bote

bote (countable and uncountable, plural botes)

Learned borrowing from Middle English bōte (“advantage, benefit, profit; relief, salvation; atonement, amends, expiation; cure”), from Old English bōt (“help, relief, advantage, remedy; compensation for an injury or wrong; (peace) offering, recompense, amends, atonement, reformation, penance, repentance”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōtu, from Proto-Germanic *bōtō (“recompense”). Doublet of boot (inherited from the same Middle English word).

der

Atonement, compensation, amends, satisfaction; as, manbote, a compensation for a man slain.

A privilege or allowance of necessaries, especially in feudal times.


detain

en-verb

detain (third-person singular simple present detains, present participle detaining, simple past and past participle detained)

detains (present singular third-person)
detaining (participle present)
detained (participle past)
detained (past)

From Old French detenir. Cognate with Italian detenere, Portuguese deter, Romanian deține, and Spanish detener.

In April of 2009, however, the disease was found to suddenly no longer be appearing in newly-hatched chickens, and, upon review, it was discovered that Dr. Wildcat had modified 6002 without authorization, removing the disease from the genome. She's detained and questioned by Muller, and, even though she tries to lie that she didn't do anything, they have footage of her ascending the tree on her own.

2021 August 16, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-6002 - All Creatures Great and Small” (19:06 from the start), in The Exploring Series, archived from the original on 2023-01-10:

(transitive, law enforcement) To put under custody.


court martial

en-noun

court martial (plural (formal) courts martial or (informal) court martials)

courts martial (formal plural)
court martials (informal plural)

A calque of French cour martiale, hence the unusual order of adjective following noun.

(law, military) A court where cases of military law are heard.

(law, military) A trial before such a tribunal.


court martial

en-verb

court martial (third-person singular simple present court martials, present participle (US) court martialing or (UK) court martialling, simple past and past participle (US) court martialed or (UK) court martialled)

court martials (present singular third-person)
court martialing (US participle present)
court martialling (UK participle present)
court martialed (US participle past)
court martialed (US past)
court martialled (UK participle past)
court martialled (UK past)

(law, military) To subject to trial in a military court.


malice

en-noun

malice (usually uncountable, plural malices)

From Middle English malice, borrowed from Old French malice, from Latin malitia (“badness, bad quality, ill-will, spite”), from malus (“bad”).

der

The question that would have been before the jury was whether Fox committed “actual malice” in airing the claims. That required Dominion to show whether key decision makers were aware the claims were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

2023 April 18, Sam Levine, Kira Lerner, “Fox and Dominion settle for US$787.5m in defamation lawsuit over election lies”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(law) An intention to do injury to another party, which in many jurisdictions is a distinguishing factor between the crimes of murder and manslaughter.


ransom

en-noun

ransom (usually uncountable, plural ransoms)

⇒ Cantonese: 參／参 (sam¹, “hostage”)

From the Middle English ransoun, from the Old French raençon, from stem of Latin redemptio. Entered English ca. the 13th century. Doublet of redemption.

punished with imprisonment and ransom at the King's will

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

(historical, law, UK) A sum paid for the pardon of some great offence and the discharge of the offender; also, a fine paid in lieu of corporal punishment.


black and white

black and white (plural black and whites)

The police car sense reflects a traditional livery scheme for such cars.

[T]he news bunny ran up to him, saying, "Officer, did you have trouble catching up with Batman? Was it an exciting chase?" The surfer cop struck a semi-heroic pose for the camera and said, "Weak sauce." Then he quickly walked Batman to the black-and-white, where he was put into the backseat.

2006, Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Station […], New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 237:

(US, slang, law enforcement) A police patrol car.


prenuptial agreement

prenuptial agreement (plural prenuptial agreements)

A legal document, signed by both parties before marriage, stating the legal claims on each other's estate upon a subsequent divorce.

婚前協議

document stating legal claims upon a divorce


EIN

Employer Identification Number
w:Employer Identification Number

(US, taxation) Initialism of Employer Identification Number.


rule nisi

(law) A decree issued by the court that becomes absolute at some later date unless cause is shown why it should not.


tortfeasor

From Anglo-Norman tortfeasor, from Old French tortfesor, tort-faiseur, torfesor, torzfesor (“wrongdoer”), from tort (“a misdeed, a wrong”) + fesor, faiseur (“doer”).

[…] there is an exception “in the cases of heir and executor, who may plead a release to the ancestor or testator whom they respectively represent; so also with respect to several tortfeasors, for in all these cases there is a privity between the parties which constitutes an identity of person”.

1881, Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Common Law:

Damages paid by the settling tortfeasor which are greater than the pro rata amount can easily be attributed to his desire to avoid legal fees and bad press, or misspeculation about the merits and likely outcome of the case.

1992, Moot Court Casebook - Volume 16, pages 9-23:


amicus curiae

From Latin, amīcus (“friend”) + cūriae (“of the court”), genitive singular of cūria (“court”).

BANNATYNE v BANNATYNE (COMMISSION FOR GENDER EQUALITY, AS AMICUS CURIAE) 2003 (2) SA 363 (CC) "The Court admitted as amicus curiae the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) which lodged empirical data on the state of the maintenance system in South Africa and its effect on the rights of women and children in seeking effective relief pursuant to the Maintenance Act (the Act)."

MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS v FOURIE (DOCTORS FOR LIFE INTERNATIONAL AND OTHERS, AMICI CURIAE)LESBIAN AND GAY EQUALITY PROJECT AND OTHERS v MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS 2006 (1) SA 524 (CC): "Prior to the hearing, applications were made by Doctors For Life International and its legal representative Mr John Smyth, to be admitted as amici curiae.

(law, US) A person or entity who has been allowed by the court to plead or make submissions but who is not directly involved in the action.

(law, Canada) An independent lawyer, not retained by any party, whom the court has ordered to provide legal submissions regarding the matter in dispute; for example, to provide submissions regarding the situation of an unrepresented litigant or accused person.


estoppel

estoppel (countable and uncountable, plural estoppels)

From Middle English *estoppel (found only as stoppel, stoppell, stopple, etc.), probably from Old French estoupail, estopail, estopaille, a bung made of oakum (étoupe), from Latin stuppa ("flax, tow"), from Ancient Greek στύππη (stuppē).

(common law) A legal principle in the law of equity that prevents a party from asserting otherwise valid legal rights against another party because of conduct by the first party, or circumstances to which the first party has knowingly contributed, make it unjust for those rights to be asserted.


per curiam

Latin per (“by means of”) curiam (“the court”)

(law) An opinion delivered by an entire court rather than a single judge.


interim order

(law) a court order entered at the beginning of a lawsuit to preserve a semblance of organisational order or to maintain the status quo pending the final disposition of the case


jury pool

(law) the eligible population from which jury members can be selected


dep

dep (countable and uncountable, plural deps)

*Abbreviation of several English terms that begin with "dep"
*Clipping of several English terms that begin with "dep"

clipping

Don't worry too much if they don’t give us everything we need in their rog answers; we'll fill the gaps in dep.


headnote

(law) A summary of the relevant aspects of a legal case, usually found at the beginning of a case report.


jury nullification

en-noun

jury nullification (countable and uncountable, plural jury nullifications)

The prosecutor thought he lost the case, not due to the creation of reasonable doubt, but due to jury nullification.

(law) An acquittal by a jury of a defendant ignoring the facts of the case and/or the law.

lautamiehistön hylkäävä päätös

(law) an acquittal by a jury of a defendant ignoring the facts of the case and/or the law

nullificírujuščij verdíkt sudá prisjážnyx

нуллифици́рующий верди́кт суда́ прися́жных


obiter dictum

/ˌəʊbɪtə ˈdɪktəm/

/ˌoʊbɪɾɚ ˈdɪktəm/

From Latin obiter dictum (“something said by the way”).

Casual obiter dicta by men of accepted godliness belonged to a different category from the ecstatic claims to immediate revelation made by obscure persons who thrust themselves into the limelight […].

1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 128:

However, McHugh J noted obiter dicta that if the meaning of the word was construed at that level of abstraction today, ‘it would deny the Parliament of the Commonwealth the power to legislate for same sex marriages[…]’.

2010, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, “The Text through Time”, in Statute Law Review:

An incidental remark; especially (law) a statement or remark in a court's judgment that is not essential to the disposition of the case.

附帶意見

statement not essential to the disposition of the case


ab initio

From Latin ab (“from”) + initiō, ablative singular of initium (“beginning”).

(law) From the time when a law, legal right or decree, contract, ownership interest, partnership (etc.) comes into force.

ab initio

referring to the time from when a legal document comes into force


matter of record

matter of record (plural matters of record)

(law) A fact that is contained within court files or has otherwise been entered into evidence before the court.


capital offense

capital offense (plural capital offenses)

A crime for which the maximum penalty is capital punishment.


brocard

From French brocard, cognate with Medieval Latin brocarda, brocardicorum opus, a collection of canonical laws written by the bishop Burchard of Worms.

The other question was as to the proper legal meaning of the brocard, “heres heredis mei est heres meus.”

1860, “The Journal of Jurisprudence”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume IV, Edinburgh, page 414:

Blackstone, with a like tenderness of conscience, endeavors to withdraw a single case, a sale of provisions, from the old brocard caveat emptor, and tells us that in such a contract there is a warranty that the provisions are wholesome.

1853, Samuel Owen, “The New York Legal Observer”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume XI, pages 73–4:

(law) A legal principle usually expressed in Latin, traditionally used to concisely express a wider legal concept or rule.


jaywalk

en-verb

jaywalk (third-person singular simple present jaywalks, present participle jaywalking, simple past and past participle jaywalked)

jaywalks (present singular third-person)
jaywalking (participle present)
jaywalked (participle past)
jaywalked (past)

Back-formation from jaywalker. Analyzable as jay (“a stupid person”) + walk.

(chiefly US, law, automotive, transitive, intransitive) To behave as a jaywalker; to violate pedestrian traffic regulations by crossing a street away from a designated crossing or to walk in the part of the street intended for vehicles rather than on the sidewalk.

eine Straße an verbotener Stelle überqueren

atravessar no meio da rua

literally: to cross in the middle of the street

переходи́ть доро́гу в неполо́женном ме́сте

but see oförsiktig fotgängare and vårdslös fotgängare.


seisin

From Middle English seisin, seysen, from Old French seisin, from the verb seisir, from Early Medieval Latin sacīre, from the same Proto-Indo-European root as Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (satjan) and Old English settan. More at seize, seise.

(law, historical) An entitlement to a freehold estate with a right to immediate possession; dates from feudal times but is still used in technical discussions of real property law today.


superintending control

(law) The authority that a higher court has to issue an order specifically ordering a lower court to perform (or stop performing) a certain action


spousal support

en-noun

spousal support (usually uncountable, plural spousal supports)


affiant

From the present participle of Old French afier, from Late Latin affidare. Related to affidavit.

Further affiant sayeth naught. (A centuries-old statement that is still used on some legal documents as the final declaration prior to the affiant's signature.)

(law) The individual witness whose statement is contained in an affidavit or sworn deposition.


prosecute

en-verb

prosecute (third-person singular simple present prosecutes, present participle prosecuting, simple past and past participle prosecuted)

prosecutes (present singular third-person)
prosecuting (participle present)
prosecuted (participle past)
prosecuted (past)

Borrowed from Latin prōsecūtus, perfect participle of prōsequor. Doublet of pursue, from Old French. Compare also persecute.

to prosecute a man for trespass, or for a riot

To acquit themſelves and proſecute their foes

1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 56, line 898:

(transitive, law) To start criminal proceedings against.

起訴

To start civil or criminal proceedings against

The Vigilante is prosecuted in Federal Court under a lynch bill and winds up in a Federal Nut House specially designed for the containment of ghosts […]

1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 8:


sua sponte

A borrowing of Latin sua sponte (“at its own prompting; by its own impulse; of its own free will”)

uder

Decretals... ought, properly speaking, to be distinguished, on the one hand from constitutions... enacted by the Pope sua sponte without reference to any particular case, and on the other hand from rescripts... which apply only to special circumstances or individuals, and constitute no general precedent. But this nomenclature is not strictly observed.

1878, "Decretals" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. VII, p. 22

(law) Without prompting or suggestion; on its own initiative.


severalty

en-noun

severalty (countable and uncountable, plural severalties)

(law) The sole ownership of property by someone.


zoning

These towers are not only the product of advances in construction technology – and a global surfeit of super-rich buyers – but a zoning policy that allows a developer to acquire unused airspace nearby, add it to their own lot, and erect a vast structure without any kind of public review process taking place.

2019 June 1, Oliver Wainwright, “Super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive: the ‘pencil towers’ of New York’s super-rich”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-10-05:

(law) Legislative action for the purpose of regulating the use of property and the construction of buildings within the area under the jurisdiction of the legislative body concerned.

գոտիավորում

legal: regulation of property use and construction


mens rea

/ˌmɛnz ˈɹiːə/

From Latin mēns + reus (literally “guilty mind”), from the English common law precept Actus non facit reum nisi mens rea sit ("The act does not make a person guilty unless the mind is also guilty").

(general, psychology) A reactive mind, a conscious knowing by the individual that an act was committed, either by themselves or by another.

As a general rule the act (or omission) causing death and the relevant mens rea must occur at the same time. The most obvious application of this rule to exclude liability is the case where the mens rea is formed after the actus reus has taken place.

2006, David Lanham, David Wood, Bronwyn Bartal, Rob Evans, Criminal Laws in Australia, page 198:

The criminal offences not requiring a mens rea proof for convictions are then specifically indicated in the legislature as being under “strict liability.”

2007, Nikolaj Nottelmann, Blameworthy Belief: A Study in Epistemic Deontologism, page 10:

The majority of serious criminal offences require, in addition to the actus reus, a specific state of mind on the part of the accused, usually referred to as the mens rea. Many less serious crimes require no mens rea, but simply proof that the defendant caused the prohibited harm.

2011, Jonathan Herring, Criminal Law, 7th edition, page 67:

The individual mentes reae of the joint perpetrators have to be considered separately.

2016, Dennis J. Baker, Reinterpreting Criminal Complicity and Inchoate Participation Offences, page 174:

In “Winner,” [Susanna] Fogel dramatizes, onscreen, Reality [Winner]’s mens rea, showing the elaborate details of her plan to print, purloin, and disclose the relevant pages of the Russia file—and the combination of forethought and improvisation on which the plan’s success depends.

2024 September 11, Richard Brody, ““Winner” Takes Political Comedy Seriously”, in The New Yorker:

(law) A guilty mind, the conscious knowing of a perpetrator while committing an act that the act is illicit.


abuse of distress

(idiomatic, historical, law) a wrongful using of an animal or chattel distrained, by the distrainer


plutocracy

plutocracy (countable and uncountable, plural plutocracies)

From Ancient Greek πλουτοκρατία (ploutokratía, “rule of the wealthy”), from πλουτοκρατέω (ploutokratéō, “I rule through wealth”), from πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “wealth”) + κρατέω (kratéō, “I rule”) (from κράτος (krátos, “power”, “might”)).

der

πλουτοκρατία

Plutocracy, which is virtually supreme to-day, is to be no less condemned ; for it is not only not just, bit is nearly as detrimental to the race at large as absolute socialism would be, if adopted […]

1897, anonymous author, The Revolutionary Tendencies of the Age: Their Cause and Their Ultimate Aim, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, page 119:

Modernity is not democracy; machinery is not democracy; the surrender of everything to trade and commerce is not democracy. Capitalism is not democracy; and is admittedly, by trend and savour, rather against democracy. Plutocracy by definition is not democracy. But all these modern things forced themselves into the world at about the time, or shortly after the time, when great idealists like Rousseau and Jefferson happened to have been thinking about the democratic ideal of democracy.

1933, G. K. Chesterton, “On Industrialism”, in All I Survey:

“There are three big classes in society. First comes the Plutocracy, which is composed of wealthy bankers, railway magnates, corporation directors, and trust magnates. Second, is the middle class, your class, gentlemen, which is composed of farmers, merchants, small manufacturers, and professional men. And third and last comes my class, the proletariat, which is composed of the wage-workers.

1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 9, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:

There, indeed, he must consent to be the puppet and plaything of plutocracy enthroned on machinery, to have his ears assaulted by every variety of beastly sound that the ingenuity of modern civilization can devise, and his peace of mind shattered by the continual necessity under which he finds himself of performing bodily convolutions that would do credit to a professional gymnast.

1926, C. E. M. Joad, The Babbitt Warren, London: Trubner & Co, page 17:

The sea, most inhuman of elements, met in perfect friendship here with the soft and pleasure-loving side of man; and the mixed architecture of a bygone plutocracy reconciled me to the experiments of today.

1952 May, George Santayana, “I Like to Be a Stranger”, in The Atlantic:

Her piece painted him as an enigmatic Jay Gatsby type, a boy from a middle-class family in Brooklyn who had scaled the rungs of the plutocracy, though no one could quite figure out how he made his money.

2019 July 8, Michelle Goldberg, “Jeffrey Epstein Is the Ultimate Symbol of Plutocratic Rot”, in New York Times:


interrogatory

/ˌɪntəˈɹɑɡəˌtɔɹi/

/ˌɪntəˈɹɒɡətəɹi/

/ˌɪntəˈɹɒɡətɹi/

From Late Latin; equivalent to interrogate + -ory (“pertaining to”), or more distantly inter- + rogatory.

Sidney interposed with an interrogatory concerning the legality of the evidence

1763-1783, Catharine Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick Line:

Kimberling, on the advice of his lawyer Frank Kameny, refused to answer several questions put to him on the 16-question interrogatory. After strong objections, the questions in question were withdrawn.

1976 December 11, “Security Clearance Cleared”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 24, page 3:

If those attempts are unsuccessful, the attorney requesting the interrogatories may file a motion for sanctions with the court. The sanctions range from attorney fees to prohibiting the nonanswering party from presenting or defending claims.

2013, James J. Gross, It's Splitsville: Surviving Your Divorce, page 240:

(law) A formal question or set of questions submitted to opposing party to answer, generally governed by court rule.


bench trial

(law) A trial by judge as opposed to a trial by jury.


no contest

Calque of Latin nolō contendere (“I don't want to contest”).

cal

(US, law) A plea in a criminal case which means that the defendant admits no guilt but is no longer contesting the charges brought against him/her.

No contest clauses are valid in California and are favored by the public policies of discouraging litigation and giving effect to the settlor's expressed purposes.

2021, Susan F. French, A California Companion for the Course in Wills, Trusts, and Estates:

(US, law) A clause in a will that imposes a penalty of forfeiture against any beneficiary who challenges the will.


docket

Uncertain; perhaps a diminutive of dock.

(law) A short entry of the proceedings of a court; the register containing them; the office containing the register.

Prozessregister

(law) A schedule of cases awaiting action in a court.


recto

verso

antonym(s) of “front side of a flat object”

reverso

antonym(s) of “right-hand page of a book”

Borrowed from Latin rēctō foliō (“on the right leaf, on the right page”), the ablative case of the Latin rēctus (“right”). Compare versus (“turned”).


comparator

The applicant is therefore complaining not of a lack of action but rather of the decision of the local authority to reduce the care package that it had hitherto been making available to her. As such, a more appropriate comparator would be the case of Watts v. The United Kingdom (dec.), no. 53586/09 of 4 May 2010, in which the Court was content to proceed on the basis that a decision to close the care home where the elderly applicant was resident and to transfer her to another home constituted an interference with her rights under Article 8.

2014 May 20, European Court of Human Rights, McDonald v. The United Kingdom, number 4241/12, marginal 48:

Roxanne Khazarian (“Plaintiff”) moved to compel discovery from Gerald Metals, LLC and Metals Trading Corp (“Defendants”), seeking the personnel file of Gary Lerner, an employee of Defendants. […] Defendants object to the production of these documents on the grounds that Mr. Lerner is not an appropriate comparator for Ms. Khazarian and his personnel file is therefore irrelevant.

2017 September 11, United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, Roxanne Khazarian vs. Gerald Metals, LLC, Metals Trading Corp., Gerald Holdings, LLC, Craig Dean, and Dan Gamez, numbers 3:16-cv-01762(VAB):


martial law

/ˈmɑːʃəl lɔː/

/ˈmɑɹʃəl lɔ/

Rule by military authorities, especially when imposed on a civilian population in time of war or other crisis, or in an occupied territory.


counterclaim

(law) A suit filed by a defendant against a plaintiff secondary to the original complaint.


allodial

From Middle French allodial, and its source, Latin allodialis (“held in freehold”), from allodium.

Henry reconciled the Zähringer, whom he had deposed from Carinthia in 1078, by raising their allodial property in the Black Forest to a new duchy 20 years later.

2016, Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, Penguin, published 2017, page 351:

(usually historical) Pertaining to land owned by someone absolutely, without any feudal obligations; held without acknowledgement of any superior; allodial title.

alodial

owned freely and clear of any encumbrances


bolting

(law) A private arguing of cases for practice by students, as in the Inns of Court.


indemnity

en-noun

indemnity (countable and uncountable, plural indemnities)

From late Middle English indempnite, from Middle French indemnité, from Late Latin indemnitas (“security from damage”), from Latin indemnis (“undamaged”), from in- (“not”) + damnum (“damage”).

der

(law) An obligation or duty upon an individual to incur the losses of another.

(law) The right of an injured party to shift the loss onto the party responsible for the loss.


indictment

en-noun

indictment (countable and uncountable, plural indictments)

18th-century Latinized respelling of Middle English endytement (“action of accusing”), from Anglo-Norman enditement, from enditer, from Late Latin indictāre, from Latin indictus.

inh

(law) An official formal accusation for a criminal offence, or the process by which it is brought to a jury.

[…]— the indictment will remain sealed until his expected arraignment on Tuesday, when the charges will be formally revealed.

2023 March 30, William K. Rashbaum, “This is what will happen when Trump is arrested in the coming days.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(law) The official legal document outlining the charges concerned; bill of indictment.


magistrate

/ˈmæd͡ʒɪstɹət/

(law) A judicial officer with limited authority to administer and enforce the law. A magistrate's court may have jurisdiction in civil or criminal cases, or both.

maistraatti

in foreign contexts; not equivalent in Finland


encumbrance

en-verb

encumbrance (third-person singular simple present encumbrances, present participle encumbrancing, simple past and past participle encumbranced)

encumbrances (present singular third-person)
encumbrancing (participle present)
encumbranced (participle past)
encumbranced (past)

From Middle English encombraunce, from Old French encombrance, from encombrer.

(law) To apply an encumbrance to (property, etc.).


TRIPS

(copyright law, international law) The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.


POS

en-noun

POS (countable and uncountable, plural POSes or POSs)

proof of service
Wikipedia:Proof of service


RESPA

(US, law) Acronym of Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.


tax rate

A rate, usually a percentage rate, at which something is taxed.


judicial

en-adj

judicial (comparative more judicial, superlative most judicial)

more judicial (comparative)
most judicial (superlative)

/d͡ʒuˈdɪʃəl/

'judicial rent, judicial lease

(Ireland, historical) specified by a civil bill court under the terms of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881


murk

murk (comparative murker, superlative murkest)

murker (comparative)
murkest (superlative)

From Middle English merke, mirke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“dark, gloomy, evil”) and Old Norse myrkr (“dark, murky”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkuz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”). Cognate Danish mørk (“dark”), Norwegian mørk (“dark”), Swedish mörk (“dark”), Icelandic myrkur (“dark”), as also Albanian murg (“dark”), Proto-Slavic *morkъ (“darkness”), Lithuanian márgas (“multicolored”), Ancient Greek ἀμορβός (amorbós, “dark”).

der

He cannot see through the mantle murk.

1835, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay:


murk

From Middle English mirke, merke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“darkness, gloom”) and Old Norse myrkr (“darkness, gloom”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkwą, *mirkwiz (“darkness”), Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).

[…]in murk and occidental damp

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

O great star disappear’d—O the black murk that hides the star!

1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:

Darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment.

мрак

darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment


murk

en-verb

murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)

murks (present singular third-person)
murking (participle present)
murked (participle past)
murked (past)

Possibly an alteration of merc, from clipping of mercenary.

cause we be murkin from the boogie
And shittin on the crowds
'cause they jive fakin woody.

That's why he was able to catch Crush out there sleeping and why he murked him before he could ask him any questions.

He clowned Sticks, and Sticks murked him for no reason. And I don't know for sure, but I think he murked Trail.

2011, Treasure Hernandez, Baltimore Chronicles, volume 2:

In truth, there are Easter eggs planted in just about every frame of Ready Player One, which never misses an opportunity to insert a recognizable character (hey, is that Jason Voorhees getting merked during the film’s first-person shooter level?) or toss a sop to the faithful.

2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-05-31:

Yas (Vivian Oparah): And where is this, uh, summit of doom taking place?
Dom (David Jonsson): Il Giardino. There. Used to be "our" place.
Yas: No. Absolutely not. Text her, you can't make it. We'll go to Laser Quest, merk some eight-year-olds.

2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane:

(African-American Vernacular, MLE) To murder or seriously injure.


lessor

From Middle English lessour, from Anglo-Norman lessour.

(property law) The owner of property that is leased; the landlord to a lease.


highway robbery

en-noun

highway robbery (countable and uncountable, plural highway robberies)

Compare Old English weġrēaf (“highway robbery”, literally “road-theft”).

cog

(historical, literal) The act of robbing a traveler on a public road.


testate

From Latin testātus (“testified”), perfect passive participle of testor (“I am witness, testify, attest; I make a will”), from testis (“witness”).

(law) having left a legally valid last will and testament (of one who has died).


testate

(law) one who has left a valid will and testament


parasitic

en-adj

parasitic (comparative more parasitic, superlative most parasitic)

more parasitic (comparative)
most parasitic (superlative)

[ˌpɛɹ.əˈsɪɾ.ɪk]

[ˌpæɹ.əˈsɪɾ.ɪk]

(law) Of emotional damages: accompanying a physical or pecuniary injury.


restitution

en-noun

restitution (countable and uncountable, plural restitutions)

/ˌɹɛstɪˈtuʃən/

From Old French restitucion, from Latin restitutio.

(law) A process of compensation for losses.

реституция

legal: process of compensation for losses


suppress

en-verb

suppress (third-person singular simple present suppresses, present participle suppressing, simple past and past participle suppressed)

suppresses (present singular third-person)
suppressing (participle present)
suppressed (participle past)
suppressed (past)

From Latin suppressus, perfect passive participle of supprimō (“press down or under”), from sub (“under”) + premō (“press”).

(US, law) To forbid the use of evidence at trial because it is improper or was improperly obtained.


dispense

dispense (third-person singular simple present dispenses, present participle dispensing, simple past and past participle dispensed)

dispenses (present singular third-person)
dispensing (participle present)
dispensed (participle past)
dispensed (past)

From Middle English, from Old French dispenser, from Latin dispēnsāre (“to weigh out, pay out, distribute, regulate, manage, control, dispense”), frequentative of dispendere (“to weigh out”), from dis- (“apart”) + pendere (“to weigh”).

der

One loving howre / For many yeares of sorrow can dispence

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30:

His synne was dispensed with golde, wherof it was compensed

c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC:

(intransitive, obsolete) To compensate; to make up; to make amends.


insolvent

(law) One who is insolvent; an insolvent debtor.


actus reus

From Late Latin āctus reus (“guilty act”), from Latin āctus (“act”) + reus (“guilty”); after Late Latin and English mens rea.

It is hornbook criminal law that criminal offenses are defined in terms of an actus reus (criminal act) and a mens rea (criminal mind).

1989, James B. Jacobs, Drunk Driving: An American Dilemma, University of Chicago Press, page 65:

A brute emotional reflex to the actus reus, the bad act (‘She killed her husband! Shame!’), could trigger an urge for retribution regardless of her intention.

2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, page 610:

Every criminal offence must contain actus reus elements. A defendant will not be liable for a criminal offence unless the actus reus of the offence is proved: Deller (1952)36 Cr app r 184. Although the vast majority of criminal offences consist of both actus reus elements and mens rea elements, some criminal offences do not require a mens rea element for every element of the actus reus.

2016, Nicola Monaghan, Criminal Law, 4th edition, Oxford University Press, page 23:

(law) An act, or series of acts, considered as separate from the intentions or state of mind of the perpetrator in the context of criminal law.


rule of law

(law, often capitalized) The doctrine that no individual is above the law and that everyone must answer to it.

estáu de derechu

the doctrine that no individual is above the law

samartlisa da ḳanonis uzenaesobis ṗrinciṗi

სამართლისა და კანონის უზენაესობის პრინციპი

(law) The maxim whereby governmental decisions are made by applying known legal principles.

jogállam

the maxim whereby governmental decisions are made by applying known legal principles


examination-in-chief

(law) the examination of a witness by the party who called them.


style of cause

(law) the case title for a cause of action/lawsuit; a description of the parties involved, such as Johnson v. Smith.


TDDRA

(US, law) Initialism of Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act.


suspense

en-noun

suspense (usually uncountable, plural suspenses)

From Middle English suspense, suspence, from Anglo-Norman suspens (as in en suspens) and Old French suspens, from Latin suspēnsus.

(law) A temporary cessation of one's right; suspension, as when the rent or other profits of land cease by unity of possession of land and rent.


crossclaim

(law) A secondary lawsuit, brought by a defendant in an original lawsuit, against a co-defendant in the original suit.


crossclaim

en-verb

crossclaim (third-person singular simple present crossclaims, present participle crossclaiming, simple past and past participle crossclaimed)

crossclaims (present singular third-person)
crossclaiming (participle present)
crossclaimed (participle past)
crossclaimed (past)

(law, transitive, intransitive) To file such a secondary lawsuit.


peine forte et dure

Law French, from Middle French peine forte et dure (“severe and hard punishment”).

It was a solid structure, with massy door, sooner than open which in the absence of the ‘Dominie’, we would all have willingly perished by the peine forte et dure.

(law, now historical) Crushing, an old form of punishment (torture) in which the prisoner's body was pressed with heavy weights.

Giles Corey
Law French
Salem witch trials
peine forte et dure


assart

en-noun

assart (countable and uncountable, plural assarts)

From French essart from Vulgar Latin exsartum.

[…] an assart of the Forest, is the greatest offence or trespasse of all other, that can be done in the forest, to vert or venison, containing in it as much as waste or more. For whereas the waste of the Forest, is but the felling and cutting downe of the couerts, which may grow againe in time: an assart, is a plucking them vp […]

1607, John Cowell, The Interpreter: or Booke Containing the Signification of Words, Cambridge: John Legate:

(law, obsolete) The act or offence of grubbing up trees and bushes, and thus destroying the thickets or coverts of a forest.


mutation

mutation (countable and uncountable, plural mutations)

Late 14th century as Middle English mutacioun, from Latin mūtātiō, both directly and via Old French mutacion.

(law) The transfer of title of an asset in a register.


master key

(law enforcement, slang) A shotgun shell designed for breaching doors.


condone

en-verb

condone (third-person singular simple present condones, present participle condoning, simple past and past participle condoned)

condones (present singular third-person)
condoning (participle present)
condoned (participle past)
condoned (past)

From Latin condōno (“I forgive”), from con- (“together”) + dōnō (“I give”).

(transitive, law) To forgive (marital infidelity or other marital offense).


forestall

forestall (third-person singular simple present forestalls, present participle forestalling, simple past and past participle forestalled)

forestalls (present singular third-person)
forestalling (participle present)
forestalled (participle past)
forestalled (past)

From Middle English forestallen (“to forestall, intercept, ambush, way-lay”), from forestalle (“a forestalling, interception”), from Old English foresteall (“intervention, hindrance of justice, ambush”), from fore- (“ahead of, before”) + steall (“position”), equivalent to fore- + stall.

inh

(UK, law) To obstruct or stop up, as a road; to stop the passage of a highway; to intercept on the road, as goods on the way to market.


peine

en-noun

peine (countable and uncountable, plural peines)

From Old French peine,
from Latin poena,
from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “penalty, fine, bloodmoney”). Doublet of pain.


feeder

From Middle English feedere, federe, fedare, equivalent to feed + -er.

(US, law) A judge whose law clerks are often selected to become clerks for the Supreme Court.


stingray

The device mimics a cell phone tower and gets the phone to connect to it. […] Once a signal is found, the stingray measures its strength and can provide a general location on the map.

2014, Catherine Nolan, Ashley M. Wilson, JD, The Audacity to Spy: How Government, Business, and Hackers Rob Us of Privacy, Technics Publications, →ISBN, page 74:

(US law enforcement) A device that simulates a cell tower, used to intercept cell phone communications.


serial killer

A person who commits multiple (more than two) murders, especially similar ones with no obvious motive over a period of time with a "cooling-off" period between each murder.


road rage

road + rage. First use appears c. 1988 in the Orlando Sentinel.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:road rage.

(automotive, law, psychology) Uncontrollable aggressive behavior by the driver of a road vehicle, especially when caused by stress or frustration.


DPP

After months of troubling silence, the DPP Keir Starmer, finally stepped forward and directly and loudly challenged Yates.

2014, Nick Davies, Hack Attack: How the truth caught up with Rupert Murdoch, Random House, →ISBN, page 299:

Director of Public Prosecutions
w:Director of Public Prosecutions

(chiefly Commonwealth, law) Initialism of Director of Public Prosecutions.


mayhem

en-noun

mayhem (usually uncountable, plural mayhems)

From Middle English mayme, mahaime, from Anglo-Norman mahaim (“mutilation”), from Old French meshaing (“bodily harm, loss of limb”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to cripple, injure”) (compare Middle High German meidem, meiden (“gelding”), Old Norse meiða (“to injure”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (maidjan, “to alter, falsify”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change”). More at mad. The original meaning referred to the crime of maiming, the other senses derived from this.
Another possible etymology derives the Old French from Provençal maganhar, composed of mal (“evil”) and ganhar (“to obtain, receive”) (compare with Spanish ganar and Italian gavagnare and guadagnare), so literally "to obtain, receive something evil).
The sense "chaos" may have arisen by popular misunderstanding of the common journalese expression "rioting and mayhem".

cog

to commit mayhem

There is a story told of a case where a notorious character was charged with the unusual crime of “mayhem”—biting off another man's finger. The defendant's counsel secured adjournment after adjournment—no one knew why.

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

"Well, it's a funny thing, but I can't get rid of the impression that at some point in my researches into the night life of London yestreen I fell upon some person to whom I had never been introduced and committed mayhem upon his person."

1917, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter IV, in Piccadilly Jim, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company:

(law) The maiming of a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs which are necessary for defense or protection.

(law) The crime of damaging things or harming people on purpose.


mayhem

en-verb

mayhem (third-person singular simple present mayhems, present participle mayheming, simple past and past participle mayhemed)

mayhems (present singular third-person)
mayheming (participle present)
mayhemed (participle past)
mayhemed (past)

the king shal punish him for mayheming of his subject

1628, Edw[ard] Coke, The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC:


rescission

en-noun

rescission (countable and uncountable, plural rescissions)

1651, Late Latin rescissio, from Latin rescindō (“I cut back”), from re- (“back”) + scindō (“I cut”).

According to him, they said, "'Resign or we'll fire you.'" Frein resigned and left the school building. However, that same day, he called his union representative, who advised him to withdraw his resignation, which he did, within 24 hours. The school district, however, refused to accept his recission ^([sic]), insisting that Frein was no longer employed by the school district.

1983 December 3, Christine Guilfoy, “Houston Teacher Fired Over Ad Response”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 20, page 1:

(law) The undoing of a contract; repeal.


indemnify

en-verb

indemnify (third-person singular simple present indemnifies, present participle indemnifying, simple past and past participle indemnified)

indemnifies (present singular third-person)
indemnifying (participle present)
indemnified (participle past)
indemnified (past)

From indemn (“unhurt”) + -ify (forming verbs)

af

The lender of a thing for use must indemnify the borrower for damage caused by defects or vices in it, which he knew at the time of lending, and concealed from the borrower.

1906, Civil Code of the State of California, page 405:

en:To make restitution or compensation for

(chiefly law) To compensate or reimburse someone for some expense or injury.


proceedings

/ˈpɹəʊˌsiːd.ɪŋz/

(law, plural only) The course of procedure in the prosecution of an action at law.


rejoin

en-verb

rejoin (third-person singular simple present rejoins, present participle rejoining, simple past and past participle rejoined)

rejoins (present singular third-person)
rejoining (participle present)
rejoined (participle past)
rejoined (past)

From Middle English rejoynen, from Middle French rejoin- (stem of rejoindre, from re- (“again”) + joindre (“to join”)). By surface analysis, re- + join. Doublet of rejoinder.

/ɹiːˈd͡ʒɔɪn/

(law, intransitive) To answer, as the defendant to the plaintiff's replication.

(patent law, nonstandard) in US patent law To re-insert a patent claim, typically after allowance of a patent application, applied to patent claims that had been withdrawn from examination under a restriction requirement, based on rejoinder (patent law).


tribunal

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Old French tribunal, from Latin tribūnal (“tribunal”), from tribus (“tribe”).

Having now so amply declared unto thee most of the principal things of this thrice-renowned and illustrious city, I will briefly by way of an epitome mention most of the other particulars thereof, and so finally shut up this narration: there are reported to be in Venice and the circumjacent islands two hundred churches in which are one hundred forth-three pairs of organs, fifty-four monasteries, twenty-six nunneries, fifty-six tribunals or places of judgment, seventeen hospitals, six companies or fraternities, whereof I have before spoken; one hundred and sixty-five marble statues of worthy personages, partly equestrial, partly pedestrial, which are erected in sundry places of the city, to the honour of those that either at home have prudently administered the commonweal, or abroad valiantly fought for the same.

1611, Thomas Coryate, Coryat's Crudities hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France, Italy, &c:

(law) An assembly including one or more judges to conduct judicial business; a court of law.


damages

/ˈdæmɪd͡ʒɪz/

The WTO dispute settlement mechanism is characterized by weaknesses such as non-retroactive damages.

2020, Anu Bradford, “8. Is the Brussels Effect Beneficial?”, in The Brussels Effect. How the European Union Rules the World, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 260:

(law) The money paid or awarded to a claimant (in England), a pursuer (in Scotland) or a plaintiff (in the US) in a civil action as compensation for a loss suffered by the same.


trophy

→ Japanese: トロフィー (torofī)

→ Korean: 트로피 (teuropi)

→ Malayalam: ട്രോഫി (ṭrōphi)

From Middle French trophée, from Latin trophaeum (“a sign of victory, a monument”), tropaeum, from Ancient Greek τρόπαιον (trópaion, “monument of an enemy's defeat”), from neuter of τροπαῖος (tropaîos, “of defeat”), from τροπή (tropḗ, “a rout, a turning of an enemy”).

трафе́й

object taken by a hunter or conqueror of their success

(criminology, by extension) An object taken by a serial killer or rapist as a memento of the crime.


assurance

en-noun

assurance (countable and uncountable, plural assurances)

From Middle English assuraunce, from Old French asseürance, from asseürer; as if assure + -ance.

the legal evidences of the conveyance of property are called the common assurances of the kingdom.

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

(law) Any written or other legal evidence of the conveyance of property; a conveyance; a deed.

kauppakirja

any written or other legal evidence of the conveyance of property


justiciability

(law) The ability (of a subject matter) to be evaluated and resolved by the courts.

justiciabilité

ability to be evaluated and resolved by the courts


justiciable

en-adj

justiciable (comparative more justiciable, superlative most justiciable)

more justiciable (comparative)
most justiciable (superlative)

(law) Of or pertaining to justiciability; able to be evaluated and resolved by the courts; that can be adjudicated.


steamer

From steam + -er. The steamer duck or steamer (sense 6.2) is apparently named for its resemblance to a paddle steamer when swimming rapidly.

(British, crime, slang) A member of a youth gang who engages in steaming (robbing and escaping in a large group).


derogation

en-noun

derogation (countable and uncountable, plural derogations)

/ˌdɛɹəˈɡeɪʃən/

From Old French derogacion (French dérogation), from Latin dērogātiō.

Two sets of Mk. 2 coaches hauled by Class 37s were introduced on peak Rhymney services during the summer. The coaches do not comply with the Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM) standards and would therefore need a derogation to continue in passenger service after 31 December.

2019 October, Rhodri Clark, “TfW seeks PRM derogation for Class 37 sets”, in Modern Railways, page 87:

(law) The act of derogating; the temporary or partial nullification of a law.


res judicata

From Latin rēs (“thing, matter, affair”) and jūdicata, feminine nominative singular form of jūdicatus, past participle of jūdico (“judge”).

(law) A legal claim that has already been decided in another lawsuit or proceeding, and therefore must be dismissed.

(law) The legal doctrine that claims already decided in a proceeding may not be brought in any later proceeding.


sole proprietor

sole proprietor (plural sole proprietors)

(law, business) The person who owns and controls a sole proprietorship.

個體戶

person who controls a sole proprietorship


arson

arson (usually uncountable, plural arsons)

From Anglo-Norman and Old French arson, from the verb ardoir, from Latin ardeō (“to burn”). Compare ardent.

Arson, like we thought. three punks doused a car, lit it, and took off.

2006, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Killer Smile, Part two, p.34:

The crime of deliberately starting a fire with intent to cause damage.


speed camera

A roadside camera, triggered by a speeding vehicle, that takes a photograph of the offending vehicle and records its speed.

fotovogn

operated by a police officer in a parked van

stærekasse

automatic camera in a permanent location


eminent domain

Translation of the Latin term dominium ēminēns “supreme ownership”.

The city council used eminent domain to make me sell my store.

(law, US, Philippines) The right of a government over the private property within its jurisdiction. Usually invoked to compel land owners to sell their property in preparation for a major construction project such as a freeway.

հանրային գերակա շահ

government's right to expropriate private land

expropriation pour cause d’utilité publique


acquis

Shortened from acquis communautaire: French acquis (“that which has been acquired or obtained”) + communautaire (“of the community”).

acquis

short for acquis communautaire — see also acquis communautaire

Despite the clarity with which this principle has been reiterated, most applicants believe that their own circumstances are unique and deserve an equality of respect, even when this might challenge a principle of at least part of the acquis. The UK, for example, believed that its wider trading links merited special consideration. The realisation that such consideration would not be forthcoming was particularly humiliating, given that the UK had been invited to participate in forming the acquis in 1955–57.

1997, Christopher Preston, “Conclusion: Can the Classical Method Survive?”, in Enlargement and Integration in the European Union, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 228:

[T]he process of absorption of the EU Internal Market acquis by the new EU member states (Hungary and Estonia, e.g. completed their alignment wih the Internal Market acquis within three years) is not feasible for the Moldovan economy, at least in the following three to five years.

2006 March, Oxana Gutu, “Conclusions and Recommendations”, in Moldova’s Convergence with the Acquis: A Pro-growth and Pro-integration Strategy (CEPS Working Document; no. 238), Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies, →ISBN, page 28:

In general, the existing acquis communautaire was adhered to as closely as possible in the drafting of the PEICL [Principles of European Insurance Contract Law]. Exceptions were made where shortcomings could be identified. Therefore, a number of directives, for example the insurance acquis, have been taken into account in the PEICL.

2018, Helmut Heiss, Ulrike Mönnich, “Pre-contractual Duties in European Insurance Contract Law”, in Yong Qiang Han, Greg Pynt, editors, Carter v Boehm and Pre-contractual Duties in Insurance Law: A Global Perspective after 250 Years, Oxford: Hart Publishing, →ISBN, part IV (Pre-contractual Duties in Insurance Law: Mixed Legal System, Reinsurance and Brokers), page 386:

It is a remarkable story of how the EU has managed to create an entire acquis that ensures that the whole of Europe speaks about consumer contract using the same terminology and policy framework.

2018, Geriant Howells, Mateja Durovic, “The Rise of EU Consumer Law between Common Law and Civil Law Traditions”, in Francisco de Elizade, editor, Uniform Rules of European Contract Law?: A Critical Assessment, Oxford: Hart Publishing, →ISBN, part III (Uniform Rules to Bridge the Gap between the Common Law and the Civil Law), page 135:

acquis communautaire
acquis communautaire#English

(law) The accumulated legislation, legal acts, and court decisions which constitute the total body of European Union law.

Acquis is a French term meaning "that which has been agreed". In the context of the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) means that the negotiations should start from the point at which […] the COMESA, EAC and SADC trade negotiations have reached. Tariff negotiations and the exchange of tariff concessions would be among Member/Partner States of the Tripartite FTA that have no preferential arrangements in place between them. This will both preserve the acquis and build on it.

2016, Gerhard Erasmus, Trudi Hartzenberg, Paul Kalenga, “Patterns of African Regional Integration: The Tripartite and Continental Free Trade Areas”, in Achim Gutowski et al., editors, Africa’s Progress in Regional and Global Economic Integration – Towards Transformative Regional Integration (African Development Perspectives Yearbook 2015/16; 18), Zürich: LIT Verlag, →ISBN, page 87:

(international law) The accumulated legislation and decisions of any international community.


trust deed

(law) A deed conveying property to a trustee, for some specific use.


demain

(obsolete, British, law) A demesne, especially the ancient demesne claimed by William the Conqueror.


lineup

Before viewing the lineup, each witness should be required to give to the officer in charge of the lineup a written description of the perpetrator of the crime.

1999, John N. Ferdico, Criminal Procedure for the Criminal Justice Professional, page 498:

This innocent suspect is placed in a lineup with five fillers who look similar to that innocent suspect. Given this scenario, one may ask How many people are in the lineup because they fit the description of the perpetrator?

2007, Jack R. Greene, The Encyclopedia of Police Science, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 493:

Foster was placed in a three-man lineup for viewing by the only witness (the manager of the office). Foster was about 6 feet tall, whereas the other two men in the lineup were about 5 feet 6 inches tall.

2007, Thomas J. Gardner, Terry M. Anderson, Criminal Evidence: Principles and Cases, page 264:

(US, law and law enforcement) a physical or photographic queue of people allegedly involved in a crime, allowing a witness to identify them


criminalization

en-noun

criminalization (countable and uncountable, plural criminalizations)

/ˌkɹɪmɪnəlaɪzˈeɪʃən/

From criminal + -ization or criminalize + -ation.

The act of making a previously legal activity illegal, the act of making something a criminal offence.


judicial activism

(law, often derogatory) The act of replacing an impartial interpretation of existing law with the judge's personal feelings about what the law should be.


competent

en-adj

competent (comparative more competent, superlative most competent)

more competent (comparative)
most competent (superlative)

From Middle English competent, conpetent, from Old French competent (modern French compétent), from Latin competens, competentem, present participle of competō (“coincide, be equal to, be capable of”). Compare Dutch competent (“competent”), German kompetent (“competent”), Danish kompetent (“competent”).

For any disagreements arising from this contract, the competent court shall be the Springfield Circuit Court.

judicial authority having competent jurisdiction

(law) Having jurisdiction or authority over a particular issue or question.


class action

(law, chiefly US, Canada) A lawsuit brought by a single plaintiff or small group of plaintiffs as a representative of a large group of others having a common interest, with everyone in the large group eligible to receive damages if the plaintiff is successful.

複雑訴訟形態

ふくざつそしょうけいたい


commit a bill

en-verb

commit a bill (third-person singular simple present commits a bill, present participle committing a bill, simple past and past participle committed a bill)

commits a bill (present singular third-person)
committing a bill (participle present)
committed a bill (participle past)
committed a bill (past)

(law) To refer or entrust a piece of legislation to a committee (or others) to be considered and reported.


foul play

"I think there's been foul play," said Poole, hoarsely.

1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

An autopsy, pending a toxicology report, would determine the cause of death, the Los Angeles county medical examiner said. Foul play was not suspected, said Cap Scot Williams, who leads the city’s police robbery homicide division that is investigating Perry’s death.

2023 October 30, Sian Cain, “Friends stars release statement after death of Matthew Perry: ‘We were more than just castmates’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Unfair, unethical, or criminal behavior, especially of a malicious or violent nature.


disclaim

disclaim (third-person singular simple present disclaims, present participle disclaiming, simple past and past participle disclaimed)

disclaims (present singular third-person)
disclaiming (participle present)
disclaimed (participle past)
disclaimed (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-disclaim.wav

From Middle English disclaimen, from Anglo-Norman disclaimer, from Old French desclamer (French déclamer), des- + clamer.

(intransitive, transitive) (law) To relinquish or deny having a claim; to disavow another's claim; to decline accepting, as an estate, interest, or office.


blood test

(law, genetics) An analysis of blood performed on two subjects to determine whether they are biologically related, such as a paternity test.


LEO

I got the impression he’d been in the military somewhere in his past. But then at least a third of all LEOs were estimated to be veterans.

2022, Ben Aaronovitch, Winter’s Gifts, Orion Fiction, page 62:


hearsay

en-noun

hearsay (usually uncountable, plural hearsays)

From Middle English hyere-zigginge (1340), here sey (ca. 1438), from the phrase heren seien (“to hear [people] say”). Compare equally old Middle High German hœrsagen (14th c.), whence modern Hörensagen.

(law) Evidence based on the reports of others, which is normally inadmissible because it was not made under oath, rather than on personal knowledge.

testimonium de auditu

(law) evidence based on the reports of others rather than on personal knowledge

(law) An out-of-court statement offered in court for the truth of the matter asserted, which is normally inadmissible because it is not subject to cross-examination unless the hearsay statement falls under one of a number of exceptions.

de-audituverklaring

(law) an out-of-court statement offered in court for the truth of the matter asserted


tutor

From Middle English tutour, from Old French tuteur (French tuteur), from Latin tūtor (“a watcher, protector, guardian”), from tueor (“protect”); see tuition.

der

(obsolete or Quebec law) One who has the charge of a child or pupil and his estate; a guardian.


decriminalization

the decriminalization of all plant-based psychedelics

Some opponents also said federal decriminalization would contribute to more death and injury from impaired drivers using marijuana.

2020 April 12, Deirdre Walsh, “House Approves Decriminalizing Marijuana; Bill To Stall In Senate”, in NPR:

The act of making an activity or substance no longer criminalized (no longer a crime, subject to criminal penalties, to perform or possess). (Compare legalization, which often implies regulation.)


burglar alarm

The loud warning signal produced by a burglar alarm.


from time to time

This is another way of saying that the terms of the individual contracts are in part to be found in the agreed collective agreements as they exist from time to time […]

2015, Richard Painter, Ann Holmes, Cases and Materials on Employment Law, page 90:

(law) In whatever status exists at various times.


whoosh

onomatopoeic

imitative


reformation

en-noun

reformation (countable and uncountable, plural reformations)

/ˌɹɛfəˈmeɪʃən/

/ˌɹɛfɚˈmeɪʃən/

From Middle English reformacion, reformation, from Old French reformacion and Latin refōrmātiō, refōrmātiōnis (“reform, change”), from refōrmō (“transform, reshape”), from re- + fōrmō (“shape, form”).

der

All sorts of legal instruments may be reformed by equity, when the errors, which have been committed in the execution of them, are mutual mistakes or a mistake of one party combined with the fraud of the other. Thus, reformation has been decreed of all kinds of deeds of conveyance, including leases, mortgages, deeds of trust, marriage and family settlements. Likewise, bonds of all kinds, policies of insurance, assignments or release of mortgages, executory contracts for the sale of lands, the indorsement of a note, agreements for the establishment of a highway, military orders. So may, also, judgments and other records be corrected or be reformed.

1893, Christopher Gustavus Tiedeman, “Chapter XXIX”, in A Treatise on Equity Jurisprudence, §507 (footnotes omitted):

(law) Change or correction, by a court in equity, to a written instrument to conform to the original intention of the parties.


takedown

(slang) A taking down: the arrest of a suspect by a police officer.

polizeiliche Festnahme

a taking down: the arrest of a suspect by a police officer


plod

en-noun

plod (usually uncountable, plural plods)

(UK, mildly derogatory, uncountable, usually with "the") the police, police officers


SB

SB (countable and uncountable, plural SBs)

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

senate bill

(law, politics) Initialism of state bill.


encroachment

encroachment (usually uncountable, plural encroachments)

/ɪŋˈkɹoʊt͡ʃmənt/

/ɛŋˈkɹoʊt͡ʃmənt/

(law) An unlawful diminution of the possessions of another.


proximate

From Late Latin proximatus, past participle of proximare (“to draw near, approach”), from Latin proximus (“nearest”), superlative of prope (“near”).

(law) Immediately preceding or following in a chain of causation.


in absentia

Learned borrowing from Latin in absentia (“in absence”).

lbor

The defendant was convicted in absentia after fleeing during the trial.

The first chancellor of West Germany, w:Conrad Adenauer […] continued to keep w:Hans Globke as his secretary of the chancellery despite protests. […] Even after an East German court indicted Globke in absentia in 1950, Adenauer would not budge.

2004 October 28, Leslie Feinberg, “Denazification in socialist Germany opened door to gay rights”, in Workers World:

in absentia (does not exist in the criminal procedure of the FRG, but exists in Switzerland and the Republic of Austria; for civil procedure it is not idiomatic but should be circumscribed in the FRG with “es erging ein Versäumnisurteil” etc., see de:Kontumazentscheidung)


stipulate

en-verb

stipulate (third-person singular simple present stipulates, present participle stipulating, simple past and past participle stipulated)

stipulates (present singular third-person)
stipulating (participle present)
stipulated (participle past)
stipulated (past)

From Latin stipulātus, perfect active participle of stipulor (“I demand a guarantee”).

The defense stipulates that the witness has identified my client.

The parties stipulate that Exhibits 1 through 3 accompanied the initial Verified Complaint and Jury Demand, and that they are displayed in this text in the Exhibits section solely for clarity of the layout.

2016 January 1, Elizabeth I. Boals, Shailee D. Sharma, Stanton v. Armstrong: Case File, Aspen Publishers, →ISBN, page 4:

(US, transitive, formal, law) To acknowledge the truth of; not to challenge.

Parties stipulate to serve discovery and notice discovery depositions no later than 45 days after the opening of discovery, and to respond to discovery within 30 days and take discovery depositions no later than the closing date of discovery.

1999, Steven H. Bazerman, Jason M. Drangel, Guide to Registering Trademarks, Aspen Publishers Online, →ISBN, page 22:

(intransitive, formal, law) To mutually agree.


peppercorn

Inherited from Middle English peper corn, peper-corn, pepercorn, from Old English piporcorn (“peppercorn”), corresponding to pepper + corn. Compare Dutch peperkorrel (“peppercorn”), German Pfefferkorn (“peppercorn”), Danish peberkorn (“peppercorn”), Swedish pepparkorn (“peppercorn”), Icelandic piparkorn (“peppercorn”).

inh+

peppercorn rent

A small, insignificant quantity; a whit or jot.

(law, attributive) A nominal consideration used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contract.


value added tax

head

value added tax (plural value added taxes)

(taxation) A tax levied on the added value that results from the exchange of goods and services

ضَرِيبَة عَلَى القِيمَةْ المَضَافَة

tax levied on added value of an exchange — see also VAT

imposto sobre a circulação de mercadorias


ERISA

w:Employee Retirement Income Security Act

(US, law) Acronym of Employee Retirement Income Security Act (of 1974)


delict

Borrowed from Latin delictum (“fault”), from neuter of delictus, past participle of delinquo (“to be lacking; to fail; to transgress”), from dē- + linquō (“to leave, quit, forsake, depart from”).

(civil law, Scots law) A wrongful act, analogous to a tort in common law.

civil law; Scots law; civil law; Scots law

(law) The branch of law dealing in delicts.


stealth-tax

en-verb

stealth-tax (third-person singular simple present stealth-taxes, present participle stealth-taxing, simple past and past participle stealth-taxed)

stealth-taxes (present singular third-person)
stealth-taxing (participle present)
stealth-taxed (participle past)
stealth-taxed (past)


stealth tax

Mandatory rendering of money to a government that is not explicitly identified as a tax.


bluebottle

* blue + bottle From resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles.
* (police officer): From the colour of the uniform.

Batemans Bay, New South Wales
bluebottle

A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.


take the fifth

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

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

A reference to the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states, among other things, that it may not be required of one to testify against oneself.

If you ask me who ate the last of the ice cream, I will simply take the fifth.

“Do you believe the violence on January 6 was justified morally?” she asked. Flynn squinted, truculent. “Take the Fifth,” he said.

2022 July 8, Barton Gellman, quoting Michael Flynn, “What Happened to Michael Flynn?”, in The Atlantic:

(idiomatic) To decline to comment, especially on grounds that it might be incriminating.


scofflaw

From scoff + law. Coined simultaneously by Mr Henry Irving Dale and Miss Kate L. Butler for a contest held in Boston in 1923 in which a word for "a lawless drinker of illegally made or illegally obtained liquor" was sought during the Prohibition era.

The scofflaw entered the scoflsloon. He leaned an elbow on the scoffbar and rested a foot on the scoffrail.
 'Waddle'y' have?" said the scoffbartender.
 "A little tea," said the scofflaw.

If we are to scour out the scofflaws, we must first remove those particular laws at which nearly everybody scoffs.

Within six months, with the full cooperation of police throughout the state, the scofflaw rate was down to 22 per cent.

1967, Police: The Journal Covering the Professional Interests of All Law Enforcement Personnel, volumes 12-13:

At that time, appellant was informed that because there were unpaid tickets in the amount of $2,725.00, his Datsun had been declared a "scofflaw" car.

2001: 10th International Conference on High-Occupancy Vehicle Systems: Compendium of Technical Papers
The signage will make it clear that if a motorist is an HOV scofflaw (i.e., violator of the vehicle code driving in the HOV-Only zone) that they will be subject to HOV violation fine of at least $271.

Unrepentant scofflaw on the lam
Layin' waste to all the best-laid plans

2001, J. G. Thirlwell (lyrics and music), “Heuldoch 7B”, in Flow, performed by Foetus:

Given Montana's continued, fretful association with various scofflaw organizations and its unwanted reputation as a place without speed limits or other boundaries on personal behavior, we might do well to acknowledge the excesses and inherent abuse of power carried out by men who for too many years refused to bow to the police and courts and rule of law.

2013: A Decent, Orderly Lynching: The Montana Vigilantes by Frederick Allen (University of Oklahoma Press)

(US) One who habitually violates minor laws or fails to answer trivial court summonses (such as parking tickets).


beg the question

beg the question (third-person singular simple present begs the question, present participle begging the question, simple past and past participle begged the question)

begs the question (present singular third-person)
begging the question (participle present)
begged the question (participle past)
begged the question (past)

From Latin petitio principii, from Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhêi aiteîsthai, “to assume from the beginning”).

uder

τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι

The objection is that the argument begs the question, meaning that the premise, that God has all the virtues, assumes the conclusion, that God is benevolent.

1994, D. N. Walton, “Begging the question as a pragmatic fallacy.”, in Synthese, volume 100, number 1:

begging the question
begging the question

(philosophy, logic, law) To engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii).

olettaa johtopäätös todeksi

to engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)


reciprocity

en-noun

reciprocity (countable and uncountable, plural reciprocities)

(international law) The mutual exchange of rights, privileges or obligations between nations. see: Wikipedia:Reciprocity (international relations).


continuance

continuance (countable and uncountable, plural continuances)

From Middle English continuance, contynuaunce, from Old French continuance, from continuer.

At the submission to sufficient facts in Lowell District Court, an agreement was reached between the prosecution and the defense. Despite the continuance without a finding, the defendant was required to pay court costs of $150. The continuance means that if the defendant is not arrested on the same charge within the next six months, the charge against him will be dropped.

1976 August 14, “Chelmsford Police Net Another”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 7, page 1:

Where the Department of Homeland Security seeks to re-serve a respondent to effect proper service of a notice to appear that was defective under the regulatory requirements for serving minors under the age of 14, a continuance should be granted for that purpose.

2016 December 16, Anne J. Greer, Matter of W-A-F-C-, Respondent, Board of Immigration Appeals, 26 I&N Dec. 880 (BIA 2016), archived from the original on 2021-06-24, page 880:

(countable, law, chiefly US) An order issued by a court granting a postponement of a legal proceeding for a set period.


pro-choice

When I defend my pro-choice position in the debate over abortion in our country, I frequently refer to Romania, where pregnancy could be monitored on behalf of the state, and to China, where it could be forcibly terminated.

2003, Hillary Rodham Clinton, “Prague Summer”, in Living History, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 354:

But if past is prologue, it’s hard to predict what our prochoice Republican governor will do. […] “You’re totally prochoice and bipartisan,” Caroline says in the ad, as they sit together on a park bench surrounded by trees and grass.

2022 July 26, Shirley Leung, “Charlie Baker is ‘100% prochoice.’ He shouldn’t veto the new reproductive rights bill.”, in The Boston Globe:

(public policy, law, ethics) Supportive of a person's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.

These cases help create and sustain an essentially pro-choice regime, at least with respect to passive euthanasia and arguably with respect to physician-assisted suicide as well.

1994, Tom Stacy, “Euthanasia and the Supreme Court's Competing Conceptions of Religious Liberty”, in Issues in Law and Medicine, volume 10, number 1, page 62:

Two other sites worthy of note are http://www.efn.org/~ergo/ (Pro-Choice) and http://www.euthanasia.com (Pro-Life).

1998, C. G. Prado, The Last Choice: Preemptive Suicide in Advanced Age, page 103:

Whether we are pro-choice on euthanasia or anti-euthanasia, we can all agree that leaving patients in pain is abhorrent, ethically, and morally reprehensible, and should be punished severely by the law.

2014, Margaret Somerville, Death Talk: The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide, 2nd edition, McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC:

(public policy, law, ethics) Supportive of a person's right to choose whether or not to end their life by euthanasia.


protestation

protestation (countable and uncountable, plural protestations)

/ˌpɹɒtɪsˈteɪʃən/

/ˌpɹəʊtɪsˈteɪʃən/

From Old French protestacion, from Latin prōtestātiō.

(law, historical) A declaration in common-law pleading, by which the party interposes an oblique allegation or denial of some fact, protesting that it does or does not exist, and at the same time avoiding a direct affirmation or denial.


self-defense

self-defense (usually uncountable, plural self-defenses)

From self- + defense. First used by Hobbes in the 1650s.

(law) The right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force, which can be used as justification in several charges including murder, assault, and battery.

özünümüdafiə

law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force


black widow

Any of several species of venomous and potentially deadly spiders, particularly Latrodectus spp..


drug dealer

One who illegally sells recreational drugs.


solemnity

solemnity (countable and uncountable, plural solemnities)

From solemn + -ity, from Middle English solemnity (“observance of formality and ceremony”), frequently in the phrases in solemnity, with solemnity, which from Old French solemnite, from Latin sollemnitās, from sollemnis. (Compare solemn.)

der

(law) A solemn or formal observance; proceeding according to due form; the formality which is necessary to render a thing done valid.


reliquary

/ˈɹɛlɪkwɛɹi/

/ˈɹɛlɪkwəɹi/

Borrowed from Middle French reliquaire (modern French reliquaire), from Late Latin reliquiarium, from rēliquia (“a relic”) (English relic), noun use of reliquus (“abandoned, left behind, relict”), from relinquō (“I relinquish”), from re- (“again”) and linquō (“I leave”), from Proto-Indo-European *leikʷ-.


bandit

en-noun

bandit (plural bandits or (archaic) banditti)

bandits (plural)
banditti (archaic plural)

Borrowed from Italian bandito (“outlawed”), a derivative of Italian bandire (“to ban”), from Late Latin bandīre, an alteration (due to Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍅𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bandwjan, “to signal”)) of Late Latin bannīre (“to ban”), from Frankish *bannan (“to ban”). Doublet of bandito.


part and parcel

part and parcel (usually uncountable, plural parts and parcels)

"Parcel" is used in its archaic sense of "an integral or component part." Originally used as a legal term.

Regular maintenance is part and parcel of owning a car.

Argument structure is thus considered to be part and parcel of the information associated with lexical, syntactically atomic verbs.

1998, Wilhelm Geuder, Miriam Butt, The Projection of Arguments, Introduction:

It's a great idea to get good at using vibrators both on yourself (if you like them) and on partners. For many women, vibrators are part and parcel of good sex. Sometimes you'll like having unassisted sex for a while and then finish off with a vibrator. Sometimes a vibe can be great to add to penetrative sex.

2016, Allison Moon, “Mapping Your Route: Anatomy & Orgasm”, in Girl Sex 101, 2nd edition, Lunatic Ink, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 117:

On the date of RAIL's train test in early summer, there were just two sets in traffic. Class 170 (or even '158') substitutions were still part and parcel of the daily service, although availability has since improved.

2019 October 23, Pip Dunn, “The next king of Scotland”, in Rail, page 50:

An integral or essential piece; that which must be done or accepted as part of something else.


fat cat

The phrase was first used in the 1920s in the United States to describe rich political donors.
By the middle of the 20th century, the term was being applied more widely to any wealthy individual.

A staggering 57% of American workers believe there is a very real chance they will be unemployed in the next 5 to 7 years. But what does that matter to a bloated millionaire fat-cat like you?

1997, John Brancato and Michael Ferris, The Game (motion picture), Daniel Schorr (actor):

For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left train operators to 'take the heat' - which they dutifully did, fearful of speaking up and 'biting the hand that feeds'.

2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3:

In America, where we moralize our money and monetize our morals, fat cats who go bust tend to be viewed as cautionary figures, singular exemplars of malfeasance, not routine casualties of the fickle system that exalted them in the first place.

2020 October 23, Walter Kirn, “The Cautionary Tale of Adam Neumann and WeWork”, in New York Times:

(slang, derogatory) Any affluent person who is perceived to have profited from the labor of others; and/or not to care about those of lesser means.

zazobanec

affluent person who is perceived to have profited from the labour of others


CBI

(law) Initialism of Confidential Business Information.


over and above

(law) more than is required e.g. by a contract.


rustle

rustle The rustle of paper (canonical)
rustles (plural)

From Middle English rustelen, russelen, of uncertain origin, but probably from Old English hrūxlian, hristlan, hrystlan, hristlian (“to make a noise”). Compare also Scots reesle (“to crackle; rattle; rustle”), West Frisian risselje, Dutch ritselen (“to rustle”), Afrikaans ritsel (“to rustle”), German rascheln (“to rustle”).

cog

He heard the silken rustle of a dressing-gown being drawn on.

1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus:

A soft crackling sound similar to the movement of dry leaves.


rustle

en-verb

rustle (third-person singular simple present rustles, present participle rustling, simple past and past participle rustled)

rustles (present singular third-person)
rustling (participle present)
rustled (participle past)
rustled (past)

The next day at three o'clock we were again at the door, and the footmen as before; we heard the silk dress rustle, and the lady came down the steps and in an imperious voice, she said, "York, you must put those horses' heads higher, they are not fit to be seen."

[1877], Anna Sewell, “Earlshall”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part II, page 104:

(ergative) To move (something) with a soft crackling sound.

шумоля

to move (something) with a soft crackling sound

When at last the lumber was piled again in its rightful place, and the boxes of food had been returned to the shelter from which they had been stolen, the two friends rustled a meal, and then set off on horseback […]

1921, William M. McCoy, The Valley of the Sun, page 48:

(transitive) To make or obtain in a lively, energetic way.


AFP

(Australia, law enforcement) Initialism of Australian Federal Police.


antitrust

The regulators used antitrust laws to block the merger, believing it would eliminate competition.

If the takeover is approved, Comcast would control 20 of the top 25 cable markets, […]. Antitrust officials will need to consider Comcast’s status as a monopsony (a buyer with disproportionate power), when it comes to negotiations with programmers, whose channels it pays to carry.

2014 March 15, “Turn it off”, in The Economist, volume 410, number 8878:

(law) Opposed to or against the establishment or existence of trusts (monopolies), usually referring to legislation.

antimonopolista

opposed to or against the establishment or existence of trusts


SAPOL

For example, the SAPOL Police Security Services Division (a service designed to act in competition with private providers) mentions, in its Strategic Plan 1998-2003, its similarity with SAPOL as an advantage.

2003, Canberra Law Review, volumes 7-8, page 112:

When information is provided to SAPOL and it is considered by the officer receiving the information that it is necessary that the identity of the informant and the information be kept confidential, it is the practice of SAPOL officers to give an assurance of confidentiality.

2003, South Australian Supreme Court, The South Australian State Reports, volume 87, page 482:

The data were acquired from sworn serving SAPOL police officers. To collect data for this study a submission was made to SAPOL′s Officer in Charge of Policy and Project Services.

2005, Laurence J. Alison, The Forensic Psychologist′s Casebook, page 126:

South Australia Police
w:South Australia Police

(Australia, law enforcement) Abbreviation of South Australia Police..


CMR

(road transport, international law) The Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road.


First Amendment

The claimant believed his First Amendment rights had been violated, but the judge was unsure of whether it was a First Amendment issue.

Our First Amendment class discussed the McCain-Feingold Act today, and I'm convinced people who claim money should be granted First Amendment protection are just defending the corrupt status quo of decades past.

What are the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States here referred to [in the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]? […] Among these we are safe in including those which in the Constitution are expressly secured to the people, either as against the action of the Federal or State governments. Included in these are the rights of freedom of speech, and the right peaceably to assemble. […] We find that Congress is forbidden to impair them by the first amendment, and the States are forbidden to impair them by the fourteenth amendment.

1871 May, Circuit Judge William Burnham Woods, “The Power of Congress to Pass the Enforcement Act—The Fourteenth Amendment Construed—The Rights of Citizens of the States and United States Considered.—The United States v. John Hall, Jr., and William Pettigrew. Heard before Woods, Circuit, and Busteed, District JJ., on demurrer to the indictment. [U.S. Circuit Court, 8. D. of Alabama.]”, in The Internal Revenue Record and Customs Journal: A Weekly Register of Official Information on Internal Revenue and Customs, volume XIII, New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] C[onant] & F[rancis] P[harcellus] Church, publishers, office, no. 39 Park Row, →OCLC, page 182, column 3:

One scholar has noted that the [Warren Earl] Burger Court has invalidated more statutes on First Amendment grounds than any previous "court" […]

1981, Thomas A. Schwartz, A Reconceptualization of the First Amendment: The Burger Court and Freedom of the Press, 1969–1980 (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation), Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, →OCLC, page 224:

We have enshrined some of the most cherished rights of Americans in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, including freedom of religion, speech, press, the right to assemble, and petition the government for a redress of grievances.

2002, Clyde E. Willis, “Preface”, in Student's Guide to Landmark Congressional Laws on the First Amendment (Student's Guide to Landmark Congressional Laws), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN:

By considering public opinion data on free press rights against the backdrop of modern First Amendment jurisprudence, we seek to offer new and original insights into the nature of popular support for these rights – and, in the process, we hope to provide a more sophisticated understanding of how the U.S. democratic system actually works

2002, David A[listair] Yalof, Kenneth Dautrich, “Preface and Acknowledgements”, in The First Amendment and the Media in the Court of Public Opinion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page viii:

The United States has generally not been successful in terms of exporting the First Amendment in the formal or legal sense, even to western democracies with which it shares much in common. Although they have rejected many of the First Amendment’s doctrines and standards, many nations have embraced its general norms, principles, and ideals. Indeed, the American First Amendment has had a profound and lasting effect on expressive and religious liberties throughout the world.

2014, Timothy Zick, “Exporting the First Amendment”, in The Cosmopolitan First Amendment: Protecting Transborder Expressive and Religious Liberties, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 346:

2019 July 29, Elizabeth Nolan Brown on Reasonhttps://reason.com/2019/07/29/section-230-is-the-internets-first-amendment-now-both-republicans-and-democrats-want-to-take-it-away/
Section 230 Is the Internet's First Amendment.

freedom of the press
freedom of the press

The amendment to the constitution of the United States pertaining to freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press.

First Amendment
Newseum
United States Constitution


prescription

en-noun

prescription (countable and uncountable, plural prescriptions)

/pɹəˈskɹɪpʃən/

Borrowed from Middle French, from Old French prescripcion, from Latin praescriptio (“preface; pretext; something written ahead of time”), from prae- (“pre-, before”) + scribere (“to write”) + -tio (“-tion, forming nouns”).

taalregulering

the act or practice of laying down norms of language usage; an instance of this

A statute that cannot find justification for its prescription in one or more of these principles violates international law.

1997, Richard G. Alexander, “Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996: Congress Exceeds Its Jurisdiction to Prescribe Law”, in Washington & Lee Law Review, page 1609:

(law) Synonym of enactment, the act of establishing a law, regulation, etc., particularly in writing; an instance of this.

нареждане

the act of establishing a law or regulation in writing; an instance of this

تَقَادُم

extinctive or liberative prescription — see also statute of limitations

(law) An established time period within which a right must be exercised and after which it is null and permanently unenforceable.

en:time period for easement to produce ownership

(law) An established time period after which a person who has uninterruptedly, peacefully, and publicly used another's property acquires full ownership of it.


corrections

/kəˈɹɛkʃənz/

(US, Canada, law) Relating to the punishment, treatment, or supervision of persons who have been convicted of a crime


dipper

desc

→ Kashubian: dyper (Canada, United States)

From Middle English dippere; equivalent to dip + -er.

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

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


recoup

en-verb

recoup (third-person singular simple present recoups, present participle recouping, simple past and past participle recouped)

recoups (present singular third-person)
recouping (participle present)
recouped (participle past)
recouped (past)

A landlord recouped the rent of premises from damages awarded to the plaintiff for eviction.

(law) To keep back rightfully (a part), as if by cutting off, so as to diminish a sum due; to take off (a part) from damages; to deduct.


IANAL

(Internet) Initialism of I am not a lawyer.


payor

(law, healthcare, medical insurance) One who makes a payment.


poach

poach (third-person singular simple present poaches, present participle poaching, simple past and past participle poached)

poaches (present singular third-person)
poaching (participle present)
poached (participle past)
poached (past)

From Old French pocher, pochier (“to trample, poach into”). Doublet of poke.

(transitive, intransitive) To trespass on another's property to take fish or game.


plonk

Chris and that plonk had better be flushing the scum out.

(countable, derogatory, UK, Ireland, law enforcement slang) A female police constable.


LSB

Legal Services Board
w:Legal Services Board

(England and Wales, law) Initialism of Legal Services Board.


Kyoto

Borrowed from Japanese 京(きょう)都(と) (Kyōto, literally “capital city”), from Middle Chinese 京都 (kjæng-tu, “capital (of a country)”).

der

The merits and limitations of Kyoto have been subject to great discussion. Some criticize the regime for being too top-down, wasteful and infective as a means of tacking climate change (Prins and Rayner 2007; Victor 2001).

2013, Stewart Lockie, David A. Sonnenfeld, Dana R. Fisher, Routledge International Handbook of Social and Environmental Change, Routledge, →ISBN, page 112:


replication

en-noun

replication (countable and uncountable, plural replications)

/ɹɛplɪˈkeɪʃən/

Inherited from Middle English replicacioun, replicacion, from Anglo-Norman replicacioun and Old French replicacion (“reply, answer”), from Latin replicātiō, replicātiōnem. By surface analysis, replicate + -(at)ion.

surf

(law) A response from the plaintiff to the defendant's plea.

отговор

a response from the plaintiff to the defendant's plea


thieving

en-noun

thieving (usually uncountable, plural thievings)

"There's nothing to spend your thievings on up here."


ex ante

Borrowed from Latin ex ante (“before the event”).


racketeer

One who commits crimes (especially fraud, bribery, loansharking, extortion etc.) to aid in running a shady or illegal business.


intervention

intervention (countable and uncountable, plural interventions)

From Middle French intervention, from Latin interventiō.
Morphologically intervene + -tion.

(US, law) A legal motion through which a person or entity who has not been named as a party to a case seeks to have the court order that they be made a party.


appropriation

appropriation (countable and uncountable, plural appropriations)

/əˌpɹoʊpɹiˈeɪʃən/

From Middle English appropriacion, appropriacioun, from Medieval Latin appropriātiō.

(constitutional law) The principle that supplies granted by a legislature are only to be expended in the manner specified by that legislature.


FMLA

(US, law) Initialism of Family and Medical Leave Act.


lapse

From Middle French laps, from Latin lāpsus, from lābī (“to slip”). Doublet of lapsus.

(law) A common-law rule that if the person to whom property is willed were to die before the testator, then the gift would be ineffective.


TDA

(criminal law) Initialism of taking and driving away.


QDRO

domestic relations
domestic relations#English

(US, law) Acronym of qualified domestic relations order.


EDRO

(US, law) Acronym of eligible domestic relations order.


peacekeeper

officer of the peace
officer of the peace

(Canada, law enforcement) An officer of the peace (police officer) in a force run by a Canadian aboriginal community.


MOS

"We have an MOS down," the dispatcher said.

(law enforcement) Initialism of member of the service.


abigeus

In the Civil Law, he was accounted an Abigeus who carried off one Horse or one Ox, or four Swine or ten Sheep; if he took a smaller Number of Swine or Sheep, he was reckoned a Fur rather than an Abigeus.

1730, Institutions of the Criminal Law of Scotland, page 127:

The stealing of a single horse or ox might make a man an abigeus, but it seems that the crime could not be committed on less than four pigs or ten sheep.

1883, A history of the criminal law of England - Volume 1, page 27:

It is obvious why the thief of only one domestic animal was not treated so severely as an abigeus. The reason for the severe punishment of rustlers, abigei, was the need of a stronger protection for agricultural interest, particularly in countries where these offenses were more frequent.

1943, Seminar: Annual Extraordinary Number of The Jurist:

(law, UK, obsolete) A thief who steals livestock in large quantities.


exhibit

en-verb

exhibit (third-person singular simple present exhibits, present participle exhibiting, simple past and past participle exhibited)

exhibits (present singular third-person)
exhibiting (participle present)
exhibited (participle past)
exhibited (past)

From Latin exhibitus, perfect passive participle of exhibeō (“I hold forth, present, show, display”), from ex (“out of, from”) + habeō (“I have, hold”); see habit.

I now exhibit this bloody hammer.

(transitive, law) To submit (a physical object) to a court as evidence.


exhibit

Exhibit A is this photograph of the corpse.

(law) An article formally introduced as evidence in a court.


dishonour

en-noun

dishonour (countable and uncountable, plural dishonours)

From Old French deshonor, equivalent to dis- + honour.

negotiable instrument
negotiable instrument

(law) Failure or refusal of the drawee or intended acceptor of a negotiable instrument, such as a bill of exchange or note, to accept it or, if it is accepted, to pay and retire it.


Mirandize

en-verb

Mirandize (third-person singular simple present Mirandizes, present participle Mirandizing, simple past and past participle Mirandized)

Mirandizes (present singular third-person)
Mirandizing (participle present)
Mirandized (participle past)
Mirandized (past)

From Miranda + -ize. The former refers to the US Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona.

1981. Television program Hill Street Blues, Season 1, Episode 7, "Film At Eleven".
Lt. Furillo: Be sure to Mirandize them, Ray.

[1997. New York State Bar Journal, "Volume 69"
We credit Judge John G. Gabbert of California with the first reported usage of "Mirandize" […] ]

[2007. Anu Garg, "The dord, the diglet, and an avocado or two"
To mirandize is to advise people under arrest of their legal rights, such as the right to remain silent under questioning, the right to legal counsel, etc.]

2012. Garrett Graff, "The Threat Matrix"
There was also a fierce debate over whether to Mirandize the detainees immediately. “You wouldn't Mirandize an American in this situation,” Knowles argued with Justice Department officials.

(transitive, US, law enforcement) To inform someone who has been arrested of their constitutional rights.


pickpocket

Coordinate term: putpocket

One who steals from the pocket of a passerby, usually by sleight of hand.

xhepist

one who steals from the pocket of a passerby


mouthpiece

A part of any device that functions in or near the mouth, especially:

The part of a telephone that is held close to the mouth.

The part of a wind instrument that is held in or against the mouth.

The novel's protagonist serves as a mouthpiece for the author's political views.

Seeming “real” has been the aim since the earliest police procedurals, which began a long tradition of Hollywood productions acting as a mouthpiece for police departments.

2021 April 24, Adrian Horton, “‘The uprisings opened up the door’: the TV cop shows confronting a harmful legacy”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to “focus all its energy on fighting” in preparation for war, a Chinese Communist party mouthpiece has reported.

2022 November 9, Verna Yu, “Xi Jinping tells China’s army to focus on preparation for war”, in The Guardian:

A spokesman; one who speaks on behalf of someone else.

глашатай

spokesman who speaks on behalf of someone else


EPO

en-noun

EPO (countable and uncountable, plural EPOs)

protective order
protective order#English

(law) Initialism of emergency protective order.


competency

competency (countable and uncountable, plural competencies)

(law) Meeting specified qualifications to perform.

kompetence

law: meeting specified qualifications to perform