fingertip search

fingertip search (plural fingertip searches)

Several media liaison officers placed particular emphasis on the use of photo opportunities of elements of the investigation to gain or revive press interest (fingertip searches, house-to-house visits, underwater searches and so on).

1999, Andy Feist, The effective use of the media in serious crime investigations, London: Home Office, Policing and Reducing Crime Unit, Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, →ISBN:

Police search teams led by Police Constable Franklin and Police Constable Sawyer conducted a thorough fingertip search of the common approach path of the area surrounding the body and of the area on either side of the approach path.

2004, Lord Brian Hutton, Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons Dated 28th January 2004 for the Report of the Inquiry Into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Dr David Kelly C.M.G., The Stationery Office, →ISBN, page 87:

If the crime scene is small enough, SOCOs may carry out a fingertip search for evidence. Kneeling shoulder-to-shoulder and moving forward together, officers search the ground in front of them so that every inch of the crime scene is examined.

2007, Carey Scott, Crime Scene Detective, Dorling Kindersley Ltd, →ISBN, page 9:

(UK) A fastidious forensic search of a crime scene, usually performed by investigators crawling along the ground.


contemporanea expositio

From Latin contemporanea expositio (“that which was said at the time”). Part of the expression contemporanea expositio est optima et fortissima, in lege ("contemporaneous explanation is best and strongest in law").

gloss

We have the contemporanea expositio of Edward the Sixth, but what is the contemporanea expositio of Charles the Second ?

1856, Sir Robert Phillimore, Argument of Robert Phillimore in the Court of Arches: in the matter of the ornaments in the churches of St. Paul and St. Barnabas, Knightsbridge, page 141:

This is the contemporanea expositio which is to prove that the doctrine of the sacraments is not delivered fully in the Articles ; being in fact about a totally different question !

1848, Clericus M.A., Cantab, pseud, The Church of England pronounced heretical, by the promoters of a petition against the consecration of dr. Hampden to the see of Hereford, page 44

This was the clear result of the 1st George I., taken in conjunction with the other statutes, and the contemporanea expositio confirmed this construction.

1851, Edmund Burke, The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year, page 186:

(law) Legal opinions set forth at the time a document was written.

The contemporanea expositio is a safe key to the meaning of deeds, and in Evelyn's Memoirs, written fourteen years after the complete establishment of the Charter House, we have a striking illustration of the original rule as he understood it […]

1832, The Law Magazine: Or, Quarterly Review of Jurisprudence, page 110:

Not only do I think that they must be read in conjunction, but the usage which has followed the Union has, in my judgment, both interpreted them when so read, and has by contemporanea expositio confirmed the view that they ought to be so read.

1910, The Scottish Law Reporter: Continuing Reports ... of Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Court of Justiciary, Court of Teinds, and House of Lords:

It was reasonably clear upon the argument submitted in the Court of Session that, at the time when the Act came into force, it was regarded by contemporanea expositio as applying to the Crown, but any doubt which might have existed was set ...

1920, “Lord Advocate v. Marquess of Zetland”, in Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Court of Justiciary, &c.; Also in the House of Lords, page 3:

(law) The doctrine that the legal opinions of the time a document was written should be used to interpret laws in preference to more modern formulations.


inverse condemnation

en-noun

inverse condemnation (countable and uncountable, plural inverse condemnations)

(law) The taking of private property by the government without providing compensation, thus forcing the previous owner to file a lawsuit against the government to recover the value of the property taken.


body camera

/ˈbɒdi ˈkæməɹə/

/ˈbɑdi ˈkæməɹə/

How would we ensure that there are common-sense protections and exceptions for law enforcement officers if they are required to wear body cameras? How would privacy considerations for law enforcement, suspects, and the general public be taken into account in instituting the use of body cameras?

2015 May 19, Policing Strategies for the 21st Century: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, First Session, May 19, 2015 (Serial No. 114-29), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Publishing Office, →OCLC, page 120:

The Phoenix Police Department began a body camera study in 2013, funded under the Bureau of Justice Assistance Smart Policing Initiative.

2016, Larry J. Siegel, John L[ambert] Worrall, “The Police: Organization, Role, and Function”, in Introduction to Criminal Justice, 16th edition, Boston, Mass.: Cengage Learning, →ISBN, part 2 (The Police and Law Enforcement), page 213:

The untallied but growing number of people wearing body cameras now includes not just police but also hospital workers and others who aren’t law enforcement officers.

2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-06-14:

Virgin Trains is to equip station and onboard staff with 250 more body cameras, in a bid to further reduce assaults on its staff.

A video recording system worn on the body, typically used by law enforcement officers to record their interactions with the public, and gather video evidence at crime scenes.


expressio unius est exclusio alterius

canon of construction
canon of construction

(law) A canon of construction holding that, when a legal document includes a list, anything not in that list is assumed to be purposely excluded.


balance of probability

balance of probabilities
balance of probabilities#English

(law) Alternative form of balance of probabilities


ASI

ASI (countable and uncountable, plural ASIs)

anti-suit injunction
anti-suit injunction#English

(law, countable) Initialism of anti-suit injunction.


court of appeal

court of appeal (plural courts of appeal)


operative clause

operative clause (plural operative clauses)

(law) A clause (of a judgment, order, resolution, etc.) which requires anything to be done or not to be done.


condition subsequent

condition subsequent (plural conditions subsequent)

(law) A condition depending upon an uncertain event which, if fulfilled, brings an end to an obligation or legal transaction.


juristic person

juristic person (plural juristic persons)


juridical person

juridical person (plural juridical persons)


en ventre sa mere

Borrowed from French en + ventre + sa + mère.


specific contract

specific contract (plural specific contracts)

nominate contract
nominate contract#English


nominate contract

nominate contract (plural nominate contracts)

(law) a contract distinguished by a particular name, such as sale, insurance, or lease.


mesnalty

From Anglo-Norman mesnalté. Compare mesne (“intermediate”).

"In old English law. The estate or right of a mesne, (q. v.) Termes de la Ley". Alexander M. Burrill
... now shall the donee hold by twelve pence, for the mesnaltie which was four pence is extinct, and the law reserved the tenure upon the gift in taile, in respect of the mesnaltie, and when the mesnaltie is extinct, the former rent between the donor and donee is extinct also... Coke et al
The judgement by the said statute of ... is a forejudger of the mesnalty, and that in two severall cases... Coke et al
The other case is, where the tenant recovereth his acquitall in a writ of mesne, if he be not acquited afterwards, he shall have a writ of distringas ad acquietandum against the same mesne, and if he commeth not, he shall be forejudged by his default of the mesnality; and so if he commeth... Coke et al

(law, historical) The position or land of a mesne lord.


mesne lord

Distinguishing the nature of the lord as intermediate (Old French mesne, "middle"), particularly as opposed to lords paramount and tenants-in-chief.

Thus all the land in the kingdom is supposed to be holden, mediately or immediately, of the sovereign, who is styled the lord paramount, or above all. Such tenants as held under the crown immediately, when they granted out portions of their lands to inferior persons, became also lords with respect to those inferior persons, as they were still tenants with respect to the king; and, thus partaking of a middle nature, were called mesne, or middle, lords. So that if the king granted a manor to A., and he granted a portion of the land to B., now B. was said to hold of A., and A. of the king... A. was both tenant and lord, or was a mesne lord: and B. was called tenant paravail, or the lowest tenant; being he who was supposed to make avail or profit of the land.

1767, William Blackstone, “The Rights of Things”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, volume II, page 60:

(law, historical) A lord entitled to rent or feudal obligations from tenants but who himself owes rent or feudal obligations to another.


armed conflict

armed conflict (countable and uncountable, plural armed conflicts)

(international law, military) A contested incompatibility that entails the use of armed force between two parties including a territory, the government of a state, or both.


child molester

(all slang)

Is there available for distribution a copy of your essay on the subject of "The Menace of the Child Molester", which has been published in connection with a work of non-fiction […]

1967, Extent of Subversion in Campus Disorders, page 336:

(criminology) Someone who has committed an act of child molestation; someone who has sexually abused a minor.

児童性虐待者

じどうせいぎゃくたいしゃ


ALPR

California-based Vigilant […] has partnered with a range of governments in Texas, California, and Georgia to provide their police with a suite of ALPR systems to use on patrol, along with access to Vigilant's database.

2021, Kate Crawford, chapter 6, in Atlas of AI […] , →ISBN:

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of automated/automatic license plate recognition.

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of automated/automatic license plate reader.


prosecuting attorney

prosecuting attorney (plural prosecuting attorneys)

A public officer charged with carrying on the prosecution or representing the state in criminal proceedings and, in some jurisdictions, instituting or representing the state in civil or administrative proceedings.


judicial officer

judicial officer (plural judicial officers)

As a European official, a calque of French huissier de justice (“court usher”) employing officer because of usher's lack of legal associations in English.

uder

(law) A public officer authorized to hear and decide cases in a court of law.

(law) A huissier de justice, a process server and officer of the court in several European countries.


juristic act

(civil law, South Africa) Any conduct by a person intended to create, modify, transfer, preserve, or extinguish a right, obligation, or legal relationship.

retshandel

volitional act intended to bring about legal effects


war profiteer

Microsoft workers are calling on their employer to cancel a $480m contract to provide the US army with augmented reality (AR) headsets, saying they “do not want to become war profiteers”.

2019 February 22, Julia Carrie Wong, quoting Microsoft workers, “‘We won't be war profiteers’: Microsoft workers protest $480m army contract”, in The Guardian:

A person or group that gains a significant amount of revenue from selling weapons and military equipment.

Kriegsgewinnler

person or group that gains from selling weapons and military equipment


heir at law

(law) Alternative spelling of heir-at-law


heir-at-law

(law) A person legally entitled to inherit the property of someone who dies intestate.

ทายาทโดยธรรม

a person legally entitled to inherit the property of someone who dies intestate


zotz

en-verb

zotz (third-person singular simple present zotzes, present participle zotzing, simple past and past participle zotzed)

zotzes (present singular third-person)
zotzing (participle present)
zotzed (participle past)
zotzed (past)

Got zotzed by burglars she surprised on their boat...

(slang, transitive) To murder, knock off.


mare clausum

(international law) A body of water within the jurisdiction of a particular nation, and not part of the open sea.


ganancial

(law, historical) Relating to, or held under, the Spanish system of law that controls the title and disposition of the property acquired during marriage by the husband or wife.


detention warrant

en-noun

detention warrant (plural detention warrants)

(law) a court order authorising the detention of a person following his arrest or pending any procedural activity (interrogation, examination, trial, etc.).


release warrant

release warrant (plural release warrants)

(law) A court order authorising the release of a detained or imprisoned person.


imprisonment warrant

imprisonment warrant (plural imprisonment warrants)

(law) a court order authorising the imprisonment of a person sentenced to imprisonment; a court order authorising the execution of an imprisonment sentence.


writ of summons

writ of summons (plural writs of summons)


writ of execution

writ of execution (plural writs of execution)

(law) a court order authorising an officer to carry a judgment into execution.

(law, US) a court order authorising an officer to seize and sell the judgment debtor's property in order to pay his judgment debt.


with prejudice

The charges were dismissed with prejudice.

(law) Without the possibility of bringing a new case on the same basis.


knight's fee

(law, historical) A kind of land tenure requiring military service to the land's chief lord as an obligation to maintain possession.

(law, historical) The specific amount of land giving rise to such requirements generally, being sometimes a hide or less and sometimes six or more hides.


International Court of Justice

the International Court of Justice (canonical)

(UN) A judicial body of the United Nations, established in 1945 to decide disputes brought by nations.

国際司法裁判所

こくさいしほうさいばんしょ


odal

From Icelandic óðal. Cognate with Norwegian odel, odal (“allodium, patrimony”), Old English ēþel (“homeland”). Compare athel, Odelsthing.

(law, historical) Among the early and medieval Teutonic peoples, especially Scandinavians, the heritable land held by the various odalmen constituting a family or kindred of freeborn tribesmen.


international humanitarian law

international humanitarian law (uncountable)

(international law) the law which regulates the conduct of armed conflict.


public international law

international organisation
international organisation

(international law) the law concerning the conduct of nations and international organisations.


caballeria

From Spanish caballería, from caballero (“horseman, gentleman, cowboy”) + -ía (“-y: forming nouns”), from Late Latin caballārius (“horseman, rider”), from Latin caballus (“horse”) + -ārius (“-ary”). Doublet of cavalry and chivalry.

der

(historical, law) A medieval Spanish land tenure equivalent to a knight's fee, held under an obligation for military service.


moral duty

moral obligation
moral obligation#English


foresentence

To move on that note from our deficient techniques of fact-gathering, there is a troublesome quality of class bias both in the subjects treated in foresentence reports and the standard modes of treatment.

1975, H. Richard Uviller, The Processes of Criminal Justice: Investigation, page 794:

(law, rare) A sentence or condemnation in advance.


international organization

en-noun

international organization (plural international organizations)

international legal personality
international legal personality

(international law) An organisation established by a treaty or other instrument governed by international law and possessing its own international legal personality.


moral obligation

moral obligation (countable and uncountable, plural moral obligations)

(law) A duty which one owes and ought to perform on the basis of considerations of right and wrong, but which he is not legally bound to fulfill, as a duty to be charitable, a duty to pay a debt barred by the act of limitations, etc.

kewajiban moral

duty that one owes because of considerations of right and wrong but he is not legally bound to perform


in right of

In right of her being president of the Board, she is also the chair of Board meetings.

The husband held title to the land in right of his wife (see also jure uxoris).

(law) a power held as a consequence of another power, or held as a consequence of a relationship

The Queen of Canada in Right of Quebec is suing the Queen of Canada in Right of Newfoundland.

(law, government, often capitalized) jurisdiction of a person who is head of state of more than one state


diminished value

Damages are awarded for defects and omissions in the performance of construction contracts giving the damaged party what was contracted for or its equivalent. [references] The primary measure of defect damages is the cost of either correcting the defect or supplying the omission. This is known as the cost-of-correction rule. [references] This measure will be applied even though it may cost somewhat more to correct the defects than to have constructed the improvement to real property properly in the first place. Nevertheless the diminished value rule will be applied instead if correcting the defect or supplying the omission involves unreasonable economic waste because the cost of correction is materially disproportionate to the increased value that it would produce. The recovery for diminished value is the difference between the value the improvement would have had if properly constructed and the value as actually constructed. If, after construction defects have been corrected, the building still does not have the value it would have had if it had been constructed properly, the property owner may be able to recover both the cost-of-correction and the remaining diminished value.

2009, Carl J. Circo with Christopher H. Little, A State-by-state Guide to Construction & Design Law, Chicago: American Bar Association, →ISBN, page 1129:

Most automobile insurance policies, however, exclude coverage for diminished value.

2014, Meir Liraz, Cheap Car Insurance: How to Slash Your Auto Insurance Costs and Get Cheap Quotes, Liraz Publishing, →ISBN:

In assessing the income of the company for taxation the Commissioner allowed the claim for deduction for the actual cost of repairs and renewals, but did not allow any claim for diminished value.

1905, In re the Income Tax Cases, Hydraulics Company Case, in Supreme Court of Victoria (Australia), The Victorian Law Reports, p. 186

(law, insurance) A compensable loss in a property item's value after having been damaged and subsequently repaired or, in the case of a construction, having been constructed improperly or not according to contract.


vendor's lien

vendor's lien (plural vendor's liens or vendors' liens)

vendor's liens (plural)
vendors' liens (plural)

(law) An implied lien (that is, one not created by mortgage or other express agreement) given in equity to a vendor of lands for the unpaid purchase money.


bodycam

I'll wear a bodycam – a copcam, which I'll have to get from the SPD.

2017, Bharti Kirchner, Season of Sacrifice: First in a new Seattle-based mystery series:

(chiefly law enforcement) A body camera.


state's evidence

(law) Court testimony from a person involved in a criminal activity case, implicating other people in crimes, usually given in exchange for leniency from the prosecutor.


heister

Put it down and walk away ... straight to the crime section of your bookstore, where I'd suggest you start with The Hunter, the first book in his classic series about Parker, the heister's heister […]

2014, Donald E. Westlake, The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany:


general population

general population (plural general populations)

solitary confinement
solitary confinement

The main body of inmates in a prison, excluding those being detained in solitary confinement, protective custody, a medical wing or on death row.


county brownie

Named for their brown uniforms and cars.


Johnny Hopper

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang

(UK, Cockney rhyming slang) A police officer.


work product

Something created as a product of one's work, particularly

(law, employment) Things and ideas created by an employee that are considered the legal property of the employer owing to the terms of employment

工作成果

something created by an employee that is considered the property of the employer

(law) Things and knowledge created or learned by a lawyer as part of work with a client, often protected against discovery during litigation


material heresy

material heresy (plural material heresies)

Calque of Ecclesiastical Latin haeresis māteriālis.

calque

(Roman Catholicism) An opinion that is objectively contradictory to the teachings of the Church, and as such heretical, but which is uttered by a person without the subjective knowledge of its being so.


parcen

en-verb

parcen (third-person singular simple present parcens, present participle parcening, simple past and past participle parcened)

parcens (present singular third-person)
parcening (participle present)
parcened (participle past)
parcened (past)

Probably a back-formation from parcener, from Old French parçonier, from parçon, parcion (“part, portion”), from Latin partītiō (“a division”).


legal studies

The study of law, especially as a subject taken during high school.


wager of battle

en-noun

wager of battle (plural wagers of battle)

(British, law, historical) The giving of gage, or pledge, for trying a cause by single combat, formerly allowed in military, criminal, and civil causes, and finally abolished in 1819. In writs of right, where the trial was by champions, the tenant produced his champion, who, by throwing down his glove as a gage, thus "waged", or stipulated, battle with the champion of the demandant, who, by taking up the glove, accepted the challenge.


pornoaction

A calque from a term coined in Indonesian as pornoaksi in 2006 for the Bill against Pornography and Pornoaction, which was passed in 2008.

(Indonesia, law) Any actions, behaviors, or forms of dress considered immoral in public due to sexual mores.


non-resident

(law) A person living in a country who is no legal permanent resident.


dirty-handed

en-adj

dirty-handed (comparative more dirty-handed, superlative most dirty-handed)

more dirty-handed (comparative)
most dirty-handed (superlative)

There were plenty of dirty-handed men in the world to do dirty business; and Will protested to himself that his share in bringing Mr. Brooke through would be quite innocent.

As another CIA officer, Bill Harvey, remarked, 'No one wanted to charge the president personally with the complete, dirty-handed details of the assassination plans.

2011, Richard Belfield, A Brief History of Hitmen and Assassinations, →ISBN:

Crooked law enforcement, corrupt lawmakers, dirty-handed and hypocritical adjudicators and other miscellaneous murky state and Federal government officials.

2014, Vance Munraff, Sounds Like Paradise, →ISBN:


depraved-heart murder

en-noun

depraved-heart murder (countable and uncountable, plural depraved-heart murders)

(law, countable, uncountable) Murder that is the result of an act which is dangerous to others and shows that the perpetrator has a depraved mind and no regard for human life.


climate denialism

The claim that climate change is either not taking place, not caused nor accelerated by human activity or was greatly exaggerated.


fresh pursuit

fresh pursuit (countable and uncountable, plural fresh pursuits)

Where any person who falls under one of the following items is clearly deemed to have committed an offense a short time before, he/she shall be deemed a flagrant offender: (i) A person being engaged in fresh pursuit […]

1948, The Code of Criminal Procedure of Japan, article 212:


court in banc

(law) The full court sitting at its regular terms for the hearing of arguments upon questions of law, as distinguished from a sitting at nisi prius.


sweat of the brow

intellectual property
intellectual property

(law) In intellectual property law, the effort and expense expended by the creator of a protected work, which are entitled to certain protections, even if the work involves little creativity or originality.


DWAI

(US, law) Initialism of driving while ability impaired.


child endangerment

(law) The crime of engaging in conduct, through negligence or by malice, that creates conditions that place a child in danger of physical or psychological injury.


reckless endangerment

(law) The crime of engaging in conduct that creates a substantial risk of serious physical injury to another person, while disregarding foreseeable consequences to others from that conduct.


gorilla pimp

Coordinate term: sugar pimp

(slang, informal) A pimp who is physically violent toward the prostitutes he manages.


lashon hara

(Jewish law) Any form of communication — verbal, written, body language — that can result in emotional, financial, or physical harm to another person


fidepromissor

/ˌfaɪdiːpɹəʊˈmɪsɔː(ɹ)/

From Latin fidēprōmissor (“guarantor, surety”), from fidēprōmittō (“make a promise on behalf of another person, stand as guarantor or surety”) + -tor, from fidē (“in faith”) + prōmittō (“promise”).

compound

(historical, law) One who pledges himself as security for another; bail, surety


VLAD

(Australia, Queensland, law) Acronym of Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment, a series of anti-bikie laws.


pacta sunt servanda

Latin plural of pactum (“pact”) + sunt servanda (“must be kept”), after pacta et promissa semperne servanda sint (“whether agreements and promises should always be kept”) in Cicero, De Oficiis 3.92.

In the law of treaties, the most important manifestation of the principle of good faith is undoubtedly the rule of pacta sunt servanda.

2004, FA Engelen, Interpretation of Tax Treaties under International Law, page 125:

Painstakingly negotiated agreements governed many aspects of international relations; the doctrine of pacta sunt servanda dictated that those agreements be obeyed.

2015, Susan Pedersen, ‘At least we worried’, London Review of Books, volume 37, number 12:


executor de son tort

en-noun

executor de son tort (plural executors de son tort)

(law) A person who, without legal authority, assumes control of a deceased person's property as if they were executor.


de son tort

Borrowed from French de + son + tort, literally "of his [own] wrong".

(law, postpositive) Without authority or right (to do something).


trustee de son tort

trustee de son tort (plural trustees de son tort)

(law) A person who is not a regularly appointed trustee but interferes with the trust as if they were.


no quarter

(military) No mercy; no sparing the life of a captured opponent.

geen kwartier

no mercy for the life of a captured opponent


fruit up

en-verb

fruit up (third-person singular simple present fruits up, present participle fruiting up, simple past and past participle fruited up)

fruits up (present singular third-person)
fruiting up (participle present)
fruited up (participle past)
fruited up (past)

I had been "fruited up." There was no distinction made back then that this man was a pedophile, and even my mother told me that this is what queer people do.

2000, Kevin George Alderson, Beyond Coming Out: Experiences of Positive Gay Identity, →ISBN, page 36:

My experience with the brothers was that if you were one of their favorites you would be regularly groped. We kids called it “being fruited up."

2014, Eduard Fischer, Chasing the Phantom, →ISBN:

(idiomatic, derogatory, of a pedophile) To grope a young boy.


international waters

Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan despite China's ruling Communist Party never having controlled the island -- and considers the strait part of its "internal waters."
The US Navy, however, says most of the strait is in international waters.

2022 August 28, Brad Lendon, “US sends two warships through Taiwan Strait, in first transit since Pelosi trip”, in CNN, archived from the original on 2022-08-28:

(international law) Those parts of the ocean that are not legally recognized as being under the jurisdiction of any national government.


inrollment

(law) The recording of a statute or act by placing it on a roll.


notice period

The length of the notice period depends on the dirigentes seniority, and generally ranges from a minimum of six to a maximum of 12 months. The notice period' starts running from the first day of the month following the notice of dismissal.

2006, Philip M. Berkowitz, Thomas Müller-Bonanni, editors, International Labor and Employment Law, American Bar Association, →ISBN, page 110:

(labour law) The time period between the receipt of the letter of dismissal and the last working day.

opsigelsesperiode

period between receipt of the letter of dismissal and last working day


non-dom

Without that non-dom status she could have been liable for more than £20m of UK taxes on these windfalls, it was reported. After a public outcry, her spokesperson announced she would start paying UK taxes on her overseas earnings to relieve political pressure on her husband.

2022 October 24, Caroline Davies, “Spotlight on Rishi Sunak’s family as they prepare to enter No 10”, in The Guardian:

(taxation, UK) One who has their domicile in another country, allowing them to avoid paying UK tax on non-UK earnings.


surresponse

The Local Rules do not address the propriety of surreplies or surresponses.

1995, Charles Harold Haden II, Hunt v. US (CIR), 889 F. Supp. 248

(US, law) A second response, typically by the defending party in litigation.


jackroller

The backup team would be crouched in some tiny broom closet, with sweat rolling down their faces and their backs growing stiffer, and the jackrollers would just walk by.

1988 February 26, Jack Clark, “Who Killed Jay Brunkella?”, in Chicago Reader:

A criminal who robs those who are drunk or asleep

(South Africa) A perpetrator of male gang rape of women (jackrolling).


repledge

repledge (third-person singular simple present repledges, present participle repledging, simple past and past participle repledged)

repledges (present singular third-person)
repledging (participle present)
repledged (participle past)
repledged (past)

(law, historical) To demand the presence of an offender accused before another tribunal, on the ground that the alleged offence was committed within the repledger's jurisdiction.


patentably

en-adv

patentably (comparative more patentably, superlative most patentably)

more patentably (comparative)
most patentably (superlative)

The CREATE Act will now permit patents with patentably indistinct claims to be separately owned, but remain valid.

1998, Jerome Rosenstock, Patent Interference Practice Handbook, →ISBN, page 17-17:

If you included more than one embodiment and if the overall appearance or scope of the each embodiment is patentably distinct, a restriction will be required even though all embodiments are functionally the same.

2005, Kay H. Chin, United States Design Patent Do it Yourself!, →ISBN, page 58:


nonprovisional

Utility and plant patents support two types of applications, a provisional application and a nonprovisional application[…].

2005, Practical Engineering Design, →ISBN, page 157:

Two filing fees are therefore incurred, and the total exceeds that of the nonprovisional alone.

2007, M. Henry Heines, Patents for Business, →ISBN, page 179:

Nonprovisional patent applications undergo full Patent Office review and establish the filing date.

2011, Dean O. Smith, Managing the Research University, →ISBN, page 245:


nonmovant

Once this showing has been made, the burden of production shifts to the nonmovant having the burden of persuasion.

1995, Environmental Administrative Decisions, page 76:

In deciding whether there is disputed material fact issue precluding summary judgment, evidence favorable to nonmovant will be taken as true.

2003, Texas, Vernon's Texas Rules of Civil Procedure - Volume 2, page 177:

The motion must briefly explain why the nonmovant does not have the evidence it needs to oppose the summary judgment by affidavits.

2004, O'Connor's Federal Rules, Civil Trials, page 442:

(law) The party to a lawsuit who did not make a particular motion


no human involved

He was not working with what the police facetiously call a no-humans-involved case, where everyone involved whether as witness or suspect already has a substantial criminal record.

2003, John Lescroart, chapter 37, in The Oath:

Cops closed them all with a code: NHI. The unsolved crimes had been back-burnered until a reporter revealed that the letters stamped on the police files were shorthand for No Human Involved.

2008, Linda Fairstein, Killer Heat, page 191:

I remembered Ed's offensive remark—“No human involved in that first murder anyway”—and tried to keep the disdain off my face.

2010, Martha C. Lawrence, Pisces Rising, page 33:

“NHI-No Human Involved,” the cops used to say. It was only the newest shorthand for the idea that murders of blacks somehow didn't count. “Nigger life's cheap now,” a white Tennessean offered during Reconstruction, […]

2015, Jill Leovy, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, One World/Ballantine, →ISBN, page 6:

Wynter's earlier example is a demonstration of the discourse of “no human involved” and shows that young Black men in zones of police surveillance are denied humanity in order to excuse the inexcusable violence enacted upon them.

2020, Sara Smith, Political Geography: A Critical Introduction, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 63:

(law enforcement slang, derogatory) Describing crimes committed against people deemed undesirable or subhuman, e.g., those with criminal records, sex workers, drug addicts, transients, or people of color.


gas and dash

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gas and dash.wav

Everyone in Ontario who owns a 2002 to 2006 Nissan Altima will be contacted under an intense police investigation now under way to find the driver responsible for a deadly gas-and-dash theft.

2011 June 8, Bob Mitchell, “‘We will find you,’ police warn driver in gas-and-dash death”, in Toronto Star, Canada:

[A] private member’s bill . . . would compel drivers to prepay for all gas purchases. . . . [S]ince British Columbia put a similar law in place, gas-and-dashes have ceased.

2012 October 16, Timothy Appleby, “Crime Stoppers launches ‘gas and dash’ awareness campaign”, in Globe and Mail, Canada:

In the late evening of March 27, 2014 RCMP Innisfail received a complaint of theft of fuel (gas and dash) from the Penhold Fas Gas.

2014 March 28, “Innisfail RCMP Investigate Gas and Dash”, in www.albertapolicereport.ca, Canada, archived from the original on 2016-03-07:

(informal, Canada, US) The criminal act of driving away from a gasoline station without paying after filling one's gas tank.


Daubert standard

Named after Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, a legal case setting a related precedent in 1993.

(US, law) A rule of evidence regarding the admissibility of expert witnesses' testimony during federal legal proceedings, and based (among other factors) on the use of the scientific method.


venireperson

en-noun

venireperson (plural venirepersons or venirepeople)

venirepersons (plural)
venirepeople (plural)

The court did not know whether personal voir dire would entail the same dangers of inducing bias as to the current procedures for voir dire, which is usually conducted in open court with the entire jury panel present and each juror given the opportunity to observe the examination of other venirepersons.

1981 January, “What's New in the Law”, in ABA Journal, volume 67, page 101:

(US, law) A potential juror who appears in court for jury selection.


North Carolina stratagem

"They [judges] are awake to what is called the 'North Carolina stratagem', whereby an application is made, late on Friday with a thick pile of affidavits, to a judge unfamiliar with an area of law in the hope that the judge will grant the injunction sought out of caution".

(law, US) A legal tactic in court proceedings, intended to place the opponent on to the wrong foot by unethical use of court procedures:


tax relief

The government provided tax relief on pension contributions.

A reduction in the amount of tax that an individual or company has to pay.


wrongously

(UK dialectal, Scotland, especially law) Wrongfully; in a wrongous (wrongful) manner.


riparianism

The result was a string of decisions that further established riparianism as a rule of law.

1993, Mary Catherine Miller, Flooding the Courtrooms: Law and Water in the Far West, →ISBN, page 180:

(chiefly US, law) A doctrine of riparian rights, based on the principle that the owners of riparian land had the right to remove reasonable amounts of water from the river, but others did not.


Miller test

Developed in the 1973 case Miller v. California.

(US, law) A test for determining whether speech or expression can be labelled obscene, in which case it is not protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and can be prohibited.


anticommandeering

(law, US) That prohibits the federal government from commandeering state governments


memorandum of association

memorandum of association (plural memoranda of association)

A document that governs the relationship between a company and the outside world.


articles of association

articles of association pl (plural only)

memorandum of association
memorandum of association

A document which, along with the memorandum of association, forms a company's constitution, defines the responsibilities of the directors, the kind of business to be undertaken, and the means by which the shareholders exert control over the board of directors.

章程

document which forms a company's constitution


Allen charge

After the legal case Allen v. United States (1896).

Judge Shira A. Scheindlin read the panel the Allen charge, an instruction meant to encourage juries to continue working until they reach a verdict, and sent them back to continue deliberating.

2006 September 26, Timothy Williams, “Gotti Jurors Say They’re Deadlocked”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-07-14:

(US, law) An instruction intended to prevent a hung jury by encouraging jurors in the minority to reconsider.


PEO

parking enforcement officer
parking enforcement officer#English

(law) Initialism of parking enforcement officer.


nonassertion

a nonassertion covenant

(law) The situation where one party holds intellectual property rights against another party, but does not enforce them.


KA

(slang, law enforcement) Initialism of known associate.


Eurolaw

Eurolaw (countable and uncountable, plural Eurolaws)


missell

en-verb

missell (third-person singular simple present missells, present participle misselling, simple past and past participle missold)

missells (present singular third-person)
misselling (participle present)
missold (participle past)
missold (past)

The company is accused of misselling insurance policies.

HS2 has never had that. It was missold, misnamed and misconceived. It was promoted as a piece of engineering, rather than as a vital part of the railway.

2024 February 7, Christian Wolmar, “LNER's crazy idea will price more people off the railway”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 45:

(transitive) To sell something wrongly or fraudulently.


Maze

* As an English surname, variant of Mays.
* As an English and Irish surname, variant of Maye, from Irish Ó Miadhaigh (“descendant of Miadhach”), see miadh (“esteem, respect”). Compare May.
* As a Breton surname Mazé, shortened from Mazéo, Breton form of Matthew.
* As a French surname Mazé, from a place in Maine-et-Loire, from Latin Masiacum (“estate of Masius”).
* Also as a French surname, shortened pet form of Thomas.
* Also as a French surname, variant of Mas, from the noun mas (“farmhouse”).
* As a Slovene surname, shortened from Tomaž, a form of Thomas. Or, from the verb mazati (“to grease”).
* As an Ashkenazic Jewish surname, from Hebrew מאז"ה (Mazeh), an acronym of מִזֶּרַע אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן (mi-zéra' Aharón ha-Kohén, “from the seed of Aaron the priest”), compare Cohen.

der

Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland#English

HM Prison Maze, a former prison in Northern Ireland.


Blockburger test

After the 1932 legal case Blockburger v. United States.

(US, law) The test of whether multiple crimes violating the same statute represent separate offenses, based on whether each one requires proof of some distinct element.


COSHH

(UK, law) Initialism of control of substances hazardous to health.


OCILLA

w:Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act

(US, law) Abbreviation of Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act.


insucken

(law, Scotland) Pertaining to a district astricted to a certain mill.


novodamus

(Scots law, historical) In Scottish feudal land law, a fresh grant of lands to the grantee, usually to make some change in the incidents of tenure of land already granted, or to resolve doubts about the grant or its terms.


PCG

Philippine Coast Guard
w:Philippine Coast Guard

(Philippines, law enforcement, nautical) Initialism of Philippine Coast Guard.


bad actor

More needs to be done to combat financial crime, a senior lawyer at HSBC has said as he called for global collaboration over the rules imposed on banks to keep “bad actors” out of the financial system.

2016 September 26, Jill Treanor, quoting Stuart Levey, “Global collaboration needed on ‘bad actor’ rules, says HSBC legal chief”, in The Guardian:

The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee has warned that YouTube’s powerful recommendation algorithm may be “optimising for outrageous, salacious and often fraudulent content” or susceptible to “manipulation by bad actors, including foreign intelligence entities”.

2018 February 5, Paul Lewis, quoting Mark Warner, “Senator warns YouTube algorithm may be open to manipulation by 'bad actors'”, in The Guardian:

(idiomatic, law) Individual or entity with the prior criminal conviction, or who has been sanctioned by the court or regulator.


brass ceiling

brass (“indicating high-ranking officers”) + ceiling (“suggesting a barrier to upward advancement”)

2004, Dorothy Moses Schulz, Breaking the Brass Ceiling: Women Police Chiefs and Their Paths to the Top, Greenwood Publishing, →ISBN:

2007, Breaking Through the Brass Ceiling: Elite Military Women's Strategies for Success, ProQuest., →ISBN:

(idiomatic) An unwritten, uncodified barrier to promotion or progression for women in law enforcement or the military.


constitutional court

en-noun

constitutional court (plural constitutional courts)

a high court whose jurisdiction is focused on constitutional law or constitutional issues, such as the review of the constitutionality of laws, draft laws, political and bureaucratic decisions, acts of political parties, etc.

սահմանադրական դատարան

court dealing with constitutional law or issues


court of appeals

court of appeals (plural courts of appeals)


tag-along right

tag-along right (plural tag-along rights)

(law) The right of minority shareholders to join the deal, if the majority shareholder sells their stake, and sell their stakes according to the same terms and conditions.


slayer statute

(law) A statute that prohibits inheritance by a person who murders someone from whom he or she stands to inherit.


in the interest of justice

Motion to dismiss in the interest of justice

(law, US, idiomatic) the reason of case dismissal used when the judge decides that justice will be best served when the case is dismissed


pro confesso

Borrowed from Latin prō cōnfessō (“as, instead of it being confessed”).

bor+

His failure to respond meant he was sentenced pro confesso.

(law) As if an offence had been confessed or admitted.


alienation of affections

The wrong in alienation of affections is foreseen damage to the relationship between husband and wife, which requires the marriage not to have been in ruins before the outsider interfered.

2002, Eric Rasmusen, “5: An economic approach to adultery law”, in Antony W. Dnes, Bob Rowthorn, editors, The Law and Economics of Marriage and Divorce, page 83:

She brought suit against Margie under a seldom-used theory, the alienation of affections cause of action.
In an alienation of affections claim, a plaintiff can recover from a third party who has deprived her of the affection of her spouse.

2004, Robert F. Cochran, Robert M. Ackerman, Law and Community: The Case of Torts, page 79:

To make a successful claim for a^([sic]) alienation of affections, traditionally, a plaintiff would have to prove three elements: (1) that true affection had existed between the spouses at one time; (2) that the affection was destroyed; and (3) that the defendant caused the destruction of affection or otherwise impaired the marital relationship.

2011, Sonya Ziaja, “Homewrecker 2.0: An Exploration of Liability for Heart Balm Torts Involving AI Humanoid Consorts”, in Bilge Mutlu, Christoph Bartneck, Jaap Ham, Vanessa Evers, Takayuki Kanda, editors, Social Robotics: Third International Conference on Social Robotics, ICSR, page 117:

(law) A common law tort that can be brought against the third party alleged to be responsible for the failure of marriage; abolished in many jurisdictions.


praemunire facias

From Middle English premunire facias, premunire fac', from Latin praemunire facias (“that you cause to be forewarned”) from the opening words of the writ: praemūnīre (“you fortify (defend in advance)”) (an error for praemonēre (“you forewarn”)) + faciās (“you make”).

der

It [praemunire] is named, from the words of the writ, preparatory to the prosecution thereof, "Præmunire facias A. B. – Cause A. B. to be forewarned – that he appear before us to answer the contempt wherewith he stands charged;" which contempt is particularly recited in the preamble to the writ. […] It [the Statute of Praemunire (16 Ric. II, chapter 5)] enacts, that whoever procures at Rome or elsewhere, any translations, processes, excommunications, bulls, instruments, or other things, which touch the King, against him, his Crown and Realm, shall be put out of the King's protection; their lands and goods forfeited to the King's use; and they shall be attached by their bodies to answer to the King and his Council; or process of Præmunire facias shall be made out against them as in other cases of Provisors.

1820, Thomas Edlyne Tomlins, The Law-dictionary: Explaining the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the British Law; Defining and Interpreting the Terms or Words of art; and Comprising also Copious Information on the Subjects of Trade and Government, 3rd edition, volume II, London: Printed for Payne and Foss [et al.], →OCLC, pages 95–96:

Sect. 196. Also, there are sixe manner of men, […] who, if they sue, judgement may be demanded, if they shall be answered, &c. […] Sect. 199. The fourth is a man, who by judgement given against him upon a writ of praemunire facias, &c. is out of the king's protection.

1832 (originally 1628), Edward Coke; Francis Hargrave and Charles Butler, editors, The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England; or, a Commentary Upon Littleton: Not the Name of the Author only, but of the Law itself: Revised and Corrected with Additions of Notes, References, and Proper Tables, by Francis Hargrave and Charles Butler, Esqrs. of Lincoln's Inn, including also the Notes of Lord Chief Justice Hale and Lord Chancellor Nottingham; and an Analysis of Littleton, Written by an Unknown Hand in 1658–9, volume I, 19th corrected edition, London: Printed for J. & W. T. Clarke [et al.], OCLC 60713242, pages [638] and [644]; a republication in an edited form of The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. Or, a Commentarie upon Littleton, Not the Name of a Lawyer onely, but of the Law it selfe, London: Printed [by Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, 1628, OCLC 84760833, book 2, chapter 11, sections 196 and 199

In the writ for the execution of all these statutes, the words præmunire facias, being used to command a citation of the party, here denominated in common speech not only the writ, but the offence itself, of maintaining the papal power by the name of præmunire.

1835, Thomas Stephen, The Book of the Constitution of Great Britain: Containing a Full Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present Construction of the Three Estates of the Realm, King, Lords and Commons; of the Various Courts of Jurisdiction; and of those Acts by which the Liberties or Rights of the Subjects are Affected, Glasgow: Blackie & Son, 8, East Clyde Street, and 5, South College Street, Edinburgh; W. Curry, Jun., & Co., Dublin; and Simpkin & Marshall, London, →OCLC, page 80:

Præmunire is so called from a word in the writ, præmunire facias præfatum A.B. quod tunc sit coram nobis, &c. where præmunire is used for præmonere, to warn the person to appear […] And by the 16 Rich. II c. 5, commonly called the Statute of Præmunire, and to which the several subsequent statutes do refer, both those who pursue, or cause to be pursued, in the court of Rome, or elsewhere, any processes or instruments, or other things whatsoever, which touch the king, against him, his crown and regality, or his realm, and also those who shall bring, receive, notify, or execute them, and their faulters, and abettors, shall be out of the king's protection; and their lands, tenements, goods and chattels, forfeit to the king; and they shall be attached by their bodies, if they may be found, and brought before the king and his council, there to answer; or process shall be made against them by præmunire facias, in manner as is ordained in other statutes of provisors.

1837, Richard Burn, Joseph Chitty, Montague B. Bere, Thomas Chitty, The Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer, 28th edition, volume V, London: S[tephen] Sweet, 1, Chancery Lane; Stevens & Sons, 39, Bell Yard, and A[lexander] Maxwell, 32, Bell Yard, Lincoln's Inn, →OCLC, page 287:

The latter statute [Statute of Praemunire (16 Ric. II, chapter 5)] stated that any person who appealed to a court outside England, if presented with a writ of praemunire facias, was required to answer the resulting charges of contempt within two months or face penalties of outlawry and forfeiture of all lands and goods. The writ of praemunire facias had been available for some years. What the new statute did was to ensure that people making an appeal to a foreign court faced serious penalties if they ignored a writ of praemunire facias.

2002, Ronald H. Fritze, William Baxter Robison, Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272–1485, Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 439:

(law, England, historical) More fully writ of praemunire facias: a writ directing a sheriff to forewarn a person that he or she must appear before a court to answer a criminal charge of having brought a suit in or obeyed a foreign (especially papal) court or authority, thus challenging the supremacy of the Crown; a praemunire.


order to show cause

en-noun

order to show cause (plural orders to show cause)

(law) A type of court order that requires a person to justify, explain, or prove something to the court.


gravel road cop

gravel road cop (plural gravel road cops)

Humorous reinterpretation of French GRC (Gendarmerie Royale du Canada), in reference to the remote rural areas where such people often work.

(Canada, slang) An officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.


law-trained

(of a person or persons) who studied law, who has a law degree


murdery

en-adj

murdery (comparative more murdery, superlative most murdery)

more murdery (comparative)
most murdery (superlative)

So he gets a little murdery to speed up the inheritance process.

2013, Michelle Witte, Faker's Guide to the Classics: Everything You Need to Know About the Books You Should Have Read (But Didn't), Lyons Press, →ISBN, page 98:

Lately, there's been this contagious idea that I resemble a hungry, murdery girl ghost from a Japanese horror movie, so Jenny came to school in blue lipstick and white powder. To mock me.

2015, Maria Dahvana Headley, Magonia, HarperTeen, →ISBN:

The Doctor: So, they'll try to kill you, blah blah blah. What does that matter? You come back. A bit murdery, sure, but even so.

2015 3 October, Toby Whithouse, "Under the Lake", episode 9-3 of Doctor Who, 00:15:56–00:16:03

(informal) Committing, disposed to, or characteristic of murder.


clameur de haro

en-noun

clameur de haro (plural clameurs de haro)

From Anglo-Norman/Law French clameur de haro.

(law, Channel Islands) An ancient Norman legal procedure, still valid in the Channel Islands, in which any person can publicly recite a certain formula calling on the sovereign's aid and thereby create a form of injunction requiring certain conduct to cease until a court can determine its lawfulness.


nonwasting

(law, finance) Of an asset: not undergoing a gradual decrease in value over time.


dynamite charge

dynamite charge (plural dynamite charges)

"There are no studies comparing deadlocked juries blasted with the dynamite charge to those left to their own devices."

2013, Saul M. Kassin, Lawrence S. Wrightsman, The American Jury On Trial: Psychological Perspectives:

(law, idiomatic) Instructions given by the judge to a jury that has failed to reach a verdict, in the hope that they can do so after further deliberation.


Terry search

(US, law enforcement) A search carried out by the police during a Terry stop.


Terry stop

From the legal case Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), in which the Supreme Court held that police may briefly detain a person who they reasonably suspect is involved in criminal activity.

(US, law enforcement) The brief detention of a person by the police on reasonable suspicion of involvement in criminal activity but short of probable cause to arrest.


CCAA

(Canada, law, finance) Initialism of Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. (bankruptcy in Canada)

LACC (loi sur les arrangements avec les créanciers des compagnies)


attorney-at-law

A lawyer qualified to represent in court a party to a lawsuit.


state police

state police (usually uncountable, plural state polices)

(US, Australia, law enforcement) The police force belonging to the state (subnational) government, as contrasted with federal, county, or municipal law enforcement.

Staatspolizei

police force belonging to the state government


interjurisdictional

en-adj

interjurisdictional (comparative more interjurisdictional, superlative most interjurisdictional)

more interjurisdictional (comparative)
most interjurisdictional (superlative)

"We will examine what types of interjurisdictional redistributive schemes emerge from an electoral process and why they do."

2007, Fabio Padovano, The Politics and Economics of Regional Transfers: Decentralization ...:

(law) occurring as a result of an interaction between two or more jurisdictions


fee splitting

en-noun

fee splitting (usually uncountable, plural fee splittings)

While it is impossible to remove all financial pressures from the decision-making process, there are some practices, such as fee splitting, that are unethical because they so strongly influence practice patterns solely on the basis of financial considerations.

1986 July 6, Dr. Carl Weber, “Westchester Opinion: Challenge to Doctor's Ethics Emerges”, in New York Times:

Some commenters believed that implementation of the employer-employee exemption would allow abusive practices to occur such as kickbacks, tie-ins, fee splittings, and conflicts of interest.

1997, Lauch Faircloth, Connie Mack, editors, Problems Surrounding the Mortgage Origination Process: Congressional Hearing, →ISBN, page 208:

The report complained of "a clear nexus between private medical practitioners and pharmacy shops," and "fee-splitting between diagnostic centres and referring doctors."

2008 March 25, Manjeet Kripalani, “Indian Pharma: Hooked on the Hard Sell”, in Businessweek:

(business) The practice, usually of questionable ethicality, by some professionals, such as medical doctors and lawyers, of sending a client to a second practitioner for an additional consultation in order to obtain another payment from the client or from his or her insurer, and in return for which the original practitioner receives a portion of the payment made to the second practitioner (a "commission" or "piece of the action").


coffee money

A euphemism that refers to the amount of money typically enough to buy a cup of coffee. The Southeast Asian sense is a calque of Malay duit kopi.

Singapore is free of corruption as any place on earth. (Even small-scale bribery attempts lead to immediate arrest.) Ironically, this has surfaced as a disadvantage for Singaporeans conducting business in other countries - where contacts aren’t always considered binding, bureaucratic inefficiency can make a mockery of time tables, infrastructures can be unreliable, “quality” may be seen as a relative term and “tea money” (known as “coffee money” during Singapore’s British colonial days) is a prerequisite to getting anything done.

1998, Alexandra Kett, Passport Singapore: Your Pocket Guide to Singaporean Business, Customs & Etiquette, page 31:

Obviously he was trying to wear out your patience in the hope that you will hand over some undercounter coffee money to him instead of paying for the official tax/fine which does not benefit him at all.

2008 March 31, Alan Wong, “The Stupid Things I Did At The Malaysian Custom”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

If you have ever paid or are thinking of paying ‘Coffee Money’ when stopped for traffic or other offences, don’t ever do this again.

2010 September 16, Roger Poh, “Driving in Malaysia: Why you mustn’t bribe Malaysian traffic cops”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(Southeast Asia, idiomatic, politics) A small amount of money given as a bribe or gratuity.


mirandarize

en-verb

mirandarize (third-person singular simple present mirandarizes, present participle mirandarizing, simple past and past participle mirandarized)

mirandarizes (present singular third-person)
mirandarizing (participle present)
mirandarized (participle past)
mirandarized (past)

It wasn't until the officer pulled out the cuffs and mirandarized me that everything fell into place.

(law, US, jargon) to read Miranda warning to the person being arrested


unmirandized

Court ruled that physical evidence that was the fruit of an unmirandized interrogation need not be suppressed.

(law, US) Not having had the Miranda warning read out.


equalization payment

en-noun

equalization payment (plural equalization payments)

The court set aside a trial judge's decision from 2007 that required Harold Serra to make an "equalization payment" of $3.3 million to his former wife.

2009 February 5, Tracey Tyler, “Hard times alter rules on divorce, court says”, in Toronto Star, Canada, retrieved 2015-10-21:

In places like Manitoba and Ontario, where the distribution of family assets upon marriage breakdown is done through an equalization payment based on the value of what both spouses’ own, the claim can be extinguished through a discharge from bankruptcy.

2011 July 14, Christine Dobby, “Divorce payment unenforceable after bankruptcy: SCC”, in Financial Post, Canada, retrieved 2015-10-21:

[T]he impact of income taxes shapes the size and type of assets that are transferred between spouses. So, carefully consider them when splitting assets as part of an equalization payment.

2013 January 23, Frank Di Pietro, “Minimize tax on marriage breakdown”, in advisor.ca, Canada, retrieved 2015-10-21:

(Canada, law) In a divorce agreement, a payment made by one spouse to the other in order to create an equal division of assets.


no-bail

"Now I had a no-bail warrant out on me at this time. That means they have to arrest you. They have to take you into custody."

2015, Kelly Ray Knight, Addicted. Pregnant. Poor.:

(law) (of a warrant, detainment, or hold) that requires to deny bail


double hearsay

(law) hearsay that contains a hearsay statement itself


Sue, Grabbit and Runne

A jocular play on the phrase sue, grab it and run, suggesting a greedy law firm to which Private Eye magazine would usually attribute frivolous libel cases.

1838, Joshington Square'
Messrs Sue, Grabbit and Runn were after Mr Crink, our hero.

I cannot disclose his name for fear of letters from Messrs Sue, Grabbit and Run.

[…] the finger sunk into the cheek like that of some posing philosopher and the general effect being, if I may say so without incurring the wrath of Sue Grabbit and Runne, one of effeminacy.

Needless to say such improbable calumnies will not pass unnoticed by Messrs Sue, Grabbitt and Runne, who have been instructed to use the limits of the law to bring to heel the rumour-mongers and muck-rakers.

A rather pathetic pseudo-apology you might think; as Milne had no evidence for his damaging accusation, he was lucky Douglas-Home did not set Messrs Sue, Grabbit & Runne on him.

I am sure he will agree, after some of his comments, that if we pursue this idea too far, he and I, and indeed your Lordships, might well become entangled with that well-known firm of libel lawyers, Messrs. Sue, Grabitt, and Run, since I shall report swiftly the thoughts of my noble friend to my right honourable friend.

1985 February 27, Lord Lyell, “Government Subsidisation: De Lorean Enterprise”, in parliamentary debates (House of Lords (UK)), page 1000:

Now Messrs Sue, Grabbit & Runne have also written to the editor in a threatening manner to say that their new client His Holiness Shri Chandra Swamiji Maharaj did not, as alleged, act as a broker to any transaction involving Mark Thatcher

It would not be hard to prove as there are published figures for the UK where “Sue, Grabit and Run” has handled many of the placements.

1999 June 22, Dick Roche, “Estimates for Public Services, 1999 - Vote 32 - Public Enterprise (Revised)”, in parliamentary debates (Houses of the Oireachtas (Ireland)):

With Wright anxious to reclaim his Everton place - presently occupied by the rock-solid Nigel Martyn - I suggest he takes counsel from Sue, Grabitt and Run, company motto: Safe Hands Always.

2003 November 9, Len Capeling, “Everton expects; Stars need to deliver”, in Liverpool Daily Post:

We now hear today that we will be cracking down on these solicitors, so that fewer and fewer people — perhaps no people — will end up at the tender mercies of Sue, Grabbit and Runne.

2007, Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts, Legal Services Commission: Legal Aid and Mediation for People Involved in Family Breakdown, Fifty-first Report of Session 2006-07, The Stationery Office →ISBN, page 12

There are players picking up a hundred grand a week who are like pickpockets, stealing money from the fans. I'm not going to name names 'cos I don't want to make libel lawyers Sue, Grabbitt and Run any richer.

2009, Jimmy Greaves, Ian St John, Saint And Greavsie's Funny Old Games, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

Let's hope that now Kate Middleton has got her first taste of cash for "invasion of her privacy" (following an award of £5,000 in damages for a pap snap of her on a Christmas family holiday) she won't be encouraged by Messrs Sue, Grabitt and Runne to censure every single detail that's reported about her.

The wonderful thing about accredited demons is that you can say virtually anything about them and it is unlikely you will hear from Sue, Grabbit and Run.

2010, John Pilger, Distant Voices, Random House, →ISBN, page 224:

Hopefully, a representative of Sue, Grabit and Run, will not be standing by poised to take legal action should anyone scratch themselves.

2010 March 6, Hilarie Stelfox, “Hilarie: Learning to deal with life’s rough and tumble”, in Huddersfield Daily Examiner:

If I sent Messrs Sue, Grabbitt and Runne this well written, cogently argued, literate letter then they would say that I was capable of getting the kind of job I'd had and of earning the same good salary.

2013, Annie Francis-Clark, The Day My Life Changed, Autharium, →ISBN:

Which Ballard should J.G. Ballard sue J.G Ballard for, on grounds of malicious libel? Answers please to Sue, Grabit and Run.

2013, John Sutherland, Curiosities of Literature: A Feast for Book Lovers, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., →ISBN:

(UK, humorous) A generic name for a law firm, especially one specializing in libel cases.


breachful

Acts and talk that induce breachful conduct (such as a refusal to negotiate with or participate in bouts sponsored by one's promoter) may be tortious.

1990, West's Federal Supplement (First Series), volume 742, page 774:

When a term of a contract is breached, whether the term is a warranty or a condition, the innocent party earns a right to be repaired for the damage he suffers as a consequence of the other party's breachful action or omission.

2007 May 19, Shamsuddin Choudhury, "Did British Airways go wrong?: A lawyer's point of view," Law & our rights, issue 20, thedailystar.net (retrieved 29 Oct 2015)

William Goldstein, General Counsel for The David Lynch Foundation, sent Knapp an email strongly advising caution: “we intend to review the global web presentation for any false, defamatory, tortious, breachful, malicious or otherwise unlawful statements or materials made or published by you or the presenters.”

2009 April 6, Doug Mesner, “Reading, Writing, Transcendent Levitation”, in process.org, retrieved 2015-10-29:

[S]neaking into someone’s personal communications is considered as a breachful act.

2014 May 6, Lexi Taylor, “How To Monitor Someones^([sic]) From Your iPhone?”, in MobieSpy, retrieved 2015-10-29:

(rare) Involving or characterized by a violation of law, of legal rights, or of other rules governing conduct.


strict constructionism

(US, law) A legal philosophy of judicial interpretation that requires a judge to apply the text only as it is written, without drawing inferences.


decomp

Shortening of decomposition or decomposed.

There's no decomp, so the body can't have been there long.

"It's a decomp. There's gonna be maggots, and that means I'm gonna have nightmares."

2007, John Leake, Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer:

"It helped ventilate the place, especially when he had a decomp case. The coroner's offices were pitifully outdated."

(law enforcement, slang) A decomposed body.


decomp

en-verb

decomp (third-person singular simple present decomps, present participle decomping, simple past and past participle decomped)

decomps (present singular third-person)
decomping (participle present)
decomped (participle past)
decomped (past)

(intransitive, law enforcement, slang, uncommon) To decompose.


Islamicide

What we need to straighten this mess out is both tyrannicide and homocide. I am sure you would want to add Islamicide too, or something like it.

2006 March 31, Bob, “Re: Weirder election than Battlestar Galactica's”, in alt.battlestar-galactica (Usenet):

Both of these social acts (evils) are or have overtones of being religious-genocides—Judaocide and Islamicide.

2009, Kenneth Vaux, America in God's World, page 82:

Islamicide, always justifiable. […] Pislam must be nuked back into the 7th century where it belongs...along w/its collaborators/apologists/symps.

2009 January 22, ÇDoügßT, “The squatters will leave!”, in alt.religion.islam (Usenet):

(nonstandard, rare) The killing of Muslims.


shell company

It was a shell company and, the SEC alleges, never had researchers, research plans or any scientific resources.

2003 November 15, Tony Levene, “Capital letters”, in The Guardian:

This luxury-loving and profligate shell company is registered at a betting shop on the Caledonian Road, an unlovely thoroughfare in North London on which you'd be more likely to find amphetamines than a top-notch lawyer.

2018, Oliver Bullough, chapter 2, in Moneyland, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 19:

(law, business) A company that engages in no substantive business activities, but instead exists as a vehicle for legal or financial transactions, typically to shield another party from liability or other issues.

skuffeselskab

company without activity created for tax purposes


have someone's head

have someone's head (third-person singular simple present has someone's head, present participle having someone's head, simple past and past participle had someone's head)

has someone's head (present singular third-person)
having someone's head (participle present)
had someone's head (participle past)
had someone's head (past)

The tyrant would have their heads for their temerity.

(literal) To kill somebody, especially with violence and especially by decapitation.


suo motu

(law, India, Pakistan) Synonym of sua sponte


red light camera

en-noun

red light camera (plural red light cameras)

(law, automotive) An automatic traffic light enforcement camera which captures images of vehicles violating red lights.


shots fired

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: (especially law enforcement) indicates that a firearm has been discharged in the vicinity of the speaker.


officer-involved

There has been an increase in dissatisfaction with the police from African-American communities due to many recently publicized officer-involved use of force incidents on unarmed African-Americans in the United States.

2019, John Pilz, Finding Shared Understanding between African Americans and the Police through Simulated Experiences, Dorrance Publishing, →ISBN, page 115:

(chiefly of a shooting, euphemistic) Committed by a police officer.


cryoprison

(science fiction) A prison whose inmates are cryogenically frozen for the duration of their sentences.


street gang

(law, criminology, sociology) An organized group of lower-class criminals; an urban gang.


person of interest

person of interest (plural persons of interest or people of interest)

persons of interest (plural)
people of interest (plural)

Tice denies involvement in any conspiracy. . . . Still, Morgan says Tice and "three or four other people" remain "persons of interest" in the investigation.

2009 August 22, Tim Padgett, “The Pensacola Adoptive Couple's Murder: A Hit?”, in Time, retrieved 2015-11-19:

Abdellatif has been interviewed five times by Australian security services since the dropping of the charges and remains a "person of interest" to the federal police.

2013 September 26, “Sayed Abdellatif inquiry will report to Tony Abbott, who called him a 'jihadist'”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2015-11-19:

The 19-year-old man from a Phoenix suburb who was detained on Friday at a convenience store near Interstate 10 is a person of interest, but Bart Graves, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, declined to say what had led the police to question the man.

2015 September 12, “Police Rule Out Detained Man, 19, as Prime Suspect in Phoenix Freeway Shootings”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-11-19:

(law enforcement, chiefly Canada, US) Someone who police have reason to believe may have a connection to a crime, or to possess important information relating to that crime, but who has not been accused or charged by authorities nor been officially deemed to be a suspect.

célszemély

someone believed to have a connection to a crime or to possess important information relating to that crime

bűncselekménnyel összefüggésbe hozható személy


no-knock

a no-knock warrant

a no-knock raid

(US, law) Allowing police to enter a property without immediate prior notification of the residents, as by knocking or ringing a doorbell.


flat tax

Several candidates for the 1996 Republican Presidential nomination and some of the top Republican leaders in Congress are advocating replacing the graduated income tax with a flat tax.

1995 April 18, David E. Rosenbaum, “Washington Memo: Debate on Flat Tax Revives Simplicity vs. Fairness Issue”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-11-27:

Eyman's measure also would repeal the state tax on boats, 1 percent of the vessel's value, and replace it with a flat tax of $10.50 a year.

2001 November 18, David Ammons, “Eyman takes aim at some more taxes”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved 2015-11-27:

A flat tax means scrapping all income tax bands and the various exemptions and loopholes and replacing them with a single low rate.

2005 August 19, George Trefgarne, “The flat tax secrets that worried Brown did not want us to see”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2015-11-27:

(government, taxation) A tax, usually income tax, whose percentage rate or currency value remains constant, regardless of the amount to which the tax is applied.


special measures

(Scots law) Judicial systems to protect vulnerable witnesses in courts of law.


revolving door syndrome

revolving door syndrome (usually uncountable, plural revolving door syndromes)

Concerns exist on both sides of the Atlantic regarding the effectiveness of government watchdogs and the growing influence of special interest groups within the bureaucracy. ‘Iron triangles’ and ‘revolving door syndromes’ which began as Washington concerns are showing their face in the UK too.

2008, R. Uprichard, "The Bureaucracies," Lurgan College (Northern Ireland)

The report . . . called for a review of the effect of what it called a revolving door syndrome, in which analysts leave to work for an issuer whose debt they were rating.

2009 August 28, Cyrus Sanati, “Inspector Faults S.E.C. on Oversight of Rating Agencies”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-12-01:

That leads us to question whether other practices in parliament and politics may be vulnerable to corruption: conflicts of interest, the role of lobbying, political party funding and the "revolving door" syndrome in which parliamentarians take jobs in areas where their knowledge of some government departments gives them an undue advantage.

2010 February 5, Chandrashekhar Krishnan, “Abusing power for private gain”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2015-12-01:

(idiomatic, often government) A situation in which a person changes employers, perhaps more than once, switching between (a) employment with the government or with an organization having oversight authority and (b) employment with an organization regulated by or overseen by the other employer.


Kyoto Protocol

(international law) The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, assigning mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations.


prohibitionism

(law) The doctrine that people will refrain from certain actions if they are deemed unlawful (prohibited)


bribeproof

en-adj

bribeproof (comparative more bribeproof, superlative most bribeproof)

more bribeproof (comparative)
most bribeproof (superlative)

Resistant to bribery; incapable of being bribed.


derbendci

From Ottoman Turkish دربندجی (derbendçi).

The derbendci, some two thousand families of Rumelia, acted as guards of mountain passes, bridges, and other strategic locations in exchange for tax relief and represent a transition from real fighters to auxiliary forces.

1993, Peter F. Sugar, Southeastern Europe Under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804, →ISBN, page 39:

The derbendci, inadequate in number, could not cope with the new situation.

1998, Tom Scott, The Peasantries of Europe, →ISBN, page 306:

In other areas self-rule resulted from the fact that certain occupational groups, such as miners, tar extractors, horse breeders, derbendci (guardians of mountain passes), saline workers or producers of gunpowder, had been exempted from certain taxes, and subsequently these 'privileges' were associated with their settlements as well.

2006, Suraiya Faroqhi, The Cambridge History of Turkey, →ISBN, page 161:

These exemptions were similar to those granted to the derbendci, men who guarded roads and mountain passes.

2007, Mark L. Stein, Guarding the Frontier: Ottoman Border Forts and Garrisons, →ISBN, page 90:

Entire villages were often charged with the derbendci duty and consequently exempted from certain taxes.

2012, Michael Ursinus, Grievance Administration (Sikayet) in an Ottoman Province, →ISBN, page 41:

The guards charged with maintaining and defending a derbend in exchange for tax relief.


infangenthef

(historical, law) Alternative form of infangthief.


outfangenthef

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

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

(historical, law) Alternative form of outfangthief.


frankenpledge

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

(law, historical) Alternative spelling of frankpledge.


frank-pledge

(law, historical) Alternative form of frankpledge.


decenary

From Medieval Latin decēnārius, from decēna (“a tithing”) + -ārius (“-ary”).

(law, historical) Of or related to a tithing.


decenary

All males... should... be enrolled in a tithing, or decennary, which originally consisted of ten free families.

1881, T.S. Frampton, Hundred of Wrotham, page 36:


black money

In India, the government faces the issue of combating black money stashed overseas.

Demonetization — or the withdrawal from use — was one of a package of measures recommended by a Government committee that investigated the problem of “black money” — money acquired through illegal transactions and kept hidden from tax authorities.

1973 August 9, “Demonetization Feared”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Mr Modi has implemented a flurry of schemes to flush out “black money”, the term Indians use for cash which is both unaccounted for and outside its formal financial system.

2016 November 10, “Taking notes”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

(India) Money that is obtained illegally, especially that which circulates outside the formal financial system in the underworld.


TNC

transnational corporation
w:transnational corporation

(law, business) Initialism of transnational corporation.


socan and sacan

(law, historical) Alternative form of soc and sac.


habous

(Islam, law) An equivalent of mortmain in Islamic law


CDI factor

You don't buy a LaRue because you want lightweight. You buy it for the durability (And the CDI factor)

2007, Patrick Sweeney, The Gun Digest Book of the AR-15, Volume 2, Gun Digest Books, page 109:

Instead of donning their equipment for the right reasons, with the understanding that it takes thousands of hours to attain a basic skill level, some Special Operations soldiers wear their gear for the CDI (chicks dig it) factor and forget the reality that this is hard work.

2011, Paul R. Howe, Leadership and Training for the Fight: Using Special Operations Principles to Succeed in Law Enforcement, Business, and War, Skyhorse Publishing, page 12:

'Never decide Pattern A just looks cooler than Pattern B. The Marine Corps call that a "CDI factor" – chicks dig it,' said Timothy O'Neill, a former professor of engineering psychology at West Point who has spent 37 years concocting and analyzing the latest in military camouflage

2012 July 17, “Uncloaked: How Army is testing new camo to replace flawed design”, in NBC News:

[…] SWAT is a highly-specialized skill that takes recurrent (and expensive) training to maintain. Simply kitting out police officers in high-CDI-factor equipment is not enough.

2015, David G. Bolgiano, L. Morgan Banks, III, James M. Patterson, Virtuous Policing: Bridging America's Gulf Between Police and Populace, CRC Press, page 89:

(US military or law enforcement slang) An intangible quality of certain items of professional equipment that is believed to stir inordinate interest in obtaining the item because it makes the possessor feel confident, cool and thus desirable to women.


DHP

(law enforcement, terrorism, politics) Initialism of deemed high-profile.


huissier de justice

en-noun

huissier de justice (plural huissiers de justice)

From French huissier de justice (“justice usher, court usher”).

bor

(law) An officer of the court in several European countries who serves processes and notices, seizes and auctions off property, and executes garnishments, levies, and evictions, roughly similar to British bailiffs or private constables in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.


life interest

Under this Will you will perceive that you take a life-interest in about half of the late Mr. Vincey's property, now invested in Consols, subject to your acceptance of the guardianship of his only son, Leo Vincey, at present an infant, aged five.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

(law) A right, typically in the form of regular income, that lasts for the lifetime of the person benefiting from that right.


feal and divot

No doubt, the want of access by a good road, together with the circumstance of the lands and barony of Torrie, of which this property forms a part, being held in runrigg between the Master of Mortifications of Aberdeen and Mr Menzies of Pit-foddels, and a servitude of feal and divot, which existed over nearly one-third of the muir ground, in favour of the adjoining property of South Loirston, contributed in a great degree to retard the improvement of the land in this locality, notwithstanding its near vicinage to Aberdeen.

1841, Prize-essays and Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland:

(Scots law) A predial servitude (a legal interest by a non-owner connected with a piece of land) that grants the dominant tenant the right to cut out portions of turf for the construction or repair of sod structures such as houses, fences, or roofs.


bedroom tax

(UK politics) A reduction in housing benefit for people who live in social housing that is deemed underoccupied.


afterhand

an afterhand rent

(Scots law, archaic) Paid afterwards, rather than in advance.


beatsman

Police authorities are similarly aware that motor cars and wireless and infra-red photography and photo-telegraphy will not avail in the crime war without the familiar, slow-moving beatsman as the broad base of the whole organisation.

1948, The Spectator, volume 180, page 730:

(dated, rare) A policeman who walks the beat.


bodysnatching

(historical) The illicit theft of cadavers, especially by exhuming them from graves, to sell to them to anatomists, surgeons, etc.


subfeu

From sub- + feu. Cognate with subfief and Latin subfeudum, subfeodare.

(Scots law, historical) A feu sublet by a vassal to a subvassal: a right to hold subinfeudated land in perpetuity in exchange for rent.


subfeu

en-verb

subfeu (third-person singular simple present subfeus, present participle subfeuing, simple past and past participle subfeued)

subfeus (present singular third-person)
subfeuing (participle present)
subfeued (participle past)
subfeued (past)

(transitive and intransitive, Scotland law, historical) To subinfeud: to grant land via a subfeu.


remeid

en-noun

remeid (countable and uncountable, plural remeids)

From Middle English remede, from Anglo-Norman and Old French remede. Doublet of remedy.

[…] the Commissioners of Burghs […] meet yearly at Inverkeithing “to treat of the welfare of merchandize, the good rule and statutes for the common profit of burghs, and to provide for remeid upon the skaith and injuries sustained within the burghs.”

1878, William Charles Smith, "Borough" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. IV, p. 64

(dialect) Remedy.
(Scots law) Legal redress of a wrong.


corruptioneer

As a corruptioneer from way back himself it seems that […]

1954, {unattributed}, Future Science Fiction, Volume 5, Issues 1-3

"Doggedly loyal to Pendergast was Truman, faithful to the "corruptioneer" who had sent him to the Senate."

1975, Finis Farr, Fair enough: the life of Westbrook Pegler:

(uncommon, colloquial) One involved in corruption.


sassywood

sassywood (usually uncountable, plural sassywoods)

From sassy, of unknown (probably African) origin + wood.

refn

From P[aul Hermann Wilhelm] Taubert (1891) Wilhelm Engelmann, editor, Leguminosae (Natürliche Pflanzenfamilien; vol. III, no. 3), Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, →OCLC, figure 75.

The person who is designated as guilty of the crime of witchcraft is arrested by the soldier king, and condemned to the ordeal of sassy-wood. The bark of the sassy-wood is powerfully narcotic, and a strong decoction of this the person condemned is forced to drink; and after he has drank it, he walks to and fro, exclaiming "Am I a witch," "am I a witch?" while one of his executioners walks behind him replying "You are a witch, you are a witch;" and this continues until he either throws off from his stomach the poison, when he is pronounced innocent, or it operates as a cathartic, when he is declared guilty, and compelled to take more of the decoction, and is subjected to other cruelties, which cause his speedy death. […] This ordeal by sassy-wood is one of the most prevalent and cruel of African superstitions, and is practised among nearly if not all the tribes of Africa.

1850 September 14, [James M.] Connelly, “[Appendix G.] Report of the Kroo People”, in Report of the Secretary of State, Communicating the Report of the Rev. R[alph] R[andolph] Gurley, who was Recently Sent Out by the Government to Obtain Information in Respect to Liberia (United States Senate, 31st Congress, 1st session; ex. doc. no. 75), [Washington, D.C.]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 59:

A man named Prince came into the parlor; he spoke broken English, and told Mrs. Payne that his people were going to give him ‘sasa-wood.’ A man had died among his people, and the men bearing the body to the grave ran against his house: they believe that the body influences them to go against the house of him who bewitched or killed the dead man. He (Prince) had gone to another town, and was trying sasa-wood in small quantities; if it does not injure him, he will go to his own town, and take it before his people.

1859, George D[avid] Cummins, “Life at Cavalla”, in Life of Mrs. Virginia Hale Hoffman, Late of the Protestant Episcopal Mission to Western Africa, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lindsay & Blakiston, →OCLC, pages 87–88:

[…] He wondered what sasswood was—Delah had sworn by sasswood that she was telling the truth when the coaxed those in the shadow village out of hiding. Delah explained that many years ago, before the Americos starting intefering in tribal business, trial by sasswood was a way of determining whether a person accused of a crime was innocent or guilty. The bark of a particular tree was mashed to make a "truth serum." If the accused died after drinking the concoction, he was guilty. Refusal to drink was also an indication of guilt, in which case the accused was executed.

2000, James E. Christie, Juju, Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, part III (War), page 423:

The man dipped a machete in a concoction of water, palm oil and kola nuts, held it in fire for several minutes, and then placed it on the right legs of the four suspects. None of the youths – ages 16 to 26 – appeared to flinch. They were deemed not guilty. This practice known as ‘sassywood’ is banned under national law, but is still regarded as a legitimate form of justice by many Liberians. A suspect is subjected to intense pain and judged on his or her reaction – if the hot metal burns the person’s leg, he or she is found guilty. […] According to a rights activist in Nimba County, the problem is that many people will submit to sassywood because they do not know it has been outlawed. “Sassywood is very common here and most people believe that it is the only means of knowing a guilty person,” said Dualo Lor of the church-based NGO Equip-Liberia in Nimba, 300km from Monrovia. “They are not even aware the practice is outlawed.”

2007 November 1, “Trial by ordeal makes the guilty burn but ‘undermines justice’”, in IRIN, archived from the original on 2017-05-06:

A form of trial by ordeal in Liberia, typically involving a suspect drinking a poisonous concoction made from the bark of the ordeal tree Erythrophleum guineense, Erythrophleum ivorense, or Erythrophleum suaveolens (called sassy bark); by extension, other forms of trial by ordeal such as applying a heated machete to the suspect's legs, or dipping the suspect's hand into hot oil.


stolen valor

Coined by American writer B. G. Burkett in 1998

coinage

(law) An instance of stolen valor in which the perpetrator has the intention to receive money, donations, discounts, or other benefits.


Kennedy plea

From the case of Kennedy v. Frazier, 178 W.Va. 10, 357 S.E.2d 43 (1987), in which the procedure was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

The Charleston man whose conviction for the shooting death of a former Marshall University football player was overturned, has entered a "Kennedy Plea", rather than go through a second trial... In a Kennedy Plea, the person does not accept guilt, but accepts the punishment for the crime.

2014, WSAZ News Staff, "Jerel Garner Enters "Kennedy Plea" in Donte Newsome's Shooting Death", on WSAZ.com, 9 Sept. 2014

To avoid a lengthy trial and possibly a harsher sentence, 34-year-old Don Douglas Dicken entered a Kennedy plea to the voluntary manslaughter of 46-year-old Glenn L. Farrow... When a defendant enters a Kennedy plea, he or she does not admit committing the criminal act, but believes a plea deal is in his or her best interest instead of taking the case to trial.

2014 December 2, Wendy Holdren, “Don Dicken enters Kennedy plea to voluntary manslaughter”, in The Register Herald:

Williams previously entered a Kennedy plea to second-degree robbery. Williams denied he knew anything about the crime and was not a lookout, as accused...

2016 February 2, Courtney Hessler, “Man sentenced to 30 years in 2014 armed robbery ring”, in The Herald Dispatch:

(US, law) A plea in criminal court in which the defendant does not admit guilt, but concedes that the state has sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction.


reach-through

(US, law) Being or relating to a kind of patent claim that attempts to cover basic research or a discovery before it has become a full invention.


exhausted combination

(US, law) The combination, in a patent claim, of a novel device with conventional elements in a conventional manner.


Jepson claim

Named after the legal case Ex parte Jepson, 243 Off. Gaz. Pat. Off. 525 (Ass't Comm'r Pat. 1917).

(US, law) A patent claim where one or more limitations are specifically identified as a point of novelty, distinguishable over at least the contents of the preamble.


Markush claim

Named after Eugene Markush, the first inventor to use them successfully in a US patent.

(US, law) A patent claim that identifies multiple functionally equivalent chemical entities allowed in one or more parts of a compound.


Beauregard claim

en-noun

Beauregard claim (plural Beauregard claims)

Named after the legal decision In re Beauregard.

(US, law) A patent claim to a computer program, written in the form of a claim to an article of manufacture: a computer-readable medium on which are encoded, typically, instructions for carrying out a process.


burglarously

en-adv

burglarously (comparative more burglarously, superlative most burglarously)

more burglarously (comparative)
most burglarously (superlative)

And about the hour of ten o'clock at night the same day, they did feloniously and burglarously break and enter with the intent to steal the goods and chattel of Hendrix […]

1996, Barbara Bernard, Scott Michael Long, Burning roses:


androcide

From andro- + -cide, by analogy with genocide and homicide.


SFO

I emerge out of the tunnel into the pale glow of SFO, the spinning wheels and striding shoes and TV news on low, toddlers screaming with joy or pain, the overlapping echo of flight announcements.

2022, Namwali Serpell, The Furrows, Hogarth, page 232:

San Francisco International Airport
w:San Francisco International Airport

Abbreviation of San Francisco International Airport.


Lochnerize

en-verb

Lochnerize (third-person singular simple present Lochnerizes, present participle Lochnerizing, simple past and past participle Lochnerized)

Lochnerizes (present singular third-person)
Lochnerizing (participle present)
Lochnerized (participle past)
Lochnerized (past)

From Lochner + -ize; from Lochner v. New York, the title of a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1905.

(US, law, intransitive) To read one's policy preferences into the Constitution, as was (allegedly) done by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1905 case Lochner v. New York.


judgess

The judgess demands in her charge to the jury to “despise and hate all men and to bring up your children to do the same.”

1918, Motography, Volume 19, Issues 1-26:


gacaca

en-noun

gacaca (countable and uncountable, plural gacacas)

(uncountable) A system of community justice inspired by Rwandan tradition, used more recently in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.


Dewey, Cheatem and Howe

A jocular play on the phrase do we cheat 'em and how, suggesting a greedy law firm.

(US, humorous, derogatory) A generic name for a law firm, or occasionally any financial institution.


liquor licence

(law) A permit to sell alcoholic beverages.


compulsory education

(law, education) A period of time in a child's life during which the child must receive schooling as required by law.


paramount title

paramount title (plural paramount titles)

(law, real estate) A claim to the title of a property, which is superior and stronger in comparison to all other claims.


real covenant

(law, real estate) A legal agreement or promise regarding a piece of real estate, which passes from one owner to another when the land is conveyed and which is said to run with the land.


personal covenant

personal covenant (plural personal covenants)

(countable, law, real estate) A legal agreement or promise regarding a piece of real estate, which binds the party who makes the covenant but which does not pass from one owner to another when the land is conveyed.


covenant of warranty

covenant of warranty (plural covenants of warranty)

(countable, law, real estate) A legal agreement or promise, one of the English covenants of title and future covenants, whereby the grantor of a property assures the grantee that he or she will not be subject to the claims of someone with a paramount title, thereby guaranteeing the status of the title that is being conveyed.


admanuensis

(UK, law, historical) In old English law, one taking a corporal oath, that is, by laying the hand on the Bible, in distinction from one taking the oath in other forms, or affirming.


deass

en-verb

deass (third-person singular simple present deasses, present participle deassing, simple past and past participle deassed)

deasses (present singular third-person)
deassing (participle present)
deassed (participle past)
deassed (past)

(transitive, US, military, law enforcement, slang) To exit or depart from (an area) rapidly.


neurocriminology

An emerging sub-discipline of biocriminology and criminology in general, which applies brain imaging techniques and principles from neuroscience to understand, predict, and prevent crime.


Clayton motion

in the interest of justice
in the interest of justice

(US, law) A motion to dismiss a case in the interest of justice.


rescussee

(law, obsolete) The party in whose favor a rescue is made.


rescous

Inherited from Middle English [Term?], from Old French rescousse.


law of the sea

(law) The body of international law that concerns the principles and rules by which public entities, especially states, interact in maritime matters, including navigational rights, sea mineral rights, and coastal waters jurisdiction.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea


summon auntie

using the pronunciation of saman in Malay

Compound noun formed with the English word summon (see summons, noun) and auntie (“term of familiarity or respect applied to elderly women”).

Summon Auntie is a Singlish phrase that describes meter attendants, usually middle-aged women, who give parking fines to cars that are illegally parked

2011 October 18, Willis Wee, “iPhone App Spots Parking Meter Attendants in Singapore”, in Tech in Asia, retrieved 2016-03-28:

‘Summon auntie’ chases off bikini-clad sunbathers at Redhill car park. A video of a female car park attendant chasing off two bikini-clad girls sunbathing at the top of a multi-storey car park in Redhill has gotten people talking.

2013 October 3, Azilah, “‘Summon auntie’ chases off bikini-clad sunbathers at Redhill car park”, in Yahoo! News, retrieved 2016-03-28:

The New Paper recently wrote a story on Feb. 4 about the plight of parking enforcement officers, also known as parking wardens or summon aunties

2014 February 5, Belmont Lay, “This Will Convince Everybody Why No One Should Ever Become a Summon Auntie”, in mothership.sg, retrieved 2016-03-28:

Take, for instance, the summon auntie who dishes out fines to cars parked illegally - she's someone everyone recognizes

2015 July 10, Lim Min Zhang, The Straits Times::

(Singapore, colloquial, informal) A parking enforcement officer who goes around public parking spaces to issue parking tickets to illegally parked cars


benefit of clergy

It will be seen that what the defenders of Dali are claiming is a kind of benefit of clergy. That artist is to be exempt from the moral laws that are binding on ordinary people.

1944, George Orwell, Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali:

(UK, law, historical) A legal provision by which clergymen (and, later, anybody who could read) could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ecclesiastical court under canon law.


OB marker

From the golfing term OB (“out of bounds”).

(Singapore) A governmental restriction on free speech, limiting topics that can be written about.


Bloody Code

(historical) A schedule of crimes and punishments in 19th-century England that introduced the death penalty for numerous offences.


magister juris

An academic degree in law awarded by some universities.


duplicand

(Scots law) A doubling of the duty to be paid on a feu.