rogatory

en-adj

rogatory (comparative more rogatory, superlative most rogatory)

more rogatory (comparative)
most rogatory (superlative)

Borrowed from French rogatoire, from Medieval Latin rogātōrius (“interrogatory”), from rogō (“I ask, enquire”), 1850s.

cog

(law) Seeking information or evidence, especially from a foreign court


familicide

en-noun

familicide (countable and uncountable, plural familicides)

Because of the familicide that wiped out his entire family, he will be charged with six counts of murder.

Familicide is the murder of family members by another family member. In other words, familicide is a multiple-victim homicide in which the killer's spouse or partner and one or more children are killed. Although familicide is relatively rare, it is nevertheless the most common form of mass killing.

2014, Albert Lee Strickland, “Familicide”, in Michael John Brennan, editor, The A–Z of Death and Dying: Social, Medical, and Cultural Aspects, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 204:

The murder of an entire family by a family member.


Streisand effect

Streisand effect (plural Streisand effects)

Coined in 2005 by Mike Masnick, after a 2003 incident in which singer Barbra Streisand attempted to have a picture of her house removed from a public collection of 12,000 images documenting coastal erosion in California.

No matter how effective your rebuttal may seem to be to you, a response will "bump" the problem into greater prominence and relevance in the search engine results, which then turns your headache into a migraine. This is doubly dangerous since "bumping" the negative information potentially introduces the "Streisand Effect" into the equation, which is something to avoid if at all possible. It is commonly defined as a phenomenon in which an attempt to censor or remove a piece of information on the web backfires, causing greater publicity.

2009, John W. Dozier, Sue Scheff, Google Bomb: The Untold Story of the $11.3M Verdict That Changed the Way We Use the Internet, HCI, →ISBN, page 40:

Say you discover that people aren't just talking about you, they're bashing you. Should you step in and try to stop them? Again, the answer is absolutely no! Leave them alone – you'll only make the problems worse and create a Streisand Effect if you try to hush them up.

2009, Kyle Lacy, Twitter Marketing For Dummies, For Dummies, →ISBN, page 215:

But that hasn't stopped Beck's lawyers from trying to shut down the site -- resulting in more blowback and another manifestation of the dreaded Streisand Effect!

2009 September 11, Jim Emerson, “Teaching the controversy”, Scanners, in Chicago Sun-Times, archived from the original on 2009-09-15:

Though, the action of the US government was intended to suppress the leaks, the ‘Streisand effect’ made sure that the outcome was exactly the opposite. People all over the world, who hadn’t even heard of the Website, were typing WikiLeaks.org on their keyboards only to find a site-unavailable message, which increased their curiosity. People sympathetic to WikiLeaks, in the meantime, had voluntarily mirrored the website in order to keep it online.

2010 December 17, K Vaidya Nathan, “Beware the Streisand effect”, in The Indian Express, The Indian Express Limited, retrieved 2012-10-29:

A phenomenon in which attempting to suppress an item of information attracts even more unwanted attention, thus furthering its dissemination.

Barbra Streisand
California Coastal Records Project


against the law

It's against the law / It was against the law / Oh, what the mama saw / It was against the law

1972, Paul Simon (lyrics and music), “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”, in Paul Simon:


cooping

The restriction (1835) of the time of voting to one day reduced the practice of cooping.

1907, William Page, The Victoria history of the county of Suffolk, volume 2:

Cooping, the political version of the shanghai, involved kidnapping citizens […]

1977, Aubrey C. Land, Lois Green Carr, Edward C. Papenfuse, Morris Leon Radoff, Law, society, and politics in early Maryland:

The Tories also engaged in "cooping," intimidating people into voting Tory.

2001, Paul Knepper, Explaining criminal conduct: theories and systems in criminology:

Since then, there have been many other theories, including death from delirium tremens, mugging, and "cooping" (the electioneering practice of kidnapping and holding people in rooms, plying them with alcohol and/or opium and then forcing them to vote repeatedly at different locations).

2014, Corinna Wagner, editor, Gothic Evolutions: Poetry, Tales, Context, Theory:

The practice of forcing unwilling participants to vote, often several times over, for a particular candidate in an election.


penal notice

(law) A warning endorsed on a court order, notifying the recipient that he or she is liable to committal to prison for breach of the order.


reattribution

reattribution (countable and uncountable, plural reattributions)

To professionals in the world of art, reattribution is not necessarily pejorative, even though it is often perceived that way by the general public. Reattribution can upgrade a work as well as downgrade it.

1994, John E. Conklin, Art Crime, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 54:

(art, crime) The process of determining whether artwork is real or fake, and, if fake, determining when and by whom it was created.


vestee

Droits réels is ambiguous, as sometimes denoting jura in rem, and sometimes jura in re (sensu stricto). This arises from the extension of jus in re to dominia, and of jus ad rem to obligationes or jura in personam.
Difficulty: Where a thing is subject to a series of rights, – is subject to a series of vested rights (descendible perhaps from present vestees), or to contingent rights to determinate parties, existing or not.#*

1885 John Austin ed Robert Campbell: Lectures on Jurisprudence or the Philosophy of Positive Law 5th edition Vol 2. p.852

1894 Samuel Lodge: The Home of the Champions 2nd ed.
The following extract from a private letter of the late Sir Joseph Banks is worth quoting . . . : "It matters not to the heirs . . .whether the estate is held by Knight Service or by Grand Serjeantry. . . Scrivelsby. . . is held by the proprietor with all the benefits by the common law provided for the personal advantages of proprietary of land: it may be bequeathed by will, or alienated by sale or gift; and if so alienated in prejudice of the next heir, he cannot have any claim against the vestee, unless it arises out of special bargains or agreements made and confirmed previously to the alienation."

All benefits to vestees, or their designees, under the Vesting Benefit Trust shall be by monthly payments, except that upon application of the vestee, or his designee, . . . the Trustees may, in their sole, absolute and unreviewable discretion, accelerate payment of the balance of the vesting benefit to which a vestee, or his designee, may be entitled.

1967 Transcript of Record Supreme Court of the United States October Term, 1967 No. 69

. . . the Treasury regulations say that on a termination, all priority must go to the retirees first, and unless they get a hundred cents on the dollar, no vestees can get anything. . . And . . . they had cut the retirees and gave something to the vestees. . . And they gave something to people that weren't vested at all?

1972 Private Welfare and Pension Plan Study, 1972 Hearing Private Welfare & Pension Plans May 1, 1972 ST. Louis, MO. U.S. Government Printing Office Washington: 1972

(law) The entity or party in which something has been vested.


kleptocrat

The difference between a kleptocrat and a wise statesman is merely on of degree: a matter of just how large a percentage of the tribute extracted from producers is retained by the elite, and how much the commoners appreciate the public uses to which the redistributed tribute is put.

1997, Diamond Jered, Guns, Germs, and Steel, W. W. Norton & Co, page 276:


inspectorate

What makes a great primary? Let's deal with this one straight away – it isn't what Ofsted says. All the inspectorate has cared about in the past few years is data progression in maths and literacy.

2014 September 23, A teacher, “Choosing a primary school: a teacher's guide for parents”, in The Guardian:

Once the next stage of funding is agreed, EWR Co will submit the DCO [Development Consent Order] application to the Planning Inspectorate, which will examine the proposals (during which time the public can comment on the application).

2023 November 15, Chris Howe, “East West Rail and the Cambridge connection”, in RAIL, number 996, page 57:


inside job

... while the police are calling it an inside job just because the old lady's nephew teaches a Bible class.

1908, O. Henry, The Complete Works of O. Henry [pseud.].: The gentle grafter, page 142:

It seems to me it must have been what the police at home call "an inside job"; because whoever it was apparently knew the combination of the safe.

1921, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter 10, in Alias The Lone Wolf:

In Britain, where the British BeeKeepers Association (BBKA) has been urging members to microchip their hives for some time, the continuing mystery and the belief that the crimes are inside jobs are taking their toll.

2017 September 23, “From north Wales to Norfolk, distraught beekeepers ask: who’s stealing our hives?”, in The Observer:

(idiomatic, criminology) A crime or other illicit action committed by or with the assistance of someone either having a relationship with a victim or entrusted with access to the victim's affairs and premises.


misbrand

en-verb

misbrand (third-person singular simple present misbrands, present participle misbranding, simple past and past participle misbranded)

misbrands (present singular third-person)
misbranding (participle present)
misbranded (participle past)
misbranded (past)

(law) In the law of food and drugs, to convey false or misleading information about a product.


misbranded

en-adj

misbranded (comparative more misbranded, superlative most misbranded)

more misbranded (comparative)
most misbranded (superlative)

(US, law) Of a product, containing incorrect information on the label that would tend to deceive consumers as to any aspect of the product.


peace bond

"... We're scared for you, and we think you oughta do something about him."
Atticus smiled wryly. "Do what? Put him under a peace bond?"

1960 July 11, Harper Lee, chapter 23, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:

“She's awready^([sic]) about to get us put under a peace bond. She's all the time spying in that alley behind her shutters.”

a. 1969, John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, Penguin, published 1981, →ISBN, page 151:

(Canada, US, law) A court order forbidding one party to bother another.

lähestymiskielto

Court order forbidding one party to bother another


goods and sales tax

en-noun

goods and sales tax (plural goods and sales taxes)

goods and services tax
goods and services tax

A tax similar to goods and services tax, in certain countries and states.


juvenile delinquent

juvenile delinquent (plural juvenile delinquents)

This cow-creamer, in case you're interested, was a silver jug or pitcher or whatever you call it shaped, of all silly things, like a cow with an arching tail and a juvenile-delinquent expression on its face, a cow that looked as if it were planning, next time it was milked, to haul off and let the milkmaid have it in the lower ribs.

1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII:

(law) A persistent young offender; an antisocial minor, one who has committed criminal acts such as theft or violence.


purparty

From Old French porpartie, from por (“for”) and partie (“a part”). Compare Old French purpart (“a respective part”).

uder

1793 October 6, Horace Walpole, letter to “the Miss Berrys” (sisters Mary and Agnes Berry),
I am forced to eat all the game of your purparties, as well as my own thirds.

(law) A share, part, or portion of an estate allotted to a coparcener.


petit jury

From Middle English petite jury, petit jury, from Anglo-Norman [Term?].

Though far smaller than Greek juries (some five hundred jurors had sat in judgment of Socrates), American grand juries, criminal petit juries, and civil juries would enable ordinary Americans to participate directly and daily in American government.

2006, Akhil Reed Amar, America's Constitution: A Biography:

(law) A regular trial jury, assembled to determine criminal or civil liability.


grand jury

From Middle English graunde jurie, from Anglo-Norman graund juree. Named because it typically has more jurors than the petit jury.

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
Though the current wave of die-ins began after grand juries in Ferguson and New York City refused to indict the cops who used lethal force against Michael Brown and Eric Garner, they tap into a deep well of what professor Salamishah Tillet calls “civic estrangement” from a state that ignores excessive police violence against black and brown people.

(law) A group of citizens assembled by the government to hear evidence against an accused, and determine whether an indictment for a crime should be brought.

(law) The legal process that uses such a jury


DT

en-noun

DT (countable and uncountable, plural DTs)

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of (police) detective.


rebutter

/ɹɪˈbʌtə(ɹ)/

(law) A rebuttal; the answer of a defendant in matter of fact to a plaintiff's surrejoinder.


in force

Some of the old laws against treason are no longer in force.


lay open

en-verb

lay open (third-person singular simple present lays open, present participle laying open, simple past and past participle laid open)

lays open (present singular third-person)
laying open (participle present)
laid open (participle past)
laid open (past)

(patent law, Japan and South Korea) To publish a patent for initial public review, prior to the formal application for registration.


retroactivity

en-noun

retroactivity (usually uncountable, plural retroactivities)

(law) The application of a law to events that took place before it was made.

retroaktivita

law: the application of a law to events that took place before it was made


survival statute

survival statute (plural survival statutes)

(law) A statute that preserves for his estate a decedent's cause of action for infliction of pain and suffering and related damages suffered up to the moment of death.


surrebutter

From sur- + rebutter, on the pattern of surrejoinder

(law) The plaintiff's reply in pleading to a defendant's rebuttal.


surrejoinder

The captain-general gave a surrejoinder of still greater length and legal acumen.

1852, Washington Irving, Tales from the Alhambra:

(law) A plaintiff's answer to the defendant's rejoinder.


pain and suffering

(law) A species of damages that one may recover for physical or mental pain that results from a wrong done.


wrongful death statute

wrongful death statute (plural wrongful death statutes)

(law) A statute that provides relief from the common law rule that the death of an individual cannot be the basis of a cause of action in a civil suit.

estatuto de la muerte por negligencia de otro


property tax

A tax, usually ad valorem, charged on the basis of the fair market value of property. The scope of taxable property varies by jurisdiction and it may include personal property in addition to real estate.


mounted police

A unit of the civil police who are specifically trained to serve duty on horseback. Their duties can be ceremonial, or often for crowd control, and to police areas of difficult access or wilderness areas.


riot police

A unit of the police specifically trained to deal with rioting crowds. They use special equipment for personal defense as well as for crowd control and dispersal.

policia antiavalots

a unit of police specifically trained to deal with rioting crowds

polícija po oxráne obščéstvennovo porjádka

поли́ция по охра́не обще́ственного поря́дка


diplomatic immunity

A diplomat's immunity to prosecution and/or litigation under local law.


GPL

General Public License
w:GNU General Public License

(computing, copyright law) Initialism of General Public License.


GPL

en-verb

GPL (third-person singular simple present GPLs, present participle GPLing, simple past and past participle GPLed)

GPLs (present singular third-person)
GPLing (participle present)
GPLed (participle past)
GPLed (past)

(computing, copyright law, transitive, colloquial) To release under the GPL.


mutual will

(law) A pair of identical documents executed by a married couple, one signed by the husband, the other by the wife, intended to create an irrevocable contract insuring identical dispositions of their property upon the death of either or both.


outlawry

en-noun

outlawry (countable and uncountable, plural outlawries)

From outlaw + -ry, after Anglo-Norman utlagarie, utlarie et al., and Late Latin utlagaria.

Notwithstanding any disposition made or to be made , by virtue or colour of any attainder , outlawry , fugacy , or other forfeiture
1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Enchantress, pages 42–23:
The palace was confiscated, and its rich furniture sold; the Marchese di Montefiore was summoned to appear on a charge of sorcery; he came not to answer the accusation, and sentence of outlawry was passed against him.

c. 1649, John Milton, Observations upon the Articles of Peace with the Irish Rebels […]

(law, historical) A declaration that an individual cannot benefit from the protection of law in a jurisdiction.

fredløshed

declaration removing someone from protection of law


will contract

(law) An agreement entered into between two parties for the exchange of a current performance by one for a future bequest by the other.


mirror will

(law) A pair of identical documents executed by two people in order to ensure identical dispositions of their property upon the death of either or both.


residuary estate

residuary estate (plural residuary estates)

(law) Any portion of the testator's estate that is not specifically devised to someone in the will, or any property that is part of such a specific devise that fails (for example, due to the death of the intended beneficiary preceding that of the testator).


residuary

(law) With respect to a will, relating to the portion of an estate which was not disposed of in the will, or for which the directions in the will could not be carried out.


playright

playright (countable and uncountable, plural playrights)

Copyright in the specific sense is, however, of less importance to the dramatic author than playright or performing right[…]

1912, Richard Rogers Bowker, Copyright, Its History and Its Uses, page 162:

(law, dated) The exclusive right to perform a dramatic work


elective share

(law) A proportion of a decedent's estate which the surviving spouse may claim, as a substitute for what they were left in the decedent's will.


Restatement

(law) Any of several treatises published by the American Law Institute in which a group of legal scholars within a field of law set forth the principles of that field of law based on legal precedents.


surviving spouse

surviving spouse (plural surviving spouses)

(law) A spouse that outlives the person to whom they are married, thereby obtaining legal rights with respect to the property of the deceased spouse.

(taxation, US) An unmarried taxpayer whose spouse has been deceased for less than two taxable years, and who provides a home for one or more dependents of the deceased.


FI

FI (countable and uncountable, plural FIs)

(law enforcement) Initialism of field interview/interrogation.


black-letter law

(law) The law as a set of specific concrete rules set down by longstanding precedents.


judgement proof

(law, of a defendant) Exempt from the payment of debts, either because of insufficient funds or because of protection by statute.


spirit of the law

The interpretation of the law towards the end of providing justice, even if this interpretation does not fall within the law as written.


letter of the law

(singular only) The strict interpretation of the law or rules.


JR

(Hong Kong, law, informal) judicial review


accessory before the fact

accessory before the fact (plural accessories before the fact)

(law) One who commands or counsels an actionable offense, not being present at its commission.


HB

(law, politics, often followed by a number) Initialism of house bill (“a bill proposed in or passed by a legislative house”). (Compare SB.)


swarming

(colloquial, Canada) A crime where an unsuspecting innocent bystander is attacked by several culprits at once, with no known motive.


grant-back

(law) In U.S. patent law, a license under which a party grants another the right to use a patent under the condition that the licensee agrees to grant the licensor a license with respect to any improvements to that patent made by the licensee.


grant-forward

(law) In U.S. patent law, a provision accompanying the license of a patent under which a party agrees not only to grant a licensee the right to use a patent, but also to grant the licensee a license to any improvements made on the existing patent.


but for

This relevance can in many cases, as here, be tested by the sine qua non or ‘but for’ rule.

1985, Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart, Tony Honoré, Causation in the Law, page xlv:

When the expert constructs the "but for" world, he or she must construct it by taking into account how the plaintiff could have adjusted or did adjust to the changed circumstances.

2003, Mark A. Glick, Lara A. Reymann, Richard Hoffman, Intellectual Property Damages: Guidelines and Analysis, Wiley, →ISBN, page 37:

But it is important to realise that but for causation is no more than indicative of true legal causation.

2003, A. P. Simester, G. R. Sullivan, Criminal Law: Theory and Doctrine, page 71:

But in important ways the ‘but for’ test obscures the true role played by causal principles in assessing legal responsibility.

2006, Tal Becker, Terrorism and the State: Rethinking the Rules of State Responsibility, page 291:

(law) Pertaining to a test of causation whereby an agent or action is considered to have caused an event (and therefore to be responsible and/or liable for said event) if, had said agent or action not existed, the event would not have taken place.


K-9 unit

Humorous homophone of canine from an old vaudeville show.

(US) A police dog or a police dog and its handler.


severable

en-adj

severable (comparative more severable, superlative most severable)

more severable (comparative)
most severable (superlative)

(law, economics) Capable of being separated.


police dog

A man who attacked three police officers and a police dog at Nottingham on April 4 has pleaded guilty to two counts of actual bodily harm, assault with intent to resist arrest, assault of an emergency worker, possession of a bladed article, possession of an offensive weapon, and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

2020 April 22, “Network News: Man attacks BTP officers after being refused travel”, in Rail, page 11:

A dog trained and employed by the police to pursue suspects or sniff out contraband.


Totten trust

Derived from Matter of Totten, 179 N.Y. 112 (1904), the case decided by the Court of Appeals of New York which established the legality of this practice.

(law) A form of trust created where one party (the settlor of the trust) places money in a bank account or security with instructions that, upon the settlor's death, whatever is in that account will pass to a named beneficiary.


settlor

Once the trust deed is drawn up and the asset transferred to the trustee, the settlor no longer owns the asset; his personal creditors therefore cannot seize it to satisfy their claims. […]

2020, Katharina Pistor, “2: Coding Land”, in The Code of Capital […] , Princeton University Press, →ISBN:

(trust law) A person who settles property on express trust for the benefit of beneficiaries.


bailor

(law) One who bails property; one who places property in the hands of another (called a bailee) for safekeeping.


bailee

(law) One who holds bailed property; one who takes possession of the property of another (called a bailor) in order to keep that property safe for the other.


injunct

en-verb

injunct (third-person singular simple present injuncts, present participle injuncting, simple past and past participle injuncted)

injuncts (present singular third-person)
injuncting (participle present)
injuncted (participle past)
injuncted (past)

Back-formation from injunction by analogy with adjunct, conjunct.

(law, transitive) To put an injunction against. (Used both of the party who applies for the injunction and of the judge who grants it.)


junk science

en-noun

junk science (countable and uncountable, plural junk sciences)

His testimony was worse than science fiction: it was junk science.

Tom Hockaday was an APCO employee, and March 1993 found him working closely with Philip Morris vice president Ellen Merlo to develop scientific articles to defend secondhand smoke and promote the idea that the EPA work was “junk science.”

2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, chapter 5, in Merchants of Doubt:

Climate policy is being dragged into the culture wars with misinformation and junk science being spread across the internet by a relatively small group of individuals and groups, according to a study.

2022 June 9, Matthew Taylor, “Climate policy dragged into culture wars as a ‘delay’ tactic, finds study”, in The Guardian:

Our field falls neither in the category of immediately acceptable DNA experts at one end of the spectrum nor in the category of the immediately unacceptable so-called junk sciences at the other end.

2006, Roger W. Shuy, Linguistics in the Courtroom: A Practical Guide, page 99:

(derogatory) Assertions or methods that have the appearance, but not the actuality, of scientific legitimacy.


criminal record

criminal record (plural criminal records)

A record of the past crimes of which someone has been convicted.


pro se

(law) Representing oneself (in court); without an attorney.


litigant in person

litigant in person (plural litigants in person)


petty larceny

petty larceny (countable and uncountable, plural petty larcenies)

(law) A misdemeanor larceny; an act of theft wherein the amount stolen is insufficient to constitute grand larceny.


natural law

natural law (countable and uncountable, plural natural laws)

Thus, for example, it is a natural law, that he who has been the author of any damage ought to repair it.

1850 [1689], Jean Domat, translated by William Strahan, edited by Luther S. Cushing, The Civil Law in Its Natural Order, 2nd edition, volume 1, page 65:

For Maritain, natural law is not a written law; it is immanent in nature.

1999, William Sweet, “Maritain, Jacques (1882–1973)”, in The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia, →ISBN, page 534:

The content of the natural law is the substantive account of ways of living that bring humanity to its natural good. In this broad sense, the natural law is much broader than law understood as a specific human institution.

2010, Roger A. Shiner, “Law and Its Normativity”, in Dennis Patterson, editor, A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 424:

(law, philosophy) The set of universal legal or moral principles said to be discernible from nature by reason alone; one of these principles.

One of the reasons why it is sometimes felt that natural law is a predominantly rationalistic philosophy is because it has been associated with the concepts of the state of nature and of the original contract.

1970, Mark H. Waddicor, Montesquieu and the Philosophy of Natural Law, page 40:

Another component of natural law is the view that some specific moral norms follow from these principles in such a way that it is easy for people to see their truth, even though it is possible, because of cultural distortion or personal immorality, that people be ignorant of them.

1992, Joseph Boyle, “Natural Law and the Ethics of Traditions”, in Robert P. George, editor, Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays, →ISBN, page 11:

Buckle […] argues that Grotius and Pufendorf understood Natural Law as a science of morals grounded in human nature.

2007, W. Duncan Reekie, Spiritual Capital, Natural Law and the Secular Market Place, →ISBN, page 21:

(law, philosophy) A theory describing or positing such principles.


pretermitted spouse

pretermitted spouse (plural pretermitted spouses)

(law) A spouse who would likely stand to inherit under a will, but was not included in the will because he or she was not yet married to the testator at the time the will was written.


pretermitted child

pretermitted child (plural pretermitted children)

(law) A child who would likely stand to inherit under a will, except that the testator did not know of the child at the time the will was written, usually because the child was not yet born.


pretermitted heir

pretermitted heir (plural pretermitted heirs)

(law) A person who would likely stand to inherit under a will, except that the testator did not know of the party or of the relationship at the time the will was written.


minovery

(law) Poaching by means of a mechanical trap or snare.


death warrant

An official warrant that authorizes capital punishment.


BNS

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita
w:Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita

(India, criminal law) Initialism of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the official criminal code of India.


DWOP

without prejudice
without prejudice#English

(law, of a court case) Abbreviation of dismissed without prejudice.

(law, of a court case) Abbreviation of dismissed for want of prosecution.


high treason

(law) In some jurisdictions, a criminal offence of treason including features regarded as more severe than ordinary treason.


undiscoverable

en-adj

undiscoverable (comparative more undiscoverable, superlative most undiscoverable)

more undiscoverable (comparative)
most undiscoverable (superlative)

(law) Not subject to being produced in response to a discovery request.


district attorney

en-noun

district attorney (plural district attorneys)

(US) The title of the local public official who represents the government in the prosecution of alleged criminals.

fiscal

the title of the local public official who represents the government in the prosecution of alleged criminals


discovery request

discovery request (plural discovery requests)

(law) A legal document filed in connection with litigation, and describing documents, materials, or information which the opposing party is requested to produce.


request for admission

request for admission (plural requests for admission)

(law) A legal document filed in connection with litigation, asking the opposing party to affirm or deny the truth of a statement.


request for production

request for production (plural requests for production)

(law) A legal document filed in connection with litigation which asks the opposing party to provide documents or other physical objects.


Romanist

The foundations of present views of Roman civil procedure were laid by the Austrian Romanist Moriz Wlassak [...]

1951, Hans Julius Wolff, Roman Law: An Historical Introduction, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 229:

(law) A scholar of Roman law and jurisprudence.


Romanist

en-adjective

Romanist (comparative more Romanist, superlative most Romanist)

more Romanist (comparative)
most Romanist (superlative)

Even in England the Romanist tradition not only remained alive but received strong new impulses in Oxford and Cambridge, where the teaching of the "civil"—i.e., Roman—law was never interrupted.

1951, Hans Julius Wolff, Roman Law: An Historical Introduction, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 207:

(law) Pertaining to Roman law and jurisprudence.


deceptively misdescriptive

en-adj

deceptively misdescriptive (comparative more deceptively misdescriptive, superlative most deceptively misdescriptive)

more deceptively misdescriptive (comparative)
most deceptively misdescriptive (superlative)

(law, US) In U.S. trademark law, misdescriptive in a way that is likely to deceive consumers in a way that influences the decision to purchase.


conservatorship

en-noun

conservatorship (countable and uncountable, plural conservatorships)

(law) The legal status of a conservator, similar to guardianship or trusteeship.

However, the last few years of his life were primarily defined by his troubled family life—he is estranged from many of his relatives, at one point alleging that they tried to place him under a conservatorship[…]

2022 November 6, Emma Garland, “Aaron Carter was the millennium’s bubblegum bad boy – and the victim of a rapacious music industry”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(law) The state of being under the control of a conservator.


conservatee

Formed by analogy from conservator, replacing the active suffix "-or" with the passive "-ee."

(law) A person who the court has determined requires a conservator to handle their estate or affairs.


affirmance

affirmance (countable and uncountable, plural affirmances)

Either affirm + -ance or from Old French afermance

Of these 248 appeals the Appellate Division reviewed 4, rendering 3 affirmances and 1 reversal, 75% affirmances, 25% reversals.

1934, Report of the Commission on the Administration of Justice in New York State, page 388:

The District [of Columbia] authored an amicus brief on behalf of 18 states urging affirmance.

2021, Harrison Stark and Loren Alikhan, A false choice between state sovereignty and multi-racial democracy, in: SCOTUSblog (Feb 24 2021)

(countable, law) A decision upholding the decision of a lower court or agency


insurance fraud

insurance fraud (countable and uncountable, plural insurance frauds)

Some people have committed insurance fraud by setting their houses on fire and claiming that the fire was an accident.

(law) Receiving insurance policy-based compensation by deceitfully causing an event that, if it were accidental, would lead to a rightful claim for said compensation.

vakuutuspetos

receiving insurance policy-based compensation by deceitfully causing an event that, if it were accidental, would lead to a rightful claim for said compensation


hochepoche

A variant of hotchpotch, itself a variant of hotchpot, from Old French hochepot.


when, as, and if

The dividend on the preferred stock shall be payable in equal amount to the dividend on the common stock when, as, and if the Company declares a dividend on the common stock.

(law, finance, business) Used to indicate the timing and contingency of some obligation in contracts, especially financial.

jos ja kun

conjugation indicating time and contingency


champerty

champerty (countable and uncountable, plural champerties)

From Middle English champartie, from Middle French champart (“field rent (portion of produce of field paid to feudal lord)”), probably from Latin campī (“fields”) + pars (“part”).

der

(law) The investing of money into an individual's lawsuit.


clear title

en-noun

clear title (countable and uncountable, plural clear titles)

(law) Full ownership of something, usually land, that is free of any encumbrances.


nunc pro tunc

(law) Performed so as to have the same legal force and effect as if it had been performed at an earlier time.


affirmative defense

affirmative defense (plural affirmative defenses)

(law) A defense against a suit or criminal charge that asserts mitigating facts rather than contesting the main fact of the allegation.


prison cell

The room to which a prisoner is confined in a prison.


police blotter

(US) A register, maintained by the desk sergeant, of people arrested or brought in for questioning to a police station; (UK) charge sheet.


dolose

Borrowed from Latin dolosus; compare dolus.

That having been obtained, everything should be restored to the former position, and the dolose party be condemned.

1854, Patrick Mac Chombaich de Colquhoun, A Summary of the Roman Civil Law:

Several texts tell us, however, that when the owner was a minor, there is a remedy against the dolose slave.

1908, William Warwick Buckland, The Roman Law of Slavery: The Condition of the Slave, page 692:

A dolose act was an act committed with a view to causing damage. […] a dolose act will by construction always be culpable; on the other hand, a culpable act might either be dolose, if the occurrence of the harm was intended, or not, if it was not.

2009, Eric Descheemaeker, The Division of Wrongs: A Historical Comparative Study, →ISBN, page 72:

(rare, historical, law) Deceitful, with hidden malice.


JNOV

Abbreviation of judgment notwithstanding (the) verdict.

abbreviation of

(law) A decision by a judge that sets aside a jury's earlier verdict in the same case based on a finding that the jury's determination was incorrect as a matter of law.


declaratory judgment

en-noun

declaratory judgment (plural declaratory judgments)

(law) A ruling of a court in a civil case which declares the rights, duties, or obligations of each party in a dispute, but does not necessarily award any damages or other relief.

viðurkenningardómur

ruling which declares the rights, duties, or obligations of each party in a dispute


advisory opinion

advisory opinion (plural advisory opinions)

(law) An opinion issued by a court that does not have the effect of resolving a specific legal case, but merely advises on the constitutionality or interpretation of a law.


as a matter of law

The advantages are altogether undefined and uncertain, and cannot, as a matter of law, be set off against the positive injury arising to a man from his character being defamed.

1839, The Law Journal reports for the year 1839, page 316:

It is not necessary for the barrister to give his reasons, but if we saw enough on the face of the document to shew that the statement was not reasonably sufficient, we should say as a matter of law that his decision was wrong.

1848, The Law Journal reports for the year 1848, page 38:

When, however, from the evidence, there is a presumption of law, the neglect of the judge to tell the jury that, as a matter of law, certain facts being proved, they must assume certain other facts to be true, or their refusal to do so is ground for a new trial as a matter of right.

1892, John Houston Merrill, Thomas Johnson Michie, Charles Frederic Williams, The American and English Encyclopedia of Law, Vol. 19, p. 58

We reaffirm our opinion that the evidence in this case did not conclusively show that the acts and conduct of appellant at the time were of such nature and character as would, as a matter of law, make him guilty of provoking a difficulty, so as to cut off wholly his right of self-defense.

1909, The Lawyers' Reports Annotated, Book 22, p. 524:

...the plaintiff's lawyer and the defendant's lawyer can each stand up and move for judgment as a matter of law in their favor.

2015, Stephen N. Subrin, Margaret Y.K. Woo, Litigating in America: Civil Procedure in Context, p. 175


trustor

(trust law) A person who creates a trust.


honorary trust

(law) A device by which a person establishes a trust for which there is neither a charitable purpose, nor a private beneficiary to enforce the trust (such as a trust for the care of pets or maintenance of cemetery plots), for which trustee is bound by honor, but not by law, to carry out the wishes of the trustor.


astrict

en-verb

astrict (third-person singular simple present astricts, present participle astricting, simple past and past participle astricted)

astricts (present singular third-person)
astricting (participle present)
astricted (participle past)
astricted (past)

Latin astrictus, past participle of astringere. See astringe.

to astrict lands


shell game

Another common form of short con is the shell game. This scam has the advantage of giving the criminal the ability to rip off many marks all at one location.

2009, Michael Benson, Cons and Frauds, Infobase, →ISBN, page 21:

A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess which of three small cups (or shells) a pea-sized object is concealed under, after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight-of-hand trickery.

тука има тука няма

game which requires the bettor to guess under which of three small cups a pea-sized object has been placed

Any confidence scheme, especially one involving the rapid movement of investment funds to a location beyond recovery.


mineral right

Near-synonym: mines and minerals

(law) The right to exploit the mineral resources located on or, especially, beneath a parcel of land.


MMA

en-noun

MMA (countable and uncountable, plural MMAs)

(Islamic finance, law) Initialism of master murabaha agreement.


planning permission

planning permission (countable and uncountable, plural planning permissions)

/ˈplænɪŋ pəˈmɪʃən/

/ˈplænɪŋ pɚˈmɪʃən/

The term was possibly introduced by the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 (10 & 11 George VI, chapter 51) of the United Kingdom.

If I am not sure whether what I want to do needs planning permission, how can I find out? You can write to your Local Planning Authority and ask them to give you a ruling (or, as the Act [the Town and Country Planning Act 1947] calls it, a 'determination') whether you need planning permission or not, and if you disagree with their ruling you can appeal to the Minister.

1949, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Central Office of Information (Great Britain), Town and Country Planning: The 1947 Act; 144 Questions and Answers, number 9, London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, →OCLC, question 15, page 8:

At the Newcastle end, the first intention was to erect a steel lattice tower above the platforms at Newcastle Central station, immediately over an existing telecommunications apparatus room, but planning permission for a tower of the required height could not be obtained.

1964 August, “The NER's microwave radio-telephone begins work”, in Modern Railways, page 129:

The real wealth of information that could be drawn from planning permissions and refusals concerning housing, offices, industry, shops, etc., remains a largely untapped source and a number of assertions appear in the daily press and elsewhere about delays in granting planning permissions which only too often cannot be either confirmed or refuted, let alone be judged against statistics showing the wider context of the implementation of planning permissions.

1978, J[ohn] T[erence] Coppock, L[eonard] F[rank] Gebbett, “Review No. 15: The Statistics of Town and Country Planning”, in W[ynne] F[rederick] Maunder, editor, Land Use […] and Town and Country Planning […] (Reviews of United Kingdom Statistical Sources; VII), Oxford: Published for the Royal Statistical Society and the Social Science Research Council by Pergamon Press, →ISBN, section 1.4 (Survey for Plans), paragraph 1.4.1, page 113:

Difficulties arise when a use is abandoned and resumed. The question is whether planning permission is needed for resumption. Where a new planning permission is granted and implemented, the old use rights are lost. Planning permission runs with the land once implemented; cessation of use does not prevent resumption later on (this is particularly important in mineral working). Whereas a planning permission may be replaced by another planning permission, which is implemented, it is normally only uses that did not originally have planning permission that can be abandoned.

1997, Keith Thomas, “Legal Aspects of Development Control”, in Development Control: Principles and Practice, London, Bristol, Pa.: UCL Press, →ISBN, page 46:

The UK has possessed a land-use planning system since 1948 which allows substantial discretion in the consideration of the environmental implications of new development. It is possible for local planning authorities (LPAs) to prepare plans in which environmental policies are emphasised and to refuse development, or to impose conditions for planning permissions, for environmental reasons.

2003, Christopher Wood, “EIA [Environmental Impact Assessment] in the UK”, in Environmental Impact Assessment: A Comparative Review, 2nd edition, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2013, →ISBN, page 52:

Northumberland County Council will need to grant itself planning permission to build the stations in its area (Ashington, Bedlington, Bebside, Newsham and Seaton Delaval) and will need to receive planning permission from North Tyneside Council for Northumberland Park station.

2021 June 16, Philip Haigh, “North East passenger plans take an important step forward”, in RAIL, number 933, page 28:

(British, construction, law) Legal permission granted by a government authority to construct on one's land, or to change the use of the land.

George VI
Sandleford
Town and Country Planning Act 1947
West Berkshire Council

omgevingsvergunning

legal permission granted by a government authority to construct on one's land, or to change the use of the land


remainder trust

remainder trust (plural remainder trusts)

(law) A trust which is funded by the remainder of the trustors estate left over after all specific bequests have been funded.


restraining order

restraining order (plural restraining orders)

2007, Steven Wilson, "Normal", Porcupine Tree, Nil Recurring.
Prescription drugs, they help me through the day / And that restraining order keeps me well at bay / And what's normal now, anyway?

(law) An order issued by a court of law or other legal authority for a specified timeframe forbidding the restrained party from contacting and close proximity to the protected party and other restrictions, usually banning the possession of arms.

限制令

order forbidding contacting and close proximity to the protected party

On February 13, 1974, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a temporary restraining order against the council to prevent it from enforcing a January 28, 1974, temporary rollback order for Nassau County police salaries. On February 16, 1974, the court issued another temporary restraining order preventing the Council from conducting further proceedings, including a hearing.

1974, Economic Stabilization Program Quarterly Report Covering the Period January 1, 1974 Through May 1, 1974, U.S. Cost of Living Council, page 87:

Kunsman reports that he was placed in a segregation cell when he subsequently filed an Administrative Remedy Form with warden R. A. Gunnell and that he has been scheduled for a disciplinary transfer. Requests have been made to the U.S. District Court for a restraining order to have Kunsman released from segregation and to prevent the transfer.

1981 August 22, “Unwelcome Advances”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 6, page 2:

(law) An order by a judge or other legal authority that prevents an action by a government or institution.


due diligence

/ˈd͡ʒʉː ˌdɪl.ɪ.d͡ʒəns/

(law) A process during which a potential party to a contract evaluates the assets and liabilities of one or more other potential parties, to assess whether it should enter into the contract.

盡職調查

process of evaluating the assets and liabilities of another potential party to a contract


cognatus

Learned borrowing from Latin cognatus (“kinsman”). Doublet of cognate and connate.


DCS

It is being led by DCS Jim Taylor, who is the head of Opal, the national intelligence unit for organised acquisitive crime.

2023 December 22, Robyn Vinter, “Britons increasingly turning to food black market, experts say”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

detective chief superintendent
detective chief superintendent#English

(law enforcement, Commonwealth) Initialism of detective chief superintendent, a police rank.


deposit contract

en-noun

deposit contract (plural deposit contracts)

Diamond and Dybvig show that a bank offering an ordinary deposit contract can provide allocations superior to those of simple exchange markets.

1986, David C. Webb, “Comment”, in Recent Developments in Corporate Finance, →ISBN, page 178:

(law, banking) A contractual agreement governing the handling of deposited assets, for example in a bank.


arbitrability

(law) The characteristic of being arbitrable; the ability to be arbitrated.


arbitrable

en-adj

arbitrable (comparative more arbitrable, superlative most arbitrable)

more arbitrable (comparative)
most arbitrable (superlative)

(law) Able to be arbitrated; subject to arbitration.


advisatory

advisatory (comparative more advisatory, superlative most advisatory)

more advisatory (comparative)
most advisatory (superlative)


approver

(dated, law) In English common law, a person who accuses a confederate; one who commits approvement.


evidentiary

/ˌɛvɪˈdɛnʃəɹi/

/ˌɛvɪˈdɛnʃiˌɛɹi/

Evidentiary investigations are common in legal proceedings.


amove

en-verb

amove (third-person singular simple present amoves, present participle amoving, simple past and past participle amoved)

amoves (present singular third-person)
amoving (participle present)
amoved (participle past)
amoved (past)

(law) To dismiss from an office or station.


aid and abet

aid and abet (third-person singular simple present aids and abets, present participle aiding and abetting, simple past and past participle aided and abetted)

aids and abets (present singular third-person)
aiding and abetting (participle present)
aided and abetted (participle past)
aided and abetted (past)
in other contexts (also broadly)

/ˌeɪd‿n̩ əˈbɛt/

PIE word
 *h₂éd
From aid (“to provide support to, assist, help”) + and + abet (“to assist or encourage by aid or countenance in crime, incite”).

同謀

to assist (someone) in an illegal act as an accessory or accomplice

auttaa (rikoksen tekemisessä)

to assist someone in (an illegal act) as an accessory or accomplice

A bank employee was accused of aiding and abetting the gang of robbers.

In my future letters I shall perhaps take the opportunity to prove to you that the more men there are in a state, the more prosperous its commerce; I shall prove as easily, that as commerce flourishes, men increase; these two things necessarily aid and abet each other.

[1892], [Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de] Montesquieu, “Letter CXVI: Usbek to the Same [Rhedi]”, in John Davidson, transl., Persian Letters, London: George Routledge & Sons; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co., →OCLC, page 259:

What oppressed Jude was the thought that, having done a wrong thing of this sort himself, he was aiding and abetting the woman he loved in doing a like wrong thing, instead of imploring and warning her against it.

1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, chapter VII, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1896, →OCLC, part III (At Melchester), page 202:

Caught, red-handed, on the spot, in the very act of aiding and abetting the traitors against the Republic of France, the Englishman could claim no protection from his own country.

1905 January 12, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “On the Track”, in The Scarlet Pimpernel, popular edition, London: Greening & Co., published 20 March 1912, →OCLC, page 261:

Moreover, "the superstitious" Fryer Lawrence—a figure of no higher moral standing than a "dronken gossyppe"—wilfully aids and abets the lovers [Romeo and Juliet] in their perfidious course of action, using the secret, even occultist, rituals of the Catholic Church to achieve his perverse ends.

2009, David Salter, “Shakespeare and Catholicism: The Franciscan Connection”, in William Shakespeare, edited by Harold Bloom, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations), new edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloom’s Literary Criticism, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 66:

To assist (someone) in an illegal act as an accessory or accomplice.

Murder itself was not more sternly and certainly punished in the State of Maryland, than that of aiding and abetting the escape of a slave.

1881, Frederick Douglass, “Escape from Slavery”, in Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, […], Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Co., →OCLC, part II, page 196:

To assist someone in (an illegal act) as an accessory or accomplice.

From about April 13 to about May 17, 1962, registrant, during a time when it was undergoing a change in ownership and management, together with or aided and abetted by Smythe, willfully violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 […]

1964 May 11, In the Matter of SMYTHE, BOWERS, HILLIARD & CO., INC. […] File No. 8-8735: Findings and Opinion of the Commission (Securities Exchange Act Release; no. 7312), Washington, D.C.: Securities and Exchange Commission, page 1:

(intransitive) To be an accessory or accomplice to someone in an illegal act.

auttaa (rikoksen tekemisessä)

to be an accessory or accomplice to someone in an illegal act


in rem

From Latin in rem (“against the thing”).

Coordinate term: in personam

The church filed an in rem petition with the court, requesting that the book be declared obscene.

True in rem cases involve a dispute over ownership of the property that is the jurisdictional predicate, and (believe it or not) determine the ownership interest in that thing as to every person in the world.

2021, Richard D. Freer, Civil Procedure, Aspen Publishing, →ISBN, page 50:

(law) Against a thing (such as property) rather than a person.


ad coelum

Latin ad (“to”) coelum (“the heavens”)
Abbreviated from the Latin Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum (et ad inferos) meaning "for whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to Heaven (and down to Hell)." The phrase originally did not include et ad inferos; see Wikipedia article for detailed history.

(law) The principle by which property rights extend vertically upwards and, sometimes, downwards from a property; it is used to describe air rights or no-fly zones, as well as rights to resources under the soil, such as mineral rights, among others.

Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos


e-right

This new legislation aims to protect the e-rights of citizens.

(law, usually in the plural) A right of a person in the context of electronic media and communications.

I sold the magazine rights to the story, but not the e-rights.

(copyright law, usually in the plural) The right to publish a given work in electronic form.


bill of sale

(law, finance) A formal instrument for the conveyance or transfer of goods and chattels.


power of appointment

en-noun

power of appointment (plural powers of appointment)

(law) In the law of wills, the ability of a testator to select a person who will be given the authority to dispose of certain property under the will.


remitter

/ɹɪˈmɪtə(ɹ)/

From remit + -er (agent noun suffix), or in the legal sense + -er (action noun suffix).

(law) The sending or placing back of a person to a title or right formerly held; the restitution of one who obtains possession of property under a defective title, to his rights under some valid title by virtue of which he might legally have entered into possession only by suit


chilling effect

chilling effect (plural chilling effects)

A “chilling effect,” a phrase invoked with numbing regularity these days, is the shibboleth that civil libertarians have brandished for a couple of decades against actions that could deter the press from exercising its constitutional freedom.

1984 December 23, Lester Bernstein, “‘Chilling Effect’ or Fresh Air?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Performance artists whose lawsuit led to yesterday's Supreme Court decision on indecency in the arts expressed disappointment at the ruling, saying they feared it would have a chilling effect on creativity and freedom of expression.

1998 June 26, Mel Gussow, “Ruling on Indecency Prompts Fears of a Chilling Effect”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Should the decision of Judge Kaplan be upheld and a subpoena be served for Mr. Berlinger’s footage, Mr. Moore said, “The chilling effect of this is, someone like me, if something like this is upheld, the next whistleblower at the next corporation is going to think twice about showing me some documents if that information has to be turned over to the corporation that they’re working for.”

2010 May 7, Dave Itzkoff, quoting Michael Moore, “Michael Moore Says Judge's Ruling Could Have ‘Chilling Effect’ on Documentaries”, in New York Times:

“It really starts with doctors, because overturning Roe will have a severe chilling effect,” said Lindsay Lewis, co-author of a report by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers that studied the potential criminal effects of ending Roe, and a board member of the same organization.

2022 May 6, Jessica Glenza, quoting Lindsay Lewis, “‘A severe chilling effect’: abortion bans will inhibit doctors’ advice to patients, experts fear”, in The Guardian:

(law) A discouraging effect, especially on certain forms of officially legal speech.


body snatcher

From body + snatcher. Later use highly influenced by the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers and its repeated adaptation into film, wherein aliens begin replacing humans with pod people.

ligrøver

One who secretly removes without right or authority a dead body from a grave

They proved to be two of those Body-Snatchers, called hired Constables, who were patrolling the Fields.

Look here, my body-snatchers, you have unlawfully abridged the liberty of one of the sons of the sovereign State of New York!

(slang, humorous, derogatory, obsolete) One who makes arrests, such as a bailiff or policeman.

A black woman told Carrie not to say master and missis, because you were body-snatchers and slave-drivers.

1852, B.R. Hall, Frank Freeman's Barber Shop, xiv. 252:

Girls who can't let a man go by without reaching out for him. That's what I call them—body snatchers.

1894 September, Harper's Magazine, 581/2:

McCulloch had no compunction about using these executive recruiting firms. They were, he knew, often derisively called ‘body snatchers’, ‘head hunters’, ‘flesh peddlers’, and ‘pirates’.

South claims hundreds abducted by North Korea's ‘body snatchers’.

1994 August 9, “Newswire”, in Associated Press:

‘What are you looking at?’
‘An alien body snatcher who stole my partner and took her place.’

2000, C. Golden, Head Games, section 166:

One who abducts or controls another's body, such as a slaver, psychic, or human resources agent.

Body-snatcher, a stealer of dead bodies from churchyards; which are sold to the surgeons and students in anatomy.

1819, J. H. Vaux, “New Vocab. Flash Lang.”, in Memoirs:

So emboldened and careless did these body-snatchers become... that they no longer confined themselves to pauper graves.

1910, Encyclopædia Britannica, I. 937/2:

(historical) One who sells cadavers to anatomists, surgeons, etc., especially by exhuming corpses from graves, a resurrection man.

The head of a ring of bodysnatchers who stole the bones of broadcaster Alistair Cooke pleaded guilty yesterday.

2008 March 19, Daily Record, Glasgow, section 9:

(in particular) A graverobber who steals bodies or body parts.

No men could have behaved more admirably than my Imperial bearer companies, or 'body snatchers,' as the men used to call them.

1917, General Buller, quotee, Military Medicine, volume 40, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 341:

Freezing conditions in the hills make essential the quick evacuation of wounded, and their regimental mates are full of praise for the sterling job done by the cheerful, tireless “body-snatchers” of the Battalion.

1951, Great Britain. Army. Royal Army Medical Corps, Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, volumes 96-97, J. Bale, Sons & Danielson, Limited, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 410:

Tom dismounted and led Toby toward a group of men standing by a stack of stretchers. “Hey, you body snatchers,” he called out. “I have a wound that needs dressing.” He tied Toby to a stretcher.

2011, Robert W. Mackay, Soldier of the Horse, TouchWood Editions, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 185:

(British, military, slang) A stretcher-bearer.


tortious interference

tortious interference (countable and uncountable, plural tortious interferences)

(law, torts) Intentional damage to a person's contractual or other business relationships.

Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
tortious interference

sopimussuhteiden häiritseminen

business relationship damage which gives rise to torts

exact concept may not exist in Finnish law

without prejudice to specific regulations concerning particular matters

damaging contractual relations between other parties is not tortious and does not give rise to claims if it is not


tallage

tallage (countable and uncountable, plural tallages)

From French taillage, from tailler (“to cut”).

The land tax, in its modern shape, has superseded all the former methods of rating either property, or persons in respect of their property, whether by tenths or fifteenths, subsidies on land, hidages, scutages, or tallages

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

(UK, law, obsolete or historical) A certain rate or tax paid by barons, knights, and inferior tenants toward the public expenses.


tallage

en-verb

tallage (third-person singular simple present tallages, present participle tallaging, simple past and past participle tallaged)

tallages (present singular third-person)
tallaging (participle present)
tallaged (participle past)
tallaged (past)


coparcener

Old French copartsonnier, see co- + parcener.

(law, obsolete) Any of several people who share an inheritance; coheir


police line

A line of police officers standing guard.


cy pres

From Anglo-Norman cy pres, see French ci-près.

(law) In the law governing charitable trusts, the doctrine that a court may direct the funds of the trust to a best alternative, to be chosen when the original beneficiary is no longer a choice.


executory

fee simple subject to executory interest

fee simple subject to executory limitation

(law) Yet to be completed; not fully executed, performed or carried out; lacking in execution, unfulfilled; so, yet to take effect.


approvement

en-noun

approvement (countable and uncountable, plural approvements)

The whole learning of approvements (i. e. trial by the evidence of an approver) is now obsolete being superseded by the modern practice of allowing an accused person to turn evidence for the Queen without confessing the indictment.

1861, John Henry Willan, A Manual of the Criminal Law of Canada, page 7:

(UK, law, obsolete) A confession of guilt by a prisoner charged with treason or felony, together with an accusation of his accomplices and a giving evidence against them in order to obtain his own pardon.


ghost car

The committee is asking Metro Council to tack new restrictions onto Metro licences, including . . . an expanded ghost car program.

1984 October 10, “Curbing Metro's auto ripoffs”, in Toronto Star, page A18:

Officers in a ghost car were doing speed enforcement near 82 Street and 132 Avenue when a white 1995 Ford Contour sped by.

2007 July 13, Eliza Barlow, “Police pursuit called off”, in Edmonton Sun, Alberta, retrieved 2008-02-28:

(Canada) An unmarked police car or an unmarked vehicle used as a decoy by police.


ODC

(Ireland, law enforcement, informal) Initialism of ordinary decent criminal. (a prisoner not associated with terrorism)


grand theft auto

From grand theft (“aggravated theft”) + auto (“automobile”), apparently at first in law-enforcement lists.

(US) The criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle.

盜竊汽車

criminal act of stealing a motor vehicle


advocation

advocation (countable and uncountable, plural advocations)

From Latin advocātiō. Doublet of advowson.

(UK, law) The right of presenting to a vacant benefice or living in the church.

(Scots law) The process of removing a cause from an inferior court to the supreme court.


attorney-in-fact

From attorney (“any personal representative”) and fact (“act, deed”). Both words now rarely have those senses (outside of fixed expressions like this).

(US, law) An agent of the person giving him/her the power of attorney (for a specific purpose or for general purposes) to act on his or her behalf. The attorney-in-fact’s power and responsibilities depend on the specific powers granted in the power of attorney document.


patentee

The patentee in his specifications speaks of triphenylguanidine and compares its operation as an accelerator with that guanidine, the utility of which as an accelerator he claims to have discovered, called diphenylguanidine.

1929, Decisions of the Commissioner of Patents and of the United States Courts in Patent and Trade-mark and Copyright Cases, page 256:

Probably the patentee, whilst fully realising the need for drivers receiving clear signals, did not fully appreciate the primary object of the signalling system.

1946 November and December, “Notes and News: Colour-Light Signals 100 Years Ago”, in Railway Magazine, page 387:

One to whom a grant is made, or a privilege secured, by patent; a person, group, company etc. that has been granted a patent.


extinguishment

extinguishment (countable and uncountable, plural extinguishments)

(law) The annihilation or extinction of a right or obligation.


ejectment

ejectment (countable and uncountable, plural ejectments)

She had only, therefore, to save herself an actual ejectment, by quitting a house in which she was exposed to such a disgrace.

(law) The legal process of ejecting someone from their property or holdings.


jointure

/ˈdʒɔɪn.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/

Inherited from Middle English joynture, from Old French jointure, from Latin iūnctūra. Doublet of juncture.

Then, Warwick, thus: our sister shall be Edward’s; / And now forthwith shall articles be drawn / Touching the jointure that your king must make, / Which with her dowry shall be counterpoised.

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

Beasts do no jointures lose / Though they new lovers choose; / But we are made worse than those.

You tell me you are secure of having either the Aunt or the Niece, and that you might have married the Aunt before this, whose Jointure you say is immense, but that you prefer the Niece on account of her ready Money.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter V, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XI, page 303:

The Baronet owed his son a sum of money out of the jointure of his mother, which he did not find it convenient to pay; indeed he had an almost invincible repugnance to paying anybody, and could only be brought by force to discharge his debts.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter IX, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

Freddy had no money and no occupation. His mother's jointure, a last relic of the opulence of Largelady Park, had enabled her to struggle along in Earlscourt with an air of gentility, but not to procure any serious secondary education for her children, much less give the boy a profession.

1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion. Sequel: What Happened Afterwards.”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, pages 195–196:

(law) An estate settled on a wife, which she is to enjoy after her husband's death, for her own life at least, in satisfaction of dower.


bait car

2008, "Be careful what you steal," The Norman Transcript (Oklahoma), 7 Feb. (retrieved 29 Feb. 2008),
The whole premise behind the police department's "bait car" program is to entice an auto thief to take the rigged automobile and get caught.

A vehicle used as a decoy by police to help apprehend car thieves, often equipped to be tracked by GPS and to be disabled remotely.


rescript

From Latin rescriptum (“written reply”).

rescrit

legal gloss provided by the pope without precedential force

"'In order that the people may know of my decision, I request you to prepare at once an imperial rescript that I may broadcast to the nation.'"

1985, Ronald H. Spector, Eagle Against the Sun:

(historical law) A clarification of a point of law by a monarch issued upon formal consultation by a lower magistrate.


forestaller

From Middle English forstaller, forstallor, forstallar, equivalent to forestall + -er.

Agent noun of forestall: one who, or that which, forestalls.

(law, archaic) One who obstructs a road, especially in order to intercept traffic.


allonge

Borrowed from French allonge (“a lengthening”). Doublet of lunge.

negotiable instrument
negotiable instrument

(law, banking) A slip of paper attached to a negotiable instrument to hold endorsements should the document itself be unable to hold any more.


tax lot

In some countries such as the USA, cost basis must be considered on a tax lot-by-tax lot basis.

2003, Stephen Satchell with Alan Scowcroft, Advances in Portfolio Construction and Implementation, page 128:

(accounting, taxation, US) A grouping of security holdings in an account used for enabling the calculation and treatment of the securities for tax compliance and reporting.


requirements contract

requirements contract (plural requirements contracts)

(law) An agreement in which in which one party agrees to supply as much of a good or service as is required by the other party, and in exchange the other party expressly or implicitly promises that it will obtain its goods or services exclusively from the first party.


pushback

pushback (countable and uncountable, plural pushbacks)

→ Dutch: pushback

→ German: Pushback

Coordinate term: pullback

"Every single pushback represents a violation of international and EU law – whether it involves violence or not."

2021 May 5, Lorenzo Tondo, quoting Nicola Bay, “Revealed: 2,000 refugee deaths linked to illegal EU pushbacks”, in The Guardian:

Jasmin Redjepi, president of Legis, said the “disturbing and degrading” pushbacks came shortly after an EU-Serbian border cooperation summit, aimed at strengthening the Serbian border against people-smuggling operations.

2024 February 22, Katy Fallon, Lorenzo Tondo, “Videos show migrants stripped of clothing in freezing temperatures at Serbian border”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(international law) Summary expulsion of asylum seekers, especially when violating the principle of non-refoulement.


executorial trustee

executorial trustee (plural executorial trustees)

(law) Someone appointed to be an executor (the person who carries out the directions set forth in a will) and also be a trustee of an estate after the executor's duties have been completed.


road agent

The highway robber—road-agent, he is quaintly called—is still busy in these parts.

1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 1, in The Silverado Squatters:

(chiefly US, archaic) A criminal who accosts travelers and robs them.


disgorgement

disgorgement (countable and uncountable, plural disgorgements)

All mentioned celebrities except for Soulja Boy and Austin Mahone agreed to pay a total of over $400,000 in disgorgement, interest and penalties to settle the charges, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.

2023 March 23, Maya Yang, “SEC charges celebrities including Lindsay Lohan over cryptocurrency endorsements”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(chiefly law) An act of disgorging (giving something up involuntarily).


Certificate of Need

Certificate of Need (plural Certificates of Need)

(law, US) A legal document issued by a federal or state regulatory agency with authority over an area which affirms that a proposed acquisition, expansion, or creation of a facility falling under that authority is required to fulfill the needs of a community.


guardian ad litem

guardian ad litem (plural guardians ad litem)

Guardians ad litem are the volunteer voices for children, investigating, reporting, going to court to advocate. It is not a job for sissies.

2012 January 5, “Guardian ad litem: Sissies need not apply, only the good-hearted”, in Tampa Bay Times:

(law) An individual (often a lawyer) appointed to represent the best interests of a child or incapacitated person for the purpose of a legal procedure.


several states

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, . . . but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; . . . To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states.

1787, United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clauses 1 & 3

Implicit in this argument is the contention that the Philippines, while belonging to the United States as a sovereign, are not part of it; and that merchandise brought from the Philippines is an import because it originates outside of and is brought into the territory comprising the several states which are united under and by the Constitution, territory in which the constitutional prohibition against the state taxation of imports, is alone applicable.

1945, Hooven & Allison Co. v. Evatt, 324 U.S. 652, 669

(law) The states of the United States, collectively.


resident alien

(US, law) A person born outside the United States who has legally established temporary or permanent residence in the United States, but has not become a United States citizen.


stet docket

(law) A list of cases, maintained by a court or prosecutor, that are not to be tried for the time being.


shadow government

shadow government (plural shadow governments)

The origin of such terms (e.g., shadow government, shadow cabinet, shadow minister, shadow portfolio) lies in the figurative metaphor of a shadow (shade) following its source object closely and in well-defined parallel. But conspiracy theorists have longed seized upon the way it sounds nefarious, as if it were meant to connote dark and sinister forces. This interpretation is also encouraged by disinformation purveyors seeking to sow societal disruption.

conspiracy theorized
conspiracy theorized

(political science) A (real or conspiracy theorized) body of private individuals who exercise actual power behind the scenes instead of a country's or organization's public figures.


allocution

allocution (countable and uncountable, plural allocutions)

The term "allocution" refers to the personal right of a defendant to make a statement on his own behalf in an attempt to affect sentencing. . . . The word "allocution" is also frequently used . . . to describe the statement made by a defendant during a guilty plea proceeding.

1997, Caren Myers, “Encouraging Allocution at Capital Sentencing: A Proposal for Use Immunity”, in Columbia Law Review, vol. 97, no. 3, p. 788 n6:

(chiefly US, law) The question put to a convicted defendant by a judge after the rendering of the verdict in a trial, in which the defendant is asked whether he or she wishes to make a statement to the court before sentencing; the statement made by a defendant in response to such a question; the legal right of a defendant to make such a statement.

As of July, 1985, 19 states permitted victim allocution at the sentencing phase of criminal trials.

1989, Karen L. Kennard, “The Victim's Veto: A Way to Increase Victim Impact on Criminal Case Dispositions”, in California Law Review, vol. 77, no. 2, p. 427 n49:

(chiefly US, law) The legal right of a victim, in some jurisdictions, to make a statement to a court prior to sentencing of a defendant convicted of a crime causing injury to that victim; the actual statement made to a court by a victim.


have up

en-verb

have up (third-person singular simple present has up, present participle having up, simple past and past participle had up)

has up (present singular third-person)
having up (participle present)
had up (participle past)
had up (past)

In the police courts it is not uncommon to hear that such and such low persons have been "had up" for "cat and kitten sneaking," i.e., stealing quart and pint pots.

1867, Jacob Larwood, John Camden Hotten, The History of Signboards, page 177:

"He broke a dog's leg with a stone, and there was some talk of having him up for it, but the people were afraid of him, and no one would prosecute."

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

2007, Saturday October 27, Don't write off religion - it can be the key to a stable family, by Anne Karpf in The Guardian
If Richard Dawkins had his way, a fair number of you and, as it happens, me, would be had up for child abuse. According to him, that's what religious indoctrination of children by their parents is.

(transitive, idiomatic, UK) To accuse, arrest, try for a criminal act.


419 fraud

The number 419 refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud.

A scam in which the solicitor offers large sums of money in return for a smaller up front investment.


pour-over will

(law) A testamentary device wherein the writer of a will creates a trust (usually unfunded at that point), and decrees in the will that property in his estate at the time of his death shall be placed in the trust.


Above him, on the wall of the cybercafe, is a large yellow sign with black block letters that warns: “TO OUR CUSTOMERS – Tomsed Cyber Cafe now has an activity monitor software that monitors all activities of 419s including their mails in all our workstations. Therefore any customer caught with 419 job will be handed over to the police. BE WARNED!”

2007, Teju Cole, Every Day is for the Thief, Faber & Faber (2015), page 26:

A 419 fraud; any of the various advance-fee frauds in which the scammer solicits up front payments promising large sums of money.


third-degree

The jury found him guilty of third-degree murder since he had only meant to beat the clown, not to kill him.

At the third level of some system, particularly:

(law) The least severe level of felony, typically involving a lack of planning and/or the presence of various mitigating factors.


mail fraud

en-noun

mail fraud (countable and uncountable, plural mail frauds)

The mail fraud statute and its counterpart, the wire fraud statute, historically have been powerful instruments for prosecutors.

1991, D. M. Maus, “License Procurement and the Federal Mail Fraud Statute”, in The University of Chicago Law Review, volume 58, number 3, page 1126:

(US, criminal law) A class of felonies, providing for a separate and additional federal penalty for any criminal offense whose perpetration involved the use of the postal system of the United States of America.


wire fraud

wire fraud (countable and uncountable, plural wire frauds)

(US, criminal law) A felony of a particular class subject to a separate and additional federal penalty for any crime of fraud involving the use of technological communications methods such as wire, radio, or television.


gun down

en-verb

gun down (third-person singular simple present guns down, present participle gunning down, simple past and past participle gunned down)

guns down (present singular third-person)
gunning down (participle present)
gunned down (participle past)
gunned down (past)

In the cell diagonally across from mine, a prisoner regularly “gunned down” the nurse on her morning rounds. He deliberately masturbated so that she'd see him through the cell door window as he ejaculated.

(transitive, US, prison slang, of a male prisoner) To masturbate while making sustained eye contact with someone — typically a female prison officer — as a form of intimidation.


shoofly

A child's rocker having a seat supported between two boards cut and painted to resemble animals.


law of war

Law concerning acceptable practices while engaged in war.

oorlogsrecht

law concerning acceptable practices while engaged in war


duppy

duppy (third-person singular simple present duppies, present participle duppying, simple past and past participle duppied)

duppies (present singular third-person)
duppying (participle present)
duppied (participle past)
duppied (past)

Jamaica, circa 18th century. From Bube dupe (“ghost”) (compare Akan adɔpe).

2008, Kingsley Ogundele, online message quoted in 2010 January 27, Rob Sharp, "CSI: Chatroom", The Independent
He refers to his intention to kill a schoolgirl pregnant with Jolie's unborn baby – who the pair believe is giving Jolie undue hassle. "I'll get da fiend to duppy her den," he writes.

He duppied my bredren and as long as I could remember Paps was telling me not to trust the Feds.

2011, Alex Wheatle, The Dirty South, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 176:

(MLE, MTE, transitive) To kill; to murder.


blood diamond

Several certification systems already exist throughout the world. The Kimberly Process certifies the origin of rough diamonds from areas that have conflict-free diamond production. The process aims to prevent “blood diamonds.”

2011 July 11, Erin Banco, “Is Your Cell Phone Fueling Civil War in Congo?”, in The Atlantic:

A diamond that has been mined in a war zone and sold in order to finance the conflict.

bloeddiamant

1. a diamond that has been mined in a war zone and sold in order to finance the conflict


frankpledge

From Anglo-Latin franciplegium, a Latinization of Anglo-Norman frauncplege ("free pledge"), a mistranslation of Old English friðborh ("pledge of peace"), which had the corrupted form friborh, which led to the Modern English term friborg, as if it were *freoborh ("free pledge"). See also friborg, which refers to the predecessor of frankpledge.

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

(law, historical) A form of collective suretyship and punishment under English law among the members of a tithing.

Entire vills sir Henry Spelman conjectures to have consisted of ten freemen, or frank-pledges.

1765, William Blackstone, Commentary on the Laws of England, volume I, page 114:

(law, historical) A decener: a member of a tithing bound in frankpledge.

(law, historical, uncommon) The tithing itself.


interplea

(law) An action ingrafted on another suit, in which the interpleader becomes the plaintiff and the attaching plaintiff is the defendant.


interpleader

(law) Motion for a third party to enter into a lawsuit in process because a matter is being adjudicated in which they have an interest.

(law) Process by which a third party asks a court to determine which of two rival claims is to be honored by the third party.


take the stand

take the stand (third-person singular simple present takes the stand, present participle taking the stand, simple past took the stand, past participle taken the stand)

takes the stand (present singular third-person)
taking the stand (participle present)
took the stand (past)
taken the stand (participle past)

The press speculated about whether he would take the stand and testify in his defense.

At the conclusion of the case, the defendant not having dared to take the stand, the lawyer arose to address the jury in behalf of what appeared a hopeless cause.

1912, Arthur Cheney Train, “Tricks of the Trade”, in Courts and Criminals:

(idiomatic) To testify as a witness in a trial.


circumduction

en-noun

circumduction (countable and uncountable, plural circumductions)


wet work

Calque of Russian мо́крое де́ло (mókroje délo).

clq

мо́крое де́ло

2010, RED
Joe: Victoria was the best wet work operator the Agency ever had.
Woman 1: What does that mean?
Victoria: I killed people, dearie.

(euphemistic) Covert assassination performed by government operatives.

He had also done a lot of Louis Deems' wet work, especially when it came to intimidating juries.

2009, Dana Stabenow, Whisper to the Blood, →ISBN, page 132:

(by extension) Work within a gang or organization that involves killing or attacking people, for assassination or intimidation.

Most of the time I clean with A.J. or another coworker, who vacuums while I do the wet work—bathrooms and kitchens.

2011, Autumn Stephens, Roar Softly and Carry a Great Lipstick, →ISBN:

Cleaning tasks that involve scrubbing with cleansers.


celly

So tragic, need a hot meal in my baby’s belly / Reminisce no hard times in my pen, in my celly, / I ain’t tryna go back, cause backwards ain’t part of my PJ

2000, “Win Or Lose”, in Baller Blockin, performed by Rappin’ 4-Tay, from 2:43:

I was locked up in my celly / Murder for hire, no snitchin or tellin / I got no calls or no type of mailin

2017 October 7, “No questions”, in Who Am I 3, performed by BlocBoy JB:


de bene esse

From Latin de (“on account of”) bene (“well”) esse (“to be”), "on account of well-being".

(law) Conditionally; provisionally; in anticipation of future need.


suit costs

(Nova Scotia, law) An award granted by a court in a family law case requiring one party to pay some or all of another party's costs of the proceedings before the court. Unlike most other legal costs awards, suit costs are required to be paid while the case is ongoing, rather than after the matter has concluded.


party and party costs

The reasonable and necessary costs incurred by a party to a lawsuit, often in accordance with a scale of costs published by the court and excluding any work not necessary to resolve the case.

An award granted by a court requiring one party (normally the unsuccessful party in litigation) to pay another party the amount of party and party costs the latter incurred.


precedentially

/ˌpɹɛsəˈdɛnʃəli/

(law) In a manner having the force of precedent.


conclusory

en-adj

conclusory (comparative more conclusory, superlative most conclusory)

more conclusory (comparative)
most conclusory (superlative)

These claims are conclusory and unsupported by any specific allegations, let alone evidence.

(law) Offering a conclusion with seriously deficient support in fact or logic; begging the question.


unsub

Further analysis may identify that the unsub has no specific schedule and has been escalating in the type of fire activity he or she is involved in.

2002, Brett Martinez, Multiple Fire Setters: The Process of Tracking and Identification, page 110:

In short, UNSUB profiling is premised on two fundamental assumptions: (1) behavioral uniformity across offenses and (2) steady associations between configurations of offense behaviors and background characteristics.

2011, Brent E. Turvey, Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, page 639:

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of unknown subject. of an investigation.


child pornography

Pornographic material depicting minors; sexually explicit (or suggestive) images of children.


murder will out

The phrase murder will out, literally "murder will become public", appears as far back as Geoffrey Chaucer's works. The phrase is often linked to the superstition that a murderer's presence near the corpse will be indicated by fresh bleeding.

纸包不住火 (zhǐ bāo bùzhù huǒ, literally “fire cannot be wrapped up in paper”)

ши́ла в мешке́ не утаи́шь (šíla v mešké ne utaíšʹ, literally “you can't hide an awl in a sack”)

(idiomatic) Secrets or hidden crimes will eventually be exposed or discovered; nothing that is secret can remain a secret forever.


prestation

From Latin praestatio (“a performing, paying”), from praestare: compare French prestation.

der

(UK, law, obsolete) A payment of money; a toll or duty.

(UK, law, obsolete) The rendering of a service


litigable

en-adj

litigable (comparative more litigable, superlative most litigable)

more litigable (comparative)
most litigable (superlative)

Although his action was egregious and cruel, I'm not sure if it is litigable.

(law) Able or likely to be successfully litigated


relator

(law) A private person at whose relation, or in whose behalf, the attorney-general allows an information in the nature of a quo warranto to be filed.


rob blind

en-verb

rob blind (third-person singular simple present robs blind, present participle robbing blind, simple past and past participle robbed blind)

robs blind (present singular third-person)
robbing blind (participle present)
robbed blind (participle past)
robbed blind (past)


heads of agreement

Finally, on July 10, 1984, Heads of Agreement were signed. Three extra drafting rounds were necessary in order to formally sign the Renegotiated Agreement.

1995, Wolfgang Peter, Arbitration and Renegotiation of International Investment Agreements, page 116:

(law, former, British) A document stating the intent of the parties to enter into a binding agreement as outlined in the document.


malky

malky (third-person singular simple present malkies, present participle malkying, simple past and past participle malkied)

malkies (present singular third-person)
malkying (participle present)
malkied (participle past)
malkied (past)


malky

Oota ma coupon afore ah gies y' the malky, ya bam.


DCI

detective chief inspector
detective chief inspector#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of detective chief inspector, a police rank used in Commonwealth countries.


cooling-off period

en-noun

cooling-off period (plural cooling-off periods)

A length of time in which the two sides to a purchase agreement, or contract can think things over and cancel with no penalty. This period is often stipulated by national law. In the UK it is currently (2008) 14 days. In many countries it is 10 days.


Newton hearing

From the 1983 case R v Newton, in which the defendant admitted buggery but claimed his wife had given her consent.

(England, law) A part of a court case in which a judge, sitting alone and without a jury, hears evidence on factual points disputed between prosecution and defence.


heir apparent

heir apparent (plural heirs apparent or heir apparents)

heirs apparent (plural)
heir apparents (plural)

From Middle English heier apparaunt, a calque translation of Middle French héritier apparent, hence the unusual order of adjective following noun.

Coordinate term: heiress apparent

[…] for Mary, though perfectly resolved against ever attaching herself to a younger brother again, was long in finding among the dashing representatives, or idle heir apparents, who were at the command of her beauty, and her 20,000l. any one who could satisfy the better taste she had acquired at Mansfield, whose character and manners could authorise a hope of the domestic happiness she had there learnt to estimate, or put Edmund Bertram sufficiently out of her head.

1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XVII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 345:

LeBron James, heir apparent to MJ’s throne, seems on paper like a dream trade—he stole plenty of laughs in Trainwreck a few summers ago.

2021 July 14, A. A. Dowd, “Space Jam: A New Legacy is one big, witless commercial for Warner Bros. properties”, in The A.V. Club:

(usually monarchy) Someone who will definitely inherit if surviving the one whose property is to be inherited.


deathtime

The time when a person dies, especially as determined for tax purposes.


zealous witness

zealous witness (plural zealous witnesses)

(law) A witness who displays favoritism towards one party in a case.


spiller

From Middle English spiller, from spill + -er.

(law) A party who is liable for spillage, particularly of oil or waste, in a body of water.


armoured car

(law enforcement) An armoured vehicle resistant to small arms fire.

警用裝甲車

(law enforcement) armoured vehicle resistant to small arms fire


resulting trust

resulting trust (plural resulting trusts)

(law) A trust that is implied in law, under which property entrusted to one party is not to be used for the benefit of that party, but for that party to use for the benefit of a third party.


jus gentium

Borrowed from Latin iūs gentium. See the calque law of nations for more.

This was always law in all states, as part of jus gentium, for the fact of a people building a wall round their town was looked upon as an assumption of independent power, and significative of claims inconsistent with or dangerous to the sovereigns.

1853 April 13, John Jackson, “The City of Manchester”, in The Manchester Guardian, page 8:

The Islamic law of nations is part of the corpus of Islamic law, just as the original jus gentium was a branch of municipal Roman law.

1982 April, Gamal M. Badr, “A Survey of Islamic International Law”, in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law), volume 76, →JSTOR, page 56:

There is a long line of English law which declares that the customary law of nations, jus gentium, is directly part of the common law of this nation.

1989 October 27, Keith Motherson, “Universal jurisdiction and war crimes against humanity”, in The Guardian, page 22:

The Roman jurisconsults (lawyers) and praetors (judges) had become a permanent heritage, and the Roman idea of a jus gentium, a law applying to all people, survived at least in the ideal.

2000 January 9, “Rules Have Changed But Little in the Past Millennium of Law”, in The Salt Lake Tribune, page 26:

Embracing the ancient legal doctrine of jus gentium, Bates declared independence.

2012 October 11, “Prince Roy of Sealand”, in The Daily Telegraph:

(law) The law of nations; international law.


trier of fact

(law) A person or group of people given the responsibility of determining the facts of a case from evidence presented in a legal proceeding.


plead the fifth

en-verb

plead the fifth (third-person singular simple present pleads the fifth, present participle pleading the fifth, simple past pled the fifth or pleaded the fifth, past participle pled the fifth)

pleads the fifth (present singular third-person)
pleading the fifth (participle present)
pled the fifth (past)
pleaded the fifth (past)
pled the fifth (participle past)

Alternative spelling of plead the Fifth (both senses)


nonsuit

(law) A lawsuit that is dismissed as having been brought without cause, prior to an adjudication on the merits.

(law) A neglect or failure by the plaintiff to follow up his suit; a renunciation or withdrawal of the cause by the plaintiff.


nonsuit

nonsuit (third-person singular simple present nonsuits, present participle nonsuiting, simple past and past participle nonsuited)

nonsuits (present singular third-person)
nonsuiting (participle present)
nonsuited (participle past)
nonsuited (past)

In short, the attorney was nonsuited, to the satisfaction of all who knew him […].

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

he shall be nonsuited , and pay cost to the defendant

c. 1821, Zephaniah Swift, The Public Statute Laws of the State of Connecticut:

(law, transitive) To dismiss (a suit or plaintiff) on the grounds of his or her lawsuit having been brought without cause, prior to an adjudication on the merits.


reddendo

en-noun

reddendo (plural reddendos or reddendoes)

(law, Scotland, historical) A clause in a charter specifying the services to be rendered by a vassal to his superior.


corollary relief

(law) The custody and support of children in divorce proceedings.


talis qualis

From Latin tālis (“such, of such”) quālis (“of such”).

(law) such as it is; as such; just as they come


romanette

From Roman (numeral) + -ette (“a diminutive”).

affix

The court held that romanette (ii) of the statute in issue did not limit eligibility for legal relief.

[…] (romanette (ii) in the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation waiver-of-liability provision included in footnote 1) […]

1993, Dan K. Webb et al., Corporate Internal Investigations, →ISBN, page 3.14:

This can best be visualized with reference to FIGS. 5, illustrating both ends of the preferred embodiment perforation roll 12 side by side, numbered with romanette numerals i-xii corresponding to the hour positions on a clock face.

1999, Greg M. Kauppila, Andrew P. Tijan, Rotary valve assembly and method, US Patent 6539829, page 11:

2000 January, Joseph Kimble, “A Modest Wish List for Legal Writing”, originally in TRIAL, reprinted in Michigan Bar Journal, Volume 79, Number 11 (November 2000), pages 1574–1577,
In numbering, avoid roman numerals and romanettes (like iii). They are too much like a foreign language.

You'll need to use this technique almost every time you see parenthesized romanettes (i, ii, iii) or letters (a, b, c) in the middle of a contractual or legislative paragraph.

2001, Bryan A. Garner, Legal Writing in Plain English, →ISBN, page 101:

2008, United States Supreme Court oral argument, United States v. Hayes, Case no. 07-608https://web.archive.org/web/20081203011317/http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/07-608.pdf, page 9,
MS. SAHARSKY: . . . not looking at this Romanette (i) and (ii), but just looking at that sentence.
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Romanette?
MS. SAHARSKY: Oh, little Roman numeral.
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I've never heard that before. That's -- Romanette.

(colloquial, law, typography, US) A Roman numeral in lower case, such as “ii”, as frequently introduces list items; or, a list item introduced by such.


ground rent

en-noun

ground rent (countable and uncountable, plural ground rents)

"You had better go to the devil and ask him for my ground-rent," he said.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 99:

(law, real estate) Rent paid under a ground lease, usually long-term or in perpetuity, for a surface right or estate in land where the landowner (surface owner) and the owner of improvements (ground lessor) are separate; the improvements are effectively security for the payment of the rent.

retributie

1. rent under a ground lease for a surface estate, paid by a ground lessor to a surface owner

(law, Pennsylvania, Maryland) Rentcharge.


cognosce

en-verb

cognosce (third-person singular simple present cognosces, present participle cognoscing, simple past and past participle cognosced)

cognosces (present singular third-person)
cognoscing (participle present)
cognosced (participle past)
cognosced (past)

(law, Scotland) To examine; to give judgment.


recordation

en-noun

recordation (countable and uncountable, plural recordations)

/ˌɹɛkəɹˈdeɪʃən/

/ˌɹikɔɹˈdeɪʃən/

From Old French recordacion (“record, memory”), from Latin recordatio.

uder

Recordation by the Administrator of transfers of allowances shall amend automatically all applicable proposed or approved permit applications, compliance plans and permits. [42 U.S.C. 7651g]

(law) The act of giving legal status to a document by making it an official public record.