitions, and Memorable Sayings, in Law and Equity; […], 1st American edition, Richmond: T. W. White, →OCLC, page 12:

(law, postpositive) From a contractual relationship.


DWR

en-noun

DWR (countable and uncountable, plural DWRs)

(countable, law) Initialism of driving while revoked.


taxable income

The base upon which an income tax system imposes tax.


SHU

administrative segregation

security housing unit or special handling unit

He picked a fight on the yard and got himself put into the SHU the day before my release.

2018, Tayari Jones, An American Marriage, Oneworld Publications, page 200:

security housing unit
security housing unit#English


SCU

solitary confinement
solitary confinement#English

Initialism of solitary confinement unit.


SCU

Sacra Corona Unita
Sacra Corona Unita#Italian

(crime) Abbreviation of Sacra Corona Unita (“United Sacred Crown”), the Puglia mafia.


crimen injuria

From Latin crīmen (“crime”) + ablative form of iniūria (“injury”).

The four students about whom headlines of the urination into a pot of stew for blacks went around the world will go on trial—later—in August this year, charged with crimen injuria.

2012, Nadine Gordimer, No Time Like the Present, Bloomsbury, published 2013, page 288:

(criminal law, chiefly South Africa) In Roman-Dutch law, the unlawful and intentional impairment of someone's dignity (covering road rage, stalking, and various kinds of abuse).


autogenocide

From auto- + genocide, coined in the late 1970s.

If Anita Bryantt really wants to devastate gay liberation, she should pry her fingers from her Bible long enough to thumb through the printed gay media. Scathing onslaughts may be fun, but they aren't very productive. Will we never cease practicing intellectual autogenocide?

1977 April 30, Hugh Crell, “Unproductive Onslaughts”, in Gay Community News, page 4:

Genocide of a particular group by members of that group.


jactitation of marriage

jactitation of marriage (usually uncountable, plural jactitations of marriage)

Jactitation of marriage, or the boasting of the existence of a marriage , which never actually took place

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

(UK, law, historical) A false assertion of being married to another person.


bound bailiff

The sheriff being answerable for the bailiff's misdemeanours, the bailiff is usually under bond for the faithful discharge of his trust.

(UK, law) A sheriff's officer who serves writs, makes arrests, etc.


isogoria

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰσηγορία (isēgoría).

Equality of freedom of speech and expression; the right of each citizen of a city (or other unit) to speak in public and address that city.


ockerer

[…] under the pain of confiscation of all their moveable goods, and to be otherwise punished in their persons as common ockerers, according to law.

1769, Statute Law of Scotland Abridged. With Historical Notes, Scotland, page 392:

The first Species thereof is, Whoever receives more Annualrent^([sic]), than Ten for each Hundred, shall be punished as Ockerers, or Usurers, conform to the Laws of the Realm, already made, […]

1699, George Mackenzie, The Laws and Customs of Scotland, in Matters Criminal: Wherein is to be Seen how the Civil Law, and the Laws and Customs of Other Nations Doth Agree With, and Supply Ours, page 119:

(obsolete, Scotland, especially law) A usurer.


make whole

en-verb

make whole (third-person singular simple present makes whole, present participle making whole, simple past and past participle made whole)

makes whole (present singular third-person)
making whole (participle present)
made whole (participle past)
made whole (past)

Perelman receives a government subsidy called "yield maintenance"—totaling about $406 million to date—to make him whole for carrying money-losing assets in the thrift.

1991 February 10, Larry Light et al., “Were These Deals Too Sweet To Last?”, in BusinessWeek, retrieved 2014-01-28:

The only investor to be made whole, the lawsuit says, was First American Bank of New York, whose $5.5 million loan to the resort was repaid.

1994 September 25, Jan Hoffman, Matthew Purdy, “Harriman Suit: Misconduct, Or Just Bad Luck Investing?”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-01-28:

Companies “are increasingly covering more complicated forms of compensation that executives forfeited from prior jobs,” says Hodgson. For instance, Home Depot promised Robert Nardelli half his salary and bonus, subject to certain undisclosed offsets, to make him whole for retirement benefits he earned at GE.

2007 June 15, Elizabeth MacDonald, “Gilded Greetings”, in forbes.com, retrieved 2014-01-28:

Alameda’s own crypto assets had plunged in value during the market downturn, meaning the firm had little way to make its lenders whole.

2023 October 11, David Yaffe-Bellany, Matthew Goldstein, J. Edward Moreno, “Caroline Ellison Says She and Sam Bankman-Fried Lied for Years”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(transitive, finance, law) To provide (someone), especially under the terms of a legal judgment or an agreement, with financial compensation for lost money or other lost assets.

compensate

provide (someone) with compensation for a financial loss


mero motu

From post-classical Latin motu mero (with transposition of elements), ablative of motus merus (“free impulse, volition”), from classical Latin mōtus (“motion, movement”).

I charge thee, write not a word to me in her favour, if thou meanest her well; for if I spare her, it must be all ex mero motu.

1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CCVII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:

(Of) one's own accord
of one's own accord


particeps criminis

en-noun

particeps criminis (plural particeps criminis or particepes criminis)

particeps criminis (plural)
particepes criminis (plural)

From Latin particeps + crīminis, literally “participant in the crime”.

com

“I have heard too that he was particeps criminis in some road-agent work before he came here and attached himself to the courthouse.”

(law) An accomplice in crime; an accessory.


supplemental jurisdiction

subject-matter jurisdiction
subject-matter jurisdiction

(US, law) The authority of United States federal courts to hear additional claims substantially related to an original claim, even though the court would lack the subject-matter jurisdiction to hear the additional claims independently.


public trustee

A public office which acts as a trustee, usually when a sum is required to be deposited as security by legislation, when courts remove another trustee, or for estates where either no executor is named by will or the testator elects wishes to appoint one.


ancient lights

It was reſolved by the Opinion of the aforeſaid Judges, That the Cuſtom of London will not enable a Man to erect a new Houſe upon a void Space of Ground, whereby the ancient Lights of an old Houſe are ſtopp'd up.

1723, William Bohun, Privilegia Londini: Or, The Rights, Liberties, Privileges, Laws, and Customs, of the City of London, 3rd edition, page 103:

If a house or wall is erected so near to mine that it stops my ancient lights, which is a private nuisance, I may enter my neighbour's land, and peaceably pull it down.

1823, Sir William Blackstone (author), Vincent Wanostroch (editor), The British Constitution, or an Epitome of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, for the Use of Schools, p. 403 (Google preview)

At home he might hang himself out of window, and nobody would mind much, provided he did not obstruct anybody's ancient lights or break away and injure any passer underneath.

1900, Jerome K. Jerome, chapter 9, in Three Men on the Bummel:

Writing the majority decision, Judge Shirley S. Abrahamson noted that the English common law "doctrine of ancient lights" entitled a landowner to an unobstructed access to sunlight across an adjoining property if the landowner had already enjoyed the privilege for some time.

1982 July 10, “Landmark Decision on Sun Access”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-02-05:

Those who have successfully claimed the right to “ancient lights” down the years, understood this in a way today’s development-hungry councils do not.

2013 February 26, Mary Dejevksy, “Don’t let the developers take your last civil right–the right to light”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-02-06:

(law) The right, based in English common law, of a property owner to retain an accustomed, unobstructed view and satisfactory illumination from his or her window(s), restricting nearby construction that would obstruct such a view or such illumination; the window(s) providing such an accustomed view or satisfactory illumination.


res inter alios acta

(law) A thing done between others (such as a contract), which cannot adversely affect the rights of those who are not parties to it.


interpretivism

en-noun

interpretivism (countable and uncountable, plural interpretivisms)

(law) A school of thought holding that law is not a set of given data, conventions, or physical facts, but what lawyers aim to construct or obtain in their practice.


anaconda mortgage

anaconda mortgage (plural anaconda mortgages)

An allusion to being trapped in crushing coils of a large constrictor snake, such as anaconda, suggesting the crushing burden of such debt.

[I]t was not given to the prophet Isaiah even, to look down the vista of time for 2,500 years and read the Statutes of Arkansas. Under them every man who executes an anaconda mortgage is considered to plant and eat not; for them the heavens might as well be brass and the earth iron.

1889, W. Scott Morgan, History of the Wheel and Alliance and the Impending Revolution, page 59:

Furthermore, the merchants soon discovered the Anaconda mortgage, which forced the owner to back up his crop lien with everything he owned — land, money, and personal property.

1988, Michael Schwartz, Radical Protest and Social Structure: The Southern Farmers' Alliance and Cotton Tenancy, 1880-1890, →ISBN, page 59:

In 1883 Alabama established the "Anaconda" mortgage, which "gave the landlord the right to take not only his tenant's crop . . . but also his furniture, household goods, and personal effects," again with primacy over merchant claims.

1997, Edward Countryman, Americans: A Collision of Histories, →ISBN, page 226:

(chiefly southern US, idiomatic, dated, law, finance) A loan arrangement in which all of the money borrowed from a lender, for whatever purpose, is secured by one's home, land, and other property.


wanted poster

A poster that is distributed to the public, informing them of a person whom the authorities wish to apprehend.


PSL

PSL (countable and uncountable, plural PSLs)

professional support lawyer
professional support lawyer#English

(law) Initialism of professional support lawyer.


indecent assault

indecent assault (plural indecent assaults)

(criminal law, Hong Kong, historical in UK) Sexual contact with another person, who does not want it, that does not result in, or is not considered to be, rape.


no win, no fee

I work on a no win, no fee basis.

(law, chiefly attributive) A form of lawsuit for which the hired legal representative charges no fees to the plaintiff if the plaintiff does not win.


wage theft

The illegal withholding of wages or denial of benefits that are rightfully owed to an employee.


partibus

(law, Scotland) A note in the margin of a summons, giving the name and designation of the pursuer.


jarkman

Allusion has been made to forged certificates. These were manufactured by a class of mendicants who had something in them of clerkly skill. They were called Jarkmen, Jark being the cant term for a seal.

1849, “The Beggars of London”, in The New Monthly Magazine, volume 85:

(obsolete) A forger of counterfeit seals, licenses or other documents.


RIPA

w:Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act

(UK, law) Initialism of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.


ab intestato

(law) From an intestate (someone who dies with no legal will).


petition of right

petition of right (plural petitions of right)

(UK, law, historical) A remedy available to subjects to recover property from the Crown.


territorial integrity

(international law) The principle that a state's borders are sacrosanct; the idea that nation-states should not promote secessionist movements or border changes in other nation-states.

տարածքային ամբողջականություն

principle that a state’s borders are sacrosanct


prepatent

(law) Prior to the existence of a legal patent.


nightcapped

Sgt. White asks the judge to authorize a nightcapped warrant because there is a considerable risk to the officers executing the search warrant.

(law) (of a warrant) that can be executed any time, as opposed to non-nightcapped, that can only be executed during the daytime on business days


battered baby syndrome

shaken baby syndrome
shaken baby syndrome#English


dark money

In Colorado, at least $18 million in dark money was spent on behalf of Cory Gardner, the Republican newly elected to the Senate; $4 million was spent on behalf of Senator Mark Udall, the Democratic incumbent.

2014 November 8, “Dark Money Helped Win the Senate”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The Senate budget committee held a hearing on Wednesday morning to scrutinize the role of oil- and gas-linked “dark money” in delaying climate action – and tearing through local and federal budgets.

2023 June 21, Dharna Noor, “Senate examines role of ‘dark money’ in delaying climate action”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(US politics) Funds used to pay for an election campaign that are not disclosed to voters prior to voting, whether spent on behalf of a candidate running in an election, or to influence voting on a ballot.


next friend

Then leave-taking was not long about; and Miss Twinkleton, in saluting each young lady’s cheek, confided to her an exceedingly neat letter, addressed to her next friend at law, “with Miss Twinkleton’s best compliments” in the corner.

1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1870, →OCLC:

(law) A person who represents another person who is under disability or otherwise unable to maintain a suit on their own behalf, and who does not have a legal guardian.


McKenzie friend

McKenzie friend (plural McKenzie friends)

Named after the 1970 case McKenzie v. McKenzie.

(law) One who assists a litigant in person in a common law court, whether legally qualified or not.


antinarcotic

en-adj

antinarcotic (comparative more antinarcotic, superlative most antinarcotic)

more antinarcotic (comparative)
most antinarcotic (superlative)

(law enforcement) Opposing or countering narcotics.


feigned issue

(law) An issue produced in a pretended action between two parties for the purpose of trying before a jury a question of fact which it becomes necessary to settle in the progress of a cause.


dead pledge

(law) The conveyance of an estate to another for money borrowed, to be held by him until the debt is paid out of the rents and profits.


equity of redemption

This reasonable advantage, allowed to mortgagors, is called the equity of redemption : and this enables a mortgagor to call on the mortgagee , who has possession of his estate , to deliver it back and account for the rents and profits received

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

(law) The advantage, allowed to a mortgager, of a certain or reasonable time to redeem lands mortgaged, after they have been forfeited at law by the non-payment of the sum of money due on the mortgage at the appointed time.


constructive fraud

en-noun

constructive fraud (countable and uncountable, plural constructive frauds)

(law) A legal fiction describing a situation where an individual or entity gained an unfair advantage over another by deceitful or unfair methods; however, intent does not need to be shown.


droit of admiralty

droit of admiralty (plural droits of admiralty)

(UK, law) Any of certain customary rights or perquisites relating to enemy ships and property found at sea, including flotsam, jetsam, lagan, deodand, etc.


CLA

(software, law) Initialism of Contributor License Agreement.


appropriate adult

appropriate adult (plural appropriate adults)

(UK, criminal law) An adult, such as a parent, guardian, or social worker, whose role is to safeguard the interests of young or handicapped people detained by the police, and who must be present at such interviews.


writ of inquiry

writ of inquiry (plural writs of inquiry)

(law) A writ issued in certain actions at law, where the defendant has suffered judgment to pass against him by default, in order to ascertain and assess the plaintiff's damages, where they cannot readily be ascertained by mere calculation.


stand trial

en-verb

stand trial (third-person singular simple present stands trial, present participle standing trial, simple past and past participle stood trial)

stands trial (present singular third-person)
standing trial (participle present)
stood trial (participle past)
stood trial (past)

From stand (“to undergo, withstand”) + trial.

Also observe that if there be six weeks between the bayl and issue joyning, the Defendant shall not remove his playnt by writ, but shall stand tryall below.

1658 (indicated as 1657), The Practise of the Sheriffs Court London. […], [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC; reprinted London: Arthur Taylor, […], c. 1830, →OCLC, page 16:

Alſo obſerve, That if there be ſix Weeks between the Bail and Iſſue Joyning, the Defendant ſhall not remove his Plaint by Writ, but ſhall ſtand Tryal below.

1723, W[illiam] Bohun, “Fees Incident to the Sheriffs Court, &c. of London”, in Privilegia Londini: Or, The Rights, Liberties, Privileges, Laws, and Customs of the City of London. […], 3rd edition, London: […] D. Browne, W. Mears, R. Gosling, T. Woodward, J. Hooke, F. Clay, and J. Stephens, →OCLC, page 462:

The Witneſſes having been re-examined, a Copy of the Proofs brought againſt the Criminals is uſually given to them, that they may the ſooner determine, whether they will give up the Cauſe, or ſtand Trial, [...]

1731, Philip a Limborch [i.e., Philipp van Limborch], “How the Prisoner Hath a Copy of the Evidence, without the Names of the Witnesses”, in Samuel Chandler, transl., The History of the Inquisition. … Translated into English … In Two Volumes. […], volume I, London: […] J. Gray, […], →OCLC, page 176:

You are to judge between the Commonwealth and the prisoner, who stands trial for the murder, by poison, of Elizabeth Gordon.

1873 August 30, Charles Morris, “A Life in the Balance”, in Dio[cletian] Lewis, editor, To-Day, volume II, number 9 (number 44 overall), Philadelphia, Pa.: To-Day Printing and Publishing Co., →OCLC, chapter XXII (Tried for His Life), page 138, column 1:

This anger escalated and later exploded when innocent verdicts were given to four police officers standing trial for the beating of Rodney King.

1999, John Lie, Nancy Abelmann, “The 1992 Los Angeles Riots and the ‘Black–Korean Conflict’”, in Kwang Chung Kim, editor, Koreans in the Hood: Conflict with African Americans, Baltimore, Md., London: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 75:

Four years later, in December 1965, an NSRP [National States' Rights Party] member named Hubert Strange, twenty-five, stood trial for killing Willie Brewster, a blue-collar African American.

2015, Pate McMichael, “The Parable of Two Goats: Hayneville, October–December 1965”, in Klandestine: How a Klan Lawyer and a Checkbook Journalist Helped James Earl Ray Cover Up His Crime, Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press, →ISBN, part IV (Krossings in Klan Kountry, 1965–1966), page 130:

(law) To be put on trial in a court of law; go on trial.


compel testimony

compel testimony (third-person singular simple present compels testimony, present participle compelling testimony, simple past and past participle compelled testimony)

compels testimony (present singular third-person)
compelling testimony (participle present)
compelled testimony (participle past)
compelled testimony (past)

President Roosevelt approved an amendment to the Air Commerce Act of 1926, giving the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce power to hold public hearings, subpoena witnesses, compel testimony under oath.

1934 July 2, “Aeronautics: Causes of Crashes”, in Time, retrieved 2014-04-16:

With the power to subpoena witnesses, to compel testimony under threat of imprisonment, and to recommend criminal charges for any illegal drug activities he uncovers, Justice Dubin has been hailed here as the man who may be able to shake Canada's sporting community out of the widespread drug-taking that has been alleged.

1989 January 13, John F. Burns, “Drugs: Assessing the Johnson Debacle”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-16:

Investigators are using "John Doe" proceedings to compel testimony from witnesses and keep them from discussing the case in public.

2011 September 19, Daniel Riemer, “Governor Walker's adversaries emboldened by Wisconsin FBI probe”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2014-04-16:

(law) To officially require that a witness appear and testify before a court of law or other public authority, under threat of legally enforceable penalties for failure to do so.


per centum

On all dividends which do not exceed six per centum per annum, eight per centum; on dividends exceeding six per centum and not exceeding seven per centum, a tax of nine per centum...

1861, Laws of Pennsylvania of the Session of 1861, page 511:

1887, Henry Beatty, A New Method of Computing Interest from Four Per Centum to Twelve Per Centum:

Firearms, twenty-five per centum

1891–1892, Special Consular Reports, Volume VII, page 787


freeze peach

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-freeze peach.wav

>Would you two kindly piss off from this motorcycle newsgroup if you must
>insist on indulging in political diatribes.
Right, this is no place to carry on any form of freeze peach.

1998 March 9, Dennis H., “Re: The best bait I have seen in quite some time...”, in rec.motorcycles (Usenet):

I'm sorry, Canada is not the US, thank the gods. Our charter was developed recently and was crafted to avoid the pitfalls that have plagued your country for over 200 years, the bare arms provisions and the freeze peach stuff.

2010 March 25, Michel Boucher, “Re: WAY OT Coulter's Ottawa speech cancelled”, in rec.food.cooking (Usenet):

As much as I tend to criticize the good old USA, I have to say that laws like that as well as certain laws related to freeze peach in Europe, I have to say that we are still the best in terms of individual civil liberties.

2012 January 2, wiki trix [username], “Re: Louisiana: ULL professor sues for 'discrimination'”, in talk.origins (Usenet):

(Internet slang, humorous or sarcastic, sometimes derogatory) Free speech, especially when construed as granting a right to say anything on any platform.


locatio et conductio

Borrowed from Latin locātiō et conductiō.

(law, finance) A contract of hire. A bailment: goods delivered or property or land made available to the bailee in exchange for money or reward paid to the bailor. May be one of three main types: locatio rei, 'the hire of a thing'; locatio operarum, 'a worker for a wage'; locatio operis faciendi, a contract for 'services providing a result'


Loving

en-proper noun

Loving (countable and uncountable, plural Lovings)

(US, law, sexuality, US politics, informal, uncountable) Ellipsis of Loving v. Virginia. A 1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized interacial marriage under the Equal Protection and Due Process; and reaffirmed the existence of a right to privacy under due process following the 14th Amendment.


negative pregnant

en-noun

negative pregnant (plural negatives pregnant)

(law) A denial which implies its affirmative opposite by seeming to deny only a qualification of the allegation and not the allegation itself. For example, "I have never consumed cocaine while on duty" might imply that the person making the statement had consumed cocaine on other occasions.


civil code

(law) A systematic collection of laws addressing dealings between private parties, such as business contracts and negligence lawsuits.

قَانُون مَدَنِيّ

a systematic collection of laws between private parties


odious debt

odious debt (countable and uncountable, plural odious debts)

(international law) The national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, and thus considered to be a personal debt of the regime and not a debt of the state.


quantum valebat

(law) A count in an action to recover from the defendant, for goods sold, as much as they were worth.


writ of right

a claimant in fee-simple may have a mere writ of right; which is in its nature the highest writ in the law

(law) A writ which lay to recover lands in fee simple, unjustly withheld from the true owner.


nihil debet

(law) The general issue in certain actions of debt.


nihil dicit

(law) A declinature by the defendant to plead or answer.


ducks and geese

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang


blue meanie

Introduced or popularised by the Beatles film Yellow Submarine (1968).
(police officer): An allusion to the colour of their uniforms.


Queen's cowboy

(Canada, slang) A member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.


gross adventure

(law) The loan of money upon bottomry, i.e. on a mortgage of a ship.


catching bargain

catching bargain (plural catching bargains)

It seems to me that the contract in the bill mentioned, was free from any suggestion of falsehood or concealment of the truth; that it was a catching bargain by the purchaser

1765, Kentucky Court of Appeals, Reports of Civil and Criminal Cases Decided by the Court of Kentucky:

(law) A bargain made with an heir expectant for the purchase of his expectancy at an inadequate price.


bargain and sale

A thirteenth species of conveyance , introduced by this statute , is that of a bargain and sale of lands ; which is a kind of real contract , whereby the bargainor , for some pecuniary consideration , bargains and sells

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

(law) A form of conveyance by which the bargainor contracts to convey the lands to the bargainee and becomes by such contract a trustee for and seized to the use of the bargainee. The statute then completes the purchase, i.e. the bargain vests the use, and the statute vests the possession.


thin blue line

By analogy with Thin Red Line. “Blue” refers to the color of the uniforms of many police departments.

“Obviously, you’ve seen caravans with the Trump flag in the back of pickup trucks and then the thin blue line,” Mr. DeMasi, a former police officer, said. “I think maybe people had a good intention, but it ended up giving the meaning of the thin blue line a black eye.”

2020 November 21, Michael Gold, “What Happened When a School District Banned Thin Blue Line Flags”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A flag or symbol representing the police, commonly associated with the blue lives matter movement.


wager of law

(law, historical) The giving of gage, or sureties, by a defendant in an action of debt, that at a certain day assigned he would take an oath in open court that he did not owe the debt, and at the same time bring with him eleven compurgators who would avow that they believed in their consciences that he spoke the truth.


file off the serial numbers

en-verb

file off the serial numbers (third-person singular simple present files off the serial numbers, present participle filing off the serial numbers, simple past and past participle filed off the serial numbers)

files off the serial numbers (present singular third-person)
filing off the serial numbers (participle present)
filed off the serial numbers (participle past)
filed off the serial numbers (past)

From the practice of filing the serial numbers off of firearms in order to make their origin and ownership difficult to trace.

For a while now, I've been pottering away at a Star Wars fanfic novella ([URL redacted], if you must know). I've received a few pokes about filing off the serial numbers and trying to sell it as an independent work.

1998 March 6, Julie Lim, “Help!”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet):

I've heard a rumor that Bujold started the Barrayar series as Star Trek fanfic, and there's enough resemblance there to make that seem very plausible to me. Suppose she did. By filing off the serial numbers, she was able to make the universe her own, to change as she needed to.

2002 January 15, David Thornley, “Re: harry potter”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet):

I say “may have” because [E. L.] James has “filed off the serial numbers” of her fanfic.

2012 April 1, Elizabeth Tai, “Quantity over quality?”, in The Star, Malaysia:

(fandom slang, idiomatic) To remove the copyrighted elements from an existing work of fan fiction so that it may be commercially published as original fiction.


drift of the forest

en-noun

drift of the forest (plural drifts of the forest)

/ˌdɹɪft‿əv ðə ˈfɒɹɪst/

/ˌdɹɪft‿əv ðə ˈfɔɹəst/

From drift (“act of driving or herding cattle”) + of + the + forest.

It ſeemeth by the Aſſiſes of the Forreſt of Pickring and Lancaſter, that the Officers of the Forreſt there, did vſe to make two driftes of their Forreſt euery yeare, the firſt of thoſe driftes was made yearely fifteene daies before Midſomer, at the beginning of the Fence moneth, becauſe that in that moneth, no man might haue any beaſtes commoning within the waſt ſoile of the Forreſt, and then by that drift, the forreſt was cleane emptied and auoided of all beaſts and cattell, during the fence moneth onely: […]

1598, John Manwood, chapter XV, in A Treatise and Discourse of the Lawes of the Forrest: […], London: […] [Adam Islip (?) for] Thomas Wight and Bonham Norton, →OCLC, section 2 (At what Time of the Yeare the Forrest shall be Driven), folio 86, recto:

The drifts of the foreſts are ſaid to be when all the Cattle as well of Commoners as of Strangers are driven by the Officers of the foreſt to ſome certain Pound or place incloſed, and the end hereof is threefold, viz. Firſt, to ſee whether thoſe that ought to common doe common with ſuch kind of Cattle as by preſcription or grant they ought. Secondly, if they common with ſuch Cattle as they ought, whether they doe ſurcharge or no. Thirdly, if the Cattle of any Stranger be there, which ought not to common at all.

1644, Edw[ard] Coke, “Of the Forests, and the Jurisdiction of the Courts of the Forest”, in The Fourth Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England. […], London: […] M[iles] Flesher, for W[illiam] Lee, and D[aniel] Pakeman, →OCLC, page 309:

[T]he swainmote, held three times a year, when the agistors came together to take agistment; at which time the drift of the forest was made, that is, all the animals were to be driven together into one pound, to see that those who commoned did so with such kind of cattle, as they, by prescription or grant, ought to do.

1829, George Crabb, “Henry III”, in A History of English Law; or An Attempt to Trace the Rise, Progress, and Successive Changes, of the Common Law; […], London: Baldwin and Cradock, →OCLC, page 148:

And every three years there was a special Drift of the forest, which was a sort of census of the venison.

1895, Francis Watt, “The Law of the Forest”, in The Law’s Lumber Room, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, […]; Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, page 70:

(British, law, historical) The act of driving or herding cattle in a forest to a particular place in order to determine who they belong to and whether the owners have a right to common or pasture them in the forest, and whether any fines should be paid by those without such a right.

metsän eläinten ajo tarkistusta varten

act of driving or herding cattle in a forest to a particular place in order to determine who they belong to, etc.


violent presumption

violent presumption (countable and uncountable, plural violent presumptions)

(law) presumption of a fact that arises from proof of circumstances which necessarily attend such facts.


violent profits

(law, Scotland) Rents or profits of an estate obtained by a tenant wrongfully holding over after warning. They are recoverable in a process of removing.


protection racket

protection racket (plural protection rackets)

(crime) A criminal scheme in which victims are required to pay in order to avoid violence or destruction of property.


clean hands

He that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 17:9:

(figurative, idiomatic, law) Freedom from guilt, especially from the guilt of dishonesty in money matters, or of bribe-taking.


calendar day

Travel insurance is available at the special price of pounds 4 for one calendar day, pounds 10 up to 36 hours.

1997 November 21, “French shopping and lunch from pounds 29”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-05-26:

The $28 billion budget was approved by committees in both houses Wednesday. Since one calendar day must elapse before a floor vote, the votes will take place after midnight Thursday unless Republicans agree to suspend the rule.

2004 June 24, Laura Mansnerus, “Trenton Approves $28 Billion Budget Plan”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-05-26:

"[T]he Games were stopped for a full 24 hours, though it was not a calendar day."

2012 May 2, Simon Burnton, “The terrorist outrage in Munich in 1972”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 2014-05-26:

(law) A timespan of exactly 24 hours, measured from one midnight to the next.


libel chill

Ira Glasser's Op-Ed article and Anthony Lewis's column of Dec. 10 both address the possible chilling effect on the press raised by the potential cost of defending against a libel action by a public official.

1984 December 16, William Vandersteel, “Defrosting Libel Chill”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-05-29:

Black enjoys being rude about others—he has an endearing habit of writing sharp letters to his own papers—while reserving the right to sue those who are rude about him. Even Siklos is forced to refer to the "libel chill" around Black.

1996 February 3, Robert Winder, “Black humours”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-05-29:

There's been a lot of talk recently about the problem of "libel chill" on British science writing, that people self-censor for fear they'd be sued (as Simon Singh was by British Chiropractic Association).

2010 September 13, Alice Bell, “A physicist, a chemist and a zoologist walk into a bar . . .”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 2014-05-29:

It’s called “libel chill,” and it means too many writers are hesitating or even refraining from publishing work that goes against the grain for fear of being dragged through our trauma-inducing legal system.

2013 April 15, Dale Hamilton, “Libel chill leaving writers out in the cold”, in Guelph Mercury, Canada, retrieved 2014-05-29:

The businessman lost no time in slapping legal notices against every television channel which broadcast the conference. Libel chill, without a shred of doubt, for all the channels went silent.

2014 May 29, Saurav Datta, “Hush — slander is a criminal offence in India”, in Index on Censorship, UK, retrieved 2014-05-29:

(law, idiomatic) Uneasiness or unwillingness to speak publicly or to write about a matter, as a result of the threat or suggestion of a libel action should one do so.


keep term

en-verb

keep term (third-person singular simple present keeps term, present participle keeping term, simple past and past participle kept term)

keeps term (present singular third-person)
keeping term (participle present)
kept term (participle past)
kept term (past)

(UK, law, dated) To eat a sufficient number of dinners in hall, at the Inns of Court, to make the term count for the purpose of being called to the bar.


leading case

It is remarkable , that in the leading case cited as the foundation of the whole doctrine

1857, Austin Abbott, Reports of Practice Cases:

(law) A reported decision which has come to be regarded as settling the law of the question involved.


mafia state

A system in which the government is tied with organized crime.


protective custody

A so‐called star witness in the Brooklyn grand jury inquiry of alleged links between the police and gamblers sought unsuccessfully yesterday to free himself from protective custody.

1964 July 25, Alfred E. Clark, “Gambling Witness Under Guard Fails in Move to Gain Freedom”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-03:

The government has earmarked a paltry $1.2 million . . ., not enough to properly fund even the state-run counseling centers—the only institutions with the authority to put battered children into protective custody.

1999 June 7, Donald MacIntyre, Hiroko Tashiro, “Hearing Their Cries”, in Time, retrieved 2014-06-03:

Authorities charged a man today with 'arson causing death' after a week of devasting fires that killed a total of more than 180 people in Australia, and whisked him into protective custody to guard him from public fury.

2009 February 13, Tanalee Smith, “Man charged over deadly Australian fire”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-06-03:

(law enforcement) Lawful confinement of a person or close supervision of his or her movements, on a voluntary or involuntary basis, by authorities in order to safeguard that person from attack or other dangers.


protection money

Those in the Lowland line who lay near him, and desired to enjoy their lives and property in quiet, were contented to pay him a small composition, in name of protection money, and comforted themselves with the old proverb that it was better to "fleech the deil than fight him."

1827, Sir Walter Scott, "The Highland Widow" ch. 2, in The Chronicles of the Canongate

[T]he police had raised the tariff for sporting houses, and would collect seventy-five and a hundred a month protection money.

1912, David Graham Phillips, chapter 13, in Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise:

Four members of an Asian gang were arrested yesterday and charged with extortion and conspiracy for demanding protection money from Chinese restaurants in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

1993 June 15, “Four Men Arrested In Protection Scheme”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-04:

[T]he Mungiki . . . hit the headlines in April with a string of beheadings as they tussled for control of lucrative bus routes by executing drivers and conductors who refused to pay protection money.

2007 November 6, Rob Crilly, “Kenya Accused of Mass Killings”, in Time, retrieved 2014-06-04:

[T]he FSB, interior ministry and police collect protection money from businesses.

2010 December 1, Luke Harding, “WikiLeaks cables condemn Russia as 'mafia state'”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 2014-06-04:

Money paid, especially at regular intervals, to criminals or to corrupt officials who threaten to cause harm to the payer or to his or her business if the money is not paid.

protecció

money regular interval, extorted by criminals threatening to cause harm


benchslap

2012, Mark V. Holmes, United States Tax Court, Tigers Eye Trading, LLC v. Commissioner (dissenting), 138 T.C. No. 6, p. 211.
Of all the routines in judicial gymnastics, few have a higher degree of difficulty than the reverse benchslap, and we're trying for a combination double with our Opinion today.

(slang, law) A judicial ruling or opinion that is harsh or humiliating towards a particular party, attorney, or lower court opinion.


benchslap

benchslap (third-person singular simple present benchslaps, present participle benchslapping, simple past and past participle benchslapped)

benchslaps (present singular third-person)
benchslapping (participle present)
benchslapped (participle past)
benchslapped (past)

(slang, law) To issue a judicial ruling or opinion that is harsh or humiliating towards a particular party, attorney, or lower court opinion.


free and clear

[T]hey cannot at once name a dozen in the town who own their farms free and clear.

1854, Henry David Thoreau, chapter 1, in Walden:

I have been trying to get a free and clear title to the land for a client of mine.

1905, Horatio Alger, chapter 21, in From Farm to Fortune:

The will might stipulate, for example, that the heir receive the home, free and clear, Ms. Wheatley-Liss said, which may mean that the executor will be directed to sell stocks, bonds or other assets in the estate to pay off the mortgage.

2011 November 17, Vickie Elmer, “Inheriting a Home, and a Loan”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-06:

(law, of a possession) In a condition of lawful outright ownership, without restrictions or encumbrances.

I made the last payment on the house today. . . . We’re free and clear.

1949, Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman, Requiem

Though standard in real estate transactions, the concept of title insurance, which guarantees that a seller is the free and clear owner, has been resisted by the art world.

2010 November 10, Kate Taylor, “Title Insurance Concept Spreads Into Art Sales”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-06:

(law, of a person) Possessing such lawful outright ownership.


resurrection man

en-noun

resurrection man (plural resurrection men)

resurrection (“the act of rising from the dead and becoming alive again”) + man

Persons (under the name of resurrection-men) continue their business, getting from 1 guinea to 5 or 6, according to the value set upon the corpse they take up.

1781, “R. King”, in Compl. Mod. London Spy, section 106:

Earlier exhumations seem to have caused very little popular concern;... but later... the trade of ‘resurrection man’ became commoner, and attracted the lowest dregs of the vicious classes.

1910, Encyclopædia Britannica, I. 937/2:

(euphemistic, historical) A man who sells cadavers to anatomists, surgeons, etc., especially by exhuming corpses from graves; a graverobber.


pocket-sheriff

(UK, law, historical) A sheriff appointed by the sole authority of the Crown, without a nomination by the judges in the exchequer.


child labour

(British spelling, Canadian spelling) Work performed by a minor that is prohibited by statute law, or under terms and conditions considered inhumane.


freedom of the seas

[T]he time of hostile rivalry between the two countries had passed away. There now only remained emulation in doing everything that could advance the cause of civilization and liberty. "The freedom of the seas, pacific contests in labor, and the beneficent conquests of commerce" were meant by the union of the flags of England and France.

1865 September 3, “The Naval Fetes at Cherbourg”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-22:

Blenkiron said that Germany was right in wanting the freedom of the seas, and that America would back her up, and that the British Navy was a bigger menace to the peace of the world than the Kaiser's army.

1916, John Buchan, chapter 3, in Greenmantle:

In the 17th century Hugo Grotius developed the doctrine of the "freedom of the seas", in the face of Portuguese and Spanish claims to sovereignty over vast areas of ocean.

2011 June 21, Jason Hall-Spencer, “A steward for our oceans”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 2014-06-22:

(law) The doctrine, widely recognized in international law, that, outside of narrow territorial limits, the oceans are open to unhindered navigation by vessels of all countries.


LOLsuit

wait...wait... this is a LEGITIMATE tv show? They can just grab someone off the street and cuff them? O_O waird^([sic]) entertainment you have there. (why do I see a LOLsuit coming?)

2008 July 3, Alexia Death [username], “Re: Head OSA Netherlands wild screaming running into nearby police department”, in nl.scientology (Usenet):

I would estimate that he's probably spent several hundred dollars trying to file LOLsuits against people on the Internet...and unfortunately for him...yeah, LOLsuit filing fees are *NOT* refundable.

2009 December 2, Onideus Mad Hatter [username], “Re: How to forge like Lamey the Nazi and get caught”, in alt.2600 (Usenet):

2014 February 11, Harold Barton, “Well, there goes Patriot Games LOLsuit!”, in alt.politics (Usenet):

(Internet slang, derogatory) A frivolous lawsuit.


live at Her Majesty's pleasure

en-verb

live at Her Majesty's pleasure (third-person singular simple present lives at Her Majesty's pleasure, present participle living at Her Majesty's pleasure, simple past and past participle lived at Her Majesty's pleasure)

lives at Her Majesty's pleasure (present singular third-person)
living at Her Majesty's pleasure (participle present)
lived at Her Majesty's pleasure (participle past)
lived at Her Majesty's pleasure (past)

From the legal phrase at Her Majesty's pleasure.

'I treat patients who are living at Her Majesty's pleasure. They come to the hospital from Full Sutton prison and they are treated in the same way as anyone else.'

1999 January 3, John Arlidge, quoting Professor Alan Roberts, “Yakuza given a helping hand by 'Mr Fingers'”, in The Observer:

I wrote to Charlie Bronson in prison, 'cos Charles sends me letters and amazing drawings; my mate Warwick, who is also banged up, and numerous others living at Her Majesty's pleasure

2003, Dave Courtney, The Ride's Back On, →ISBN, page 174:

The look he gives me makes me realise I've lost him. 'Why would my uncle steal from his own brother for fifteen years? I've never found the reason, but I've heard every single excuse, courtesy of my friends living at Her Majesty's Pleasure.'

2008, Kate Harrison, The Secret Shopper's Revenge, →ISBN:

But the quest to make our jails a less pleasant place in which to live at Her Majesty’s pleasure must never translate into a lack of care, or a slipping of basic standards.

2014 April 25, “Star comment: Youths in prison still need care”, in Shropshire Star (UK):

(UK, colloquial) To spend time in prison or jail.


of counsel

(US, law) Used as the title of an attorney who has a relationship with a law firm or other organization, but is not an associate or a partner.


suit custom

(law, historical) A service which is owed from time immemorial.


watch and ward

(law) The charge or care of certain officers to keep a watch by night and a guard by day in towns, cities, and other districts, for the preservation of the public peace.


bizzie

(slang, Liverpool, derogatory) A police officer.


say on pay

(law) A rule in corporate law whereby a firm's shareholders have the right to vote on the remuneration of executives.


book of business

en-noun

book of business (plural books of business)

(US, law) A lawyer's collection of clients.


the law is an ass

Ere he shall lose an eye for such a trifle... For doing deeds of nature! I'm ashamed. The law is such an ass.

1654, attributed to George Chapman but probably Henry Glapthorne, Revenge for Honour:

"If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass—a idiot."

1838, Charles Dickens, chapter 61, in Oliver Twist:

I'm not one of those who think the Law is an ass, no, there's a great deal of common sense in the Law of England.

1917, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, chapter 29, in The Man Who Lost Himself:

Mr Bell said: "The law is an ass. It is a shocking situation when a dangerous criminal can walk free by evading recapture for a month."

1994 May 14, James Cusick, “Loophole gives knifeman freedom”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-07-18:

[N]o matter the legal definitions that guided them, it seems impossible that someone’s young son, guilty of nothing, should die while his killer walks. Adages become such for a reason: The law is an ass.

2013 July 16, Kathleen Parker, “Unanswered questions in Trayvon Martin case”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2014-07-18:

The law, as created by legislators or as administered by the justice system, cannot be relied upon to be sensible or fair.

law cannot be trusted to be sensible or fair

зако́н — что ды́шло: куда́ повернёшь, туда́ и вы́шло (zakón — što dýšlo: kudá povernjóšʹ, tudá i výšlo) (law is like a shaft of the cart^ goes wherever you turn it)


head money

to be taxt by the poul, to be scons't our head money, our tuppences in their Chaunlerly Shop-book of Easter

1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:


dry rent

Rent-Seek, or dry Rent, is where a Man passeth his Estate to another, and reserves to him and his Heirs a certain Rent

1722, Gilles Jacob, A New Law Dictionary:

(UK, law) A rent reserved by deed, without a clause of distress.


strike a jury

en-verb

strike a jury (third-person singular simple present strikes a jury, present participle striking a jury, simple past struck a jury, past participle struck a jury or stricken a jury)

strikes a jury (present singular third-person)
striking a jury (participle present)
struck a jury (past)
struck a jury (participle past)
stricken a jury (participle past)

After these motions were argued, the parties met in the prothonotary's office, and struck a jury, leaving twenty-four names in the panel not struck

(law, jurisprudence) To constitute a special jury ordered by a court, by each party striking out a certain number of names from a prepared list of jurors, so as to reduce it to the number of persons required by law.


warrant canary

en-noun

warrant canary (plural warrant canaries)

However, it may be possible, via a warrant canary or a similar technique, for a CA to communicate the existence of a secret court order to the Internet community.

2012 July 9, Markus Jakobsson, editors, The Death of the Internet, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 159:

Warrant canaries are legal tricks employed by conscientious organisations to get around the fact that certain demands from the US government cannot be disclosed publicly.

2014 May 30, Alex Hern, “Encryption software TrueCrypt closes doors in odd circumstances”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A warrant canary is a defense against the gag orders that come with National Security Letters and other secret subpoenas. With a warrant canary, the site would some sort of message posted saying, for example, “we have not received a secret subpoena as of July 24, 2014.”

2014 July 25, Jacob Long, “Exclusive: Private Internet Access talks warrants, canaries, transparency”, in Geeksided, archived from the original on 2014-08-03:

(US) A public notice that a service provider has not received a secret government subpoena for their customers' data that they would be prohibited from saying they had received.


CLE

(law) Continuing Legal Education, the professional education of lawyers that takes place after their initial admission to the bar.


widow's chamber

(UK, law, historical) In London, the apparel and furniture of the bedchamber of the widow of a freeman, to which she was formerly entitled.


ground annual

(law, Scotland, historical) An estate created in land by a vassal who instead of selling his land outright reserves an annual ground rent, which becomes a perpetual charge upon the land.


antisuit

(law) Being or relating to an injunction that prevents an opposing party from commencing or continuing a proceeding in another jurisdiction or forum.


true bill

(law) A grand jury's document endorsing the indictment it was to decide on, indicating that a criminal trial is appropriate.


make default

en-verb

make default (third-person singular simple present makes default, present participle making default, simple past and past participle made default)

makes default (present singular third-person)
making default (participle present)
made default (participle past)
made default (past)


adhesion contract

en-noun

adhesion contract (plural adhesion contracts)

(law) A contract set by one party, so that the other party has little or no ability to negotiate more favorable terms and conditions.


Okhrana

(historical) A secret police force of the Russian Empire.

Okhrana

(historical) a secret police force of the Russian Empire


melius inquirendum

(law, historical) A writ commanding a further enquiry into something.


lienholding

(law) Having right of property as a lienholder.


pedis possessio

(law) The act of walking on a property to establish ownership.


resisting arrest

(law) The crime of obstructing or opposing a police officer who is making an arrest.


gross indecency

gross indecency (countable and uncountable, plural gross indecencies)

(UK, Canada, law) Any of various sexual criminal offences, including sex with a child and (formerly) male homosexuality.


prison-industrial complex

prison–industrial complex (plural prison-industrial complexes)

prison–industrial complex (canonical)
prison-industrial complexes (plural)

By analogy to military-industrial complex. First use appears c. 1960. See cite below.

In Philadelphia, on the other hand, during a day of action against the prison-industrial complex, I saw a lot of cop cars being beaten up,

1960, New Left Review Limited (publisher), New Left Review, page 83:

[…]if we pursue the privatisation of prisons, a large industry will develop. Over the past two or three years many hon. Members have been lobbied by the private prison groups. They are already organised and are paying political consultants and lobbying companies. Some of them have paid Conservative Members—not Labour Members [to lobby for private prisons.¶The prison industrial complex already existed and Conservative Members were taking the King's shilling years ago in respect of that professional lobby.

1992 July 6, Barry Sheerman, “Prisons”, in parliamentary debates (Commons), volume 211, column 125:

[…]that while a person is incarcerated he can't commit a crime or they can't be continued wife abusers or whatever, is exactly the logic that is fueling the prison industrial complex that is going on for many decades, but has now become explosive.

1995 January, John Conyers Jr., “Taking Back Our Streets Act of 1995: Hearing Before The Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary”, in hearings (House of Representatives), Washington D.C.: United States Government Publishing Office, →ISBN, page 575:

The socioeconomic combination of prisons and the private businesses that supply them with goods and services.


Crown land

Crown land (countable and uncountable, plural Crown lands)

Aboriginal groups could apply to jointly manage all Crown land under the most radical overhaul of native title settlement proposed in Victoria.

2009 January 6, Jewel Topsfield, “Native title reform bid”, in The Age, Australia, retrieved 2014-08-26:

The Crown Estate confirmed today they would allow shooters taking part in one of two pilot culls to access Crown land in west Somerset. . . . The Crown Estate manages the Queen’s property portfolio but revenues go to the Treasury.

2013 September 21, Charlie Cooper, “Crown Estate permits badger cull on its land”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-08-26:

LINZ administers three million hectares of Crown land or eight percent of New Zealand's land area.

2014, “LINZ's Crown Property Role”, in Land Information New Zealand, Government of New Zealand, retrieved 2014-08-26:

The Province of Alberta recognizes its obligation under the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement (Constitution Act 1930) to transfer provincial Crown land back to the federal government to allow the settlement of aboriginal land claims.

2014 July 10, Lorne Beloud, “Opinion: In wake of decision, who owns Canada?”, in Ottawa Citizen, Canada, retrieved 2014-08-26:

(UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) In Britain and some Commonwealth countries, land that is owned by the state, nominally titled to the reigning King or Queen of England, and whose use and disposition is controlled by a government within that Commonwealth country or by an official representative of the monarch.


tzeniut

Hebrew צניעות, literally "modesty" or "privacy".

uder

Hebrew צניעות

(Jewish law) Standards of modesty in dress and conduct, especially between the sexes.


commission agent

en-noun

commission agent (plural commission agents)

(law) An agent entrusted with the possession of goods to be sold in the agent's name.

(law) A merchant earning a commission by selling goods belonging to others.


antistuffing

an antistuffing law

(US, finance, law) Preventing stuffing (the tax loophole).


pith and substance

In determining the “pith and substance” of the legislation, ‘it is necessary to identify the dominant or most important characteristic of the challenged law’.

c. 1985, Peter Hogg, Constitutional Law of Canada, 2nd edition, page 313:

(Canada, law) The content or subject matter, the leading feature or true nature and character of a law.


pendent jurisdiction

(US, law) The authority of a United States federal court to hear a closely related state law claim against a party already facing a federal claim.


gavel-to-gavel

From the fact that, in a court of law, a gavel is often used when opening a case and after the final jurisdiction.

After the experiment was widely deemed a success, the House voted 342-44 to make gavel-to-gavel broadcast permanent.

2010, David Brian Robertson, Loss of Confidence: Politics and Policy in The 1970s, →ISBN, page 32:

From the start of an official proceeding to the finish.


donatio mortis causa

donatio mortis causa (plural donationes mortis causa)

donatio inter vivos

antonym(s) of “a gift given during the donor's life”

From Latin dōnātiō (“donation, gift”) + mortis (“death”) + causā (“on account of”, postposition). Literally a gift on account of (one's) death.

(law) A deathbed gift: a future gift given in expectation of the donor's imminent death and only delivered upon the donor's death.


donatio inter vivos

donatio inter vivos (plural donationes inter vivos)

donatio mortis causa

antonym(s) of “a gift given in expectation of the donor's death”

From Latin dōnātiō (“donation, gift”) + inter (“between”) + vīvōs (“living”). Literally a gift between the living.

(law) a lifetime gift, a present or future gift given during the donor's lifetime.


color of law

The plaintiff claimed that under color of law the officer had deprived him of his civil rights.

(law, US) A mere semblance of legal right; a means to do something with the apparent authority of law but actually in contravention of law.


multimurder

Sergeant Vincensio Mahero once again received a call to view a multimurder scene that indicated it to be a professional execution, possibly of a political nature.


car clout

Yesterday's pleasant weather should have brought an increase in certain felonies — purse snatches, street holdups, car clouts, convenience-store stickups, ATM rips. There was no logical reason why crime should be down […]

2006, Michael A. Graham, The Snow Angel:

From there they went over the Little River Ranger Station about a mile away to complete a car clout report. The ranger was taking information on the car clout from Pam when I walked into the ranger station.

(US, colloquial) The crime of breaking into an automobile.


appriser

(Scots law) One who carries out an apprising.


taxocrat

"What we don't want is government by "taxocrats", continually meddling with the competitive practices that brought us the highest living standards and the capacity to outfight and outproduce all regimented peoples" he declared.

1944, Tax Topics: The National Magazine of Tax Accounting, volumes 4-5, page 25:

To the old adage that nothing is certain in life except death and taxes, a new one can be added: If the taxocrats continue unchecked, we will all soon be taxed to death!

1979, Gary Allen, Tax Target: Washington, '76 Press (1979), page 157

A federal balanced budget sounds good in political speeches, but in reality the idea is simply a taxocrat's dream, as it would become a constitutional order to cover all spending, even the unnecessary, deficit kind.

1997 March 24, “Budget Amendment Would Raise Taxes”, in The Record, Bergen County, New Jersey:

(informal, derogatory) A politician or bureaucrat supporting excessive taxes or spending.


read in

en-verb

read in (third-person singular simple present reads in, present participle reading in, simple past and past participle read in)

reads in (present singular third-person)
reading in (participle present)
read in (participle past)
read in (past)

(law) To judicially insert an official legal interpretation into a statute


halywercfolk

Learned borrowing from Old English hāliġ (“holy”) + weorc (“work”) + folc (“folk”).

For such persons within the bishopric of Durham as held their lands by the service of defending the corpse of St Cuthbert were called Halywercfolk, and claimed the privilege of not being forced to go out of the bishopric either by the King or Bishop.

1874, Thomas Blount, William Carew Hazlitt, Tenures of Land & Customs of Manors, page 429:

(law) In Old English law, tenants who held land by the service of repairing or defending a church or monument, whereby they were exempted from feudal and military services.


Holyworkfolk

More curious still is the position of certain tenants of the bishopric who called themselves Holyworkfolk, who claimed that their only duty was to pray

1877, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, Art, and Finance, volume 44, page 525:

This they naturally considered an indignity, and made a party against on the ground that were Holyworkfolk and held their lands for the defence of the body of St. Cuthbert, and not at the bishop's pleasure

1878, Thomas Duffus Hardy, “Preface”, in Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense: The Register of Richard de Kellawe, Lord Palatine and Bishop of Durham, page viii:

Record made before justices in eyre by elder men of the Holyworkfolk (Durham) and Northumberland of a sworn inquest held in the time of King Henry I concerning fishery rights in the Tyne

1991, R. C. van Caenegem, English Lawsuits from William I to Richard I: Henry II and Richard I, page 437:

(medieval English law) Tenants who held land by the service of repairing or defending a church or monument and were therefore exempt from feudal and military duties; specifically, the caretakers of the body of St Cuthbert.


stovec

I think it is because if a garage get a stovec and no one claims it, they dont^([sic]) get paid, not only that, they have to pay AADL too.

2008 July 16, Chocolate boy, “Re: Heavy Recovery”, in PrisonOfficer.org.uk, retrieved 2014-10-26:

If there's a car on your drive when you get home, and you can't get onto the drive yourself, there's no obstruction as such. However, it would be worth a phone call to the police (non emergency number) as you never know, the car might be an outstanding stovec, in which case we will come, and it will be removed.

2010 March 4, Damsel, “Parked on a private driveway without permission”, in PoliceSpecials.com, archived from the original on 2014-11-22:

(UK, law enforcement) A stolen car, van, lorry or other motor vehicle.


liberum veto

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

(historical, law, politics) A parliamentary rule in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, allowing any dissenting member of the legislature to force an immediate end to the current session and nullify any legislation that had already been passed.


voluntary agent

en-noun

voluntary agent (plural voluntary agents)

(law) A person (also called gestor) who acts on behalf of another (dominus), without the latter's prior consent. Such agency is called negotiorum gestio.


innocent agent

(law) A person who unknowingly, unintentionally, or under force or coercion commits a criminal act on behalf of another.


actionize

en-verb

actionize (third-person singular simple present actionizes, present participle actionizing, simple past and past participle actionized)

actionizes (present singular third-person)
actionizing (participle present)
actionized (participle past)
actionized (past)

(transitive, rare) To bring a legal action against; to sue.


after-tax

(finance) Remaining after tax has been deducted.


freeboot

freeboot (third-person singular simple present freeboots, present participle freebooting, simple past and past participle freebooted)

freeboots (present singular third-person)
freebooting (participle present)
freebooted (participle past)
freebooted (past)


Inspector Knacker

en-noun

Inspector Knacker (plural Inspector Knackers)

Coined by Private Eye as "Knacker of the Yard", a pun on knacker's yard and the practice of referring to Scotland Yard as the Yard.

You won't be smiling when Inspector Knacker pays you a visit.

However, just before he is discharged, the French ring up Inspector Knacker and say, "Look, I'm sorry we haven't made it in time, but we absolutely promise you that we will get it to you in another 48 hours, so please arrest this man again, as soon as he is discharged".

2003 June 18, Lord Goodhart, “Official Report of the Grand Committee on the Extradition Bill”, in parliamentary debates (House of Lords), column 349:

Reid wants to be top of the cops, issuing orders to Inspector Knackers and James Bonds with criminals and terrorists in his sights.

2007 January 24, the Editor, “Secretary for Public Safety”, in The Mirror:

Please note: Inspector Knacker has been known to query applications by phone in the early hours NZ time, so forewarn your family, friends and flatmates that you are not the subject of an Interpol inquiry.

2008, Georgina Pallfey, Working and Living in New Zealand, page 129:

But, on this occasion, caution wisely stayed his hand and he confined himself to poisoning the Birdas coffee only, reasoning that wiping out an entire Conservative Party Association branch, while desirable from the point of view of most decent folk, might, unfortunately, have the countervailing disadvantage of attracting the attention of Inspector Knacker.

(UK, countable or uncountable) A generic police officer, or the police in general.


SERT

w:Special Emergency Response Team (Queensland)

(law enforcement, Australia, Queensland) Acronym of Special Emergency Response Team..

Special Emergency Response Team
w:Special Emergency Response Team

(law enforcement, Canada) Acronym of Special Emergency Response Team..


PORT

w:Victoria Police Public Order Response Team

(law enforcement in Australia) Abbreviation of Public Order Response Team.


Mossos d'Esquadra

/ˌmɒsəʊz dɪˈskwɑːdɹə/

/ˌməʊsəʊz dɪˈskwɑːdɹə/

Unadapted borrowing from Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra (literally “team officers”).

unadapted borrowing

Coordinate term: Ertzaintza

Although Puigdemont has resisted internal political pressure to now formally declare Catalan independence, he has refused to rule out the move, which would escalate tensions further and could pit the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, against the thousands of Spanish Guardia Civil and national police officers deployed in Catalonia.

2017 October 22, Sam Jones, “Catalonia weighs up declaration of independence”, in the Guardian:


LPR

en-noun

LPR (countable and uncountable, plural LPRs)

(US, law enforcement) Abbreviation of license plate recognition.


Potter Stewart test

After Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who said "I know it when I see it" in regard to hardcore pornography.

2001 Bridges and Boundaries: Historians, Political Scientists, and the Study of International Relations
It may not be easy to give a precise, categorical, practical definition of "doing justice to the past," but the concept passes the Potter Stewart test on pornography — we recognize it when we see it or fail to see it, or at least are convinced that we do.

2007 American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation
While I continue to believe more in the Potter Stewart test, I thing Professor Feldman is to be commended for trying to impose some order on the chaos of religion and government, and I am grateful to him for discussing these issues with me

2012 The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe
For example, astrology and phrenology were once considered sciences and only later were cast out as pseudoscientific, so they clearly at one time passed the Potter Stewart test.

The informal test of identifying something based on whether one intuitively feels it belongs to a certain category.


robocop

From robo- + cop, after the film RoboCop (1987).

1990, Library and Information Technology Association (U.S.). National Conference, Michael Gorman, Convergence: Proceedings of the Second National Conference...
As the World Wars were succeeded by the Korean War, which melded into the Vietnam War, science fiction pictured numerous dystopias controlled by means of ever-watchful computer and robocops.

Opposite of natural monsters there are technological monsters such as terminators, cyborgs, and robocops—all of which undermine dichotomies between the artificial and the organic, the prosthetic and the natural.

2010, Tyson E. Lewis, Richard Kahn, Education Out of Bounds, page 1:

(science fiction) A cyborg police officer.


testilying

Blend of testifying + lying. Coined by New York City police officers, appearing in print in 1994 in the report of the Mollen Commission (see 1994 quotation).

Several officers also told us that the practice of police falsification in connection with such arrests is so common in certain precincts that it has spawned its own word: “testilying.“

[1994, Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department, Committee Report, page 36:

“Testilying,” police fabricating evidence or lying in court, is a type of police corruption.

2007, Jack R. Greene, “Courtroom testimony and ‘testilying’”, in The Encyclopedia of Police Science, volume 1, page 273:

Shadow vigilantism can also be seen in the conduct of officials within the system who feel morally justified in subverting the system because they see it as regularly and indifferently producing failures of justice.[…] It’s also apparent in police “testilying” to subvert search and seizure technicalities (and judicial toleration of it) and in prosecutorial overcharging to compensate for past perceived justice failures.

2018, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah Robinson, Shadow Vigilantes: How Distrust in the Justice System Breeds a New Kind of Lawlessness: Section III. The Subversions and Perversions of Shadow Vigilantism:

(US, law, informal, euphemistic) The act of a police officer giving false testimony (perjury).


anticipatory breach

anticipatory breach (plural anticipatory breaches)

(law) A breach of contract where one party indicates prior to the time of performance that it will not perform when performance is due.


hangman's jig

The struggling motions of a person being executed by hanging.


navigable waters

(law, US) Those waters that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide and/or are presently used, or have been used in the past, or may be susceptible for use to transport interstate or foreign commerce. A determination of navigability, once made, applies laterally over the entire surface of the waterbody, and is not extinguished by later actions or events which impede or destroy navigable capacity.


bylaw officer

(Canada) An agent of municipal law enforcement responsible for ensuring obedience to the bylaws.


peace officer

(US, Canada, law enforcement) A civil law enforcement officer with a duty to maintain law and order, i.e., a bylaw officer, a police officer, a sheriff, etc.


police brutality

The use of excessive, unjustified force, typically of a physical nature, but also including verbal abuse and psychological intimidation, by a police officer while carrying out, or under the cover of carrying out, law enforcement duties.

عنف الشرطة

use of excessive force by a police officer


sanctuary city

sanctuary city (plural sanctuary cities)

Regardless of any immediate connections Koch's directive might have had to sanctuary during the 1980s, by the time Congressional representatives were discussing the 1996 immigration reforms, New York City was coming up in policy debates as an example of a sanctuary city that should be targeted for sanctions.

2012, Randy K. Lippert, Sean Rehaag, Sanctuary Practices in International Perspective, page 227:

The president is upset with congressional leaders for slow-rolling his core campaign promise, and for failing to defund sanctuary cities in their spending bill.

2018 March 21, Elaina Plott, “Trump Vents His Anger Over Border-Wall Funding”, in The Atlantic:

Since the late 19th century, when Jane Addams established Hull-House, a social settlement that drew migrants, Chicago has seen itself as an entry point for newcomers, a sanctuary city that welcomes people from the outside.

2023 May 10, Julie Bosman, “Open-Armed Chicago Feels the Strains of a Migrant Influx”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, Canada) A city that allows undocumented immigrants to live and work without being arrested and deported by local authorities.


police protection

Law enforcement agency tasked to safeguard a community or a person from crime.


sumptuary law

The Sumptuary Laws have fallen into such a state of desuetude as was never before seen. Our fashionable coat is an amphibium between barn-sack and drayman’s doublet.

1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, chapter XIII, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):

In past societies based on ascribed status, formal rules and proclamations regulated lifestyle conventions. Sumptuary laws codified which classes could wear which garments. […] With the development of achieved status, we've abandoned sumptuary laws and given Lady Justice a blindfold.

2022, W. David Marx, chapter 2, in Status and Culture, Viking, →ISBN:

(historical) A law that attempts to regulate permitted consumption, especially of clothing, food, and luxury expenditures.


end of watch

The date and time at which a police officer was killed while on duty.


blood atonement

A controversial Mormon doctrine that taught that murder is so heinous that the atonement of Jesus Christ does not apply, and the perpetrator must instead have their blood shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering.


Tucker telephone

Tucker telephone (plural Tucker telephones)

Named after the Tucker State Prison Farm, where its inventor Dr. A. E. Rollins worked.

The inmate doctor wired him up on the "Tucker Telephone" with one wire to his penis and another to his big toe.

1992, British Medical Association, quoting Case report: Tucker State Prison Farm, Tucker, Arkansas (1966), Medicine Betrayed: The Participation of Doctors in Human Rights Abuses, Zed Books, page 33:

Although they enjoined the use of the Tucker telephone and similar instruments of torture, they noted that the Department of Corrections had dismissed a number of officials implicated in past violations and had instituted new rules to govern corporal punishment.

2000 March 18, Malcolm M. Feeley with Edward L. Rubin, Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America's Prisons, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 57:

A torture device for giving electric shocks, designed using parts from an old-fashioned crank telephone.


police violence

19 December 2014, Paul M Farber in The Guardian Online, Die-ins demand that we bear witness to black people's fears that they'll be next
Convened largely by black youth activists, well-attended marches against police violence in dozens of US cities are convincing displays of growing dissent – but the related acts of urgent public mourning are tools of moral indictment, not just protest. Activists are staging their own deaths because speaking out against systemic racism no longer feels like enough.


photospread

-At trial, officers who administered photospreads present positive identifications as evidence, and witnesses usually testify, too.

2018, Marc H. Bornstein, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development:

A police technique for identifying a person by having a witness select the person's photograph from a group.


people smuggling

The illegal transportation of a person or persons across an international border; human smuggling.


human smuggling

The illegal transportation of a person or persons across an international border.


rickburner

Wherever the magistrates interfere, the interference is always fatal; […] afraid of the vengeance of the rickburner, they dare not refuse (even if they wish it) allowance to the pauper.

1833, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, England and the English:


rule of man

(law) The absence of rule of law in which one person, or a group of persons, rules arbitrarily.


suspended sentence

suspended sentence (plural suspended sentences)

(law) A sentence which the offender serves in probation unless he/she commits another crime during the period the sentence is in force.

opgeskorte vonnis

a sentence which the offender serves in probation unless he/she commits another crime during the period the sentence is in force


war of aggression

war of aggression (plural wars of aggression)

The crime of war, the crime of the war of aggression, and the crime of aggression are clearly three different crimes with three different facts of the case. For a complex judgment of war, they nonetheless overlap with one another, and their separation seems to a large section of public opinion a mere juridical artifice.

2011, Carl Schmitt, edited by Timothy Nunan, Writings on War, Polity, →ISBN, page 149:

(international law) A military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense, usually for territorial gain and subjugation.


enurement

Att'y Gen'l Black, in his opinion, holds that the United States having subsequently acquired the Indian right, the title would enure to the state under the grant made to it, and therefore the treaty stipulation could only apply to such lands as would not pass by enurement, and which the United States might lawfully and consistently with its former grant sell and dispose of, as the even numbered sections.

1866, Abram Daniel Smith, Philip Loring Spooner, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Wisconsin, page 164:

If it is forgoing interest, or if it has the chance of paying someone a guaranteed amount even through ^([sic]) they have not earned it, it is all a form of giving up a part of income that could be enurement.

1983, Bonnie B. Katz, Proceedings of the National Health Lawyers Association's Eighth Annual Program on Health Law Update, page 149:

If the agreement is assigned, an enurement clause ensures that the assignee will be bound by the terms of the agreement.

2018, James M. Klotz, International Sales Agreements:

(law) One's right to have or control an asset.


Juan Doe

(US, law, law enforcement) A Latino male who is unknown, a John Doe of Latin descent.


Juanita Doe

(US, law, law enforcement) A Latina who is unknown, a Jane Doe of Latin descent.


FGC

FGC (countable and uncountable, plural FGCs)

female genital cutting
female genital cutting#English

(uncountable) Initialism of female genital cutting.

(countable, fandom slang, video games) Initialism of fighting game community.


freedom of panorama

(copyright law) A provision in copyright law that permits taking photographs or video footage, or creating other images (such as paintings), of buildings and sometimes artworks that are permanently located in a public place, and publishing such images without infringing copyright.


criminal psychology

Branch of psychology which studies the wills, thoughts, intentions and reactions of criminals.


presentment of Englishry

presentment of Englishry (plural presentments of Englishry)

(law, historical) successful proof or act of proving by the relatives of the deceased that one who had died suddenly was English, in order to avoid the fine levied (under the Norman kings) upon the hundred (an administrative subdivision) or township for the murder of a Norman


Bow Street Runner

Bow Street Runner (plural Bow Street Runners)

They were formally affiliated with the magistrate's office in Bow Street, Westminster, London.

(colloquial, historical) A member of an early police force founded in 1742 in London, England.


nonbailable

(specifically, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia) In relation to an offence, not automatically eligible for bail.


time theft

(business, law, human resources) The situation where an employee fraudulently receives compensation for an amount of time during which no work was performed.


en-proverb

if you can't do the time, don't do the crime

From do time (“to serve a prison sentence”).

One should not carry out an action if one is unwilling to handle the consequences.


Maxwellisation

James Clerk Maxwell
Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution
Robert Maxwell

From Maxwell + -isation (suffix forming nouns denoting the act, process, or result of doing something).
Sense 1 is named after the Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) who first formulated what is now called the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, a probability distribution originally used for describing particle speeds in idealized gases, in 1860. Sense 2 is named after the British media proprietor and fraudster Robert Maxwell (1923–1991) who brought a court case in respect of a 1969 British government report that was critical of his conduct. The Court of Appeal of England and Wales held that he should have been shown the draft final conclusions of the inquiry so that he could respond to them.

suffix

(British, law) A process whereby a person criticized in an official inquiry is given an opportunity to read and respond to the criticisms before the report of the inquiry is published.


snitch bitch

(prison slang, derogatory) A snitch; one who informs the authorities about another person.


prison ring

A ring worn on the finger and fashioned by hand in a prison, commonly from a celluloid item such as a toothbrush or a pen.


minimum security

A facility or part of a facility with minimal restrictions, designed to hold the least dangerous criminals of society.


maximum security

Younis is now serving 30 years in maximum security.

1990 June, J. Bennett, “Mission improbable”, in Washington Monthly, volume 22, number 5, page 22:

Mike Wallace: (Voiceover) […] They were released straight out of maximum security, solitary confinement, and then dropped off at this small-town bus stop nearby.

1993 December 26, “Crime and Punishment; Building More Prisons and Jails Does Not Seem to Be the Answer to High Rate of Crime in US”, in CBS_Sixty Minutes:

While in maximum security, Glennie has been assaulted four times.

2002 August 26, Kirk Mitchell, “Stuck Inside: Fakers deemed sane are often confined by the state indefinitely”, in Denver Post, page A-01:

...and this is the maximum security level.

c. 2008, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

a prison with more restrictions designed to hold the most dangerous criminals of society; supermax.


klopemania

(rare, archaic) A compulsion to steal; kleptomania.


bullyman

(Australian Aboriginal, slang, derogatory) A police officer.


jail cell

"Hitler's obsession with cars extended to ordering a new Mercedes from his jail cell in Landsberg prison that picked him up on his release in 1924."

2006, Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany, →ISBN, page 90:

"The issue might never have been resolved had not Charles Manson himself written from his jail cell, "I tend my hand in fellowship and love to the old sonsabitches who put me here, may they rot of cancer.""

"A day after being captured outside his 5,700 square-foot Brentwood estate, football legend O.J. Simpson spent Saturday under suicide watch in a 7-by-9 foot jail cell, where he is being held without bail as prosecutors prepare to seek murder indictments from the County Grand Jury."

1999, O. J. Simpson Facts and Fictions: News Rituals in the Construction of Reality, →ISBN, page 55:

A locked room to incarcerate an inmate in prison.


derogatory clause

en-noun

derogatory clause (plural derogatory clauses)

(law) A secret clause inserted into a testament and known by the testator alone, with a condition that no will made thereafter will be valid unless the same clause is inserted word for word (to guard against later wills extorted by violence, etc).


(law, US, Canada) Initialism of name, image, and likeness.


Magdalene asylum

Magdalene asylum (plural Magdalene asylums)

Named after Mary Magdalene, traditionally associated with prostitution and patron saint of penitent sinners.

(historical) A religious prison for prostitutes and unmarried mothers, usually as a source of forced labour.