grandfather paradox

grandfather paradox (plural grandfather paradoxes)

From the paradox proposed by the French author René Barjavel in 1944 in his book Le Voyageur Imprudent, translated into English as "Future Times Three"; in its original form the paradox of one person going back to the past and killing their biological grandfather before the latter fathered the traveler's father, thus preventing the time traveler from ever being conceived in the first place.

The paradox of time travel in which inconsistencies emerge through changing the past.

Future Times Three
René Barjavel
grandfather paradox


reddendum

en-noun

reddendum (plural reddendums or reddenda)

Neuter of Latin reddendus (“that must be given back or yielded”), gerundive of reddere. See reddition.

[…] the cognizance supposing a preceding gift, the cognizor cannot reserve any thing to himself out of lands, of which he has already conveyed away the absolute property, so that the reddendum comes too late when a precedent absolute gift without any such reservation is before acknowledged.

1783, William Cruise, An Essay on the Nature and Operation of Fines:

(law) A clause in a deed by which some new thing is reserved out of what had been granted before; the clause by which rent is reserved in a lease.


legal blindness

A degree of visual acuity that is low enough to determine that a person needs special assistance.


stillicidium

(law, historical) An urban servitude in Ancient Rome, where a proprietor was not allowed to build to the extremity of his estate, but must leave a space regulated by the charter by which the property was held, so as not to throw the eavesdrop on the land of his neighbour.


roture

roture (countable and uncountable, plural rotures)

(Canada, law, historical) A grant made of feudal property.


copyright symbol

copyright symbol (plural copyright symbols)

The symbol ©, a circumscribed letter c, indicating that a work is copyrighted.


copyleft symbol

copyleft symbol (plural copyleft symbols)

The symbol 🄯, a horizontally mirrored copyright symbol, denoting copyleft.


some rights reserved

1997, “Perri 6”, Demos, Escaping Poverty: From Safety Nets to Networks of Opportunity, page footer,
This page is covered by the Demos open access licence. Some rights reserved.

The owner, or other copyright holder, of a work simultaneously reserves a number of copyright-related rights and waives a number of other copyright-related rights.


LGPL

Lesser General Public License
w:GNU Lesser General Public License

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


GNU GPL

GNU General Public License
w:GNU General Public License

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


MIT license

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(law, software) A free-software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


BSD license

Any of a family of free software licenses comprising the license of Berkeley Software Distribution and derivative licenses.


weak copyleft

A form of copyleft where not all derived works inherit the copyleft licence.


strong copyleft

A form of copyleft where all derived works inherit the copyleft licence.


pluries

From Latin plūriēs (“many times, often”), which occurs in the first clause.

(law) A writ issued in the third place, after two former writs have been disregarded.


CD key

A serial key of a program to be installed from a compact disc.


serial key

(computing) A string of characters or equivalent access code that must be input into a program in order to activate it.


community service

community service (countable and uncountable, plural community services)

(law) Such work done as alternative for a criminal penalty.

gemeinnützige Arbeit

§ 10 JGG Abs. 1 S. 3 Nr. 4 jurisprudence, e.g. BVerfGE 74, 102


hesitation wound

hesitation wound (plural hesitation wounds)

(pathology, criminology) Any of a series of shallow cuts made by a person considering a suicide attempt, or trying out the weapon to ascertain its effectiveness.


mistaken identity

mistaken identity (countable and uncountable, plural mistaken identities)

(law) A defense in criminal law based on this situation, claiming that any eyewitnesses to a crime incorrectly thought that they saw the defendant.


armed robbery

armed robbery (countable and uncountable, plural armed robberies)

(law) A theft where the thieves are armed with weapons.

سَطْو مُسَلَّح

instance of robbery where the participants are armed


dation in payment

dation in payment (plural dations in payment)

(law) The agreed discharge of a debt by giving something differing in character from that of the original debt


beat cop

(US, slang) A police officer who patrols the streets on foot (walks the beat).


dation

dation (countable and uncountable, plural dations)

(rare, law) The act of giving, granting or conferring (e.g. an office) but not liberal as a donation or gift.


capital gains tax

capital gains tax (countable and uncountable, plural capital gains taxes)

(taxation) A tax levied on the profit made from selling any "capital" (i.e. non-inventory) asset.

nalóg na uveličénije rýnočnoj stóimosti kapitála

нало́г на увеличе́ние ры́ночной сто́имости капита́ла


fidejussor

/ˌfaɪdɪˈd͡ʒʌsə(ɹ)/

From Latin fīdēiussor: compare French fidéjusseur.

they also take recognizances or stipulations of certain fidejussors in the nature of bail

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

(law) A surety; one bound for another, conjointly with him; a guarantor.


unlawful detainer

(US, law) The act of retaining possession of property without legal right.

(US, law) A legal action intended to remedy unlawful detainer by restoring possession of property to its owner.


judicare

Blend of judicial + care; compare Medicare, denticare.

(US, law) A form of legal aid in which private lawyers and law firms are paid to handle cases from eligible clients alongside the cases from their own fee-paying clients.


mancipatio

(law, historical) In Ancient Rome, a solemn verbal contract by which the ownership of certain types of goods (res mancipi) was transferred.


no rights reserved

Modelled on earlier all rights reserved.

The owner of a work, or other copyright holder, releases the work into the public domain.


creative work

(chiefly copyright law) A tangible manifestation of creative effort, such as literature, music, paintings, and software.


objectrix

The proceeding was heard ex parte and after examining only one witness for the objectrix[.]

1954, All India Reporter (D.V. Chitaley), volume 3, page 64

(chiefly law, rare) A woman who objects; a female objector; compare objectress.


browsewrap

browsewrap (usually uncountable, plural browsewraps)

From browse + wrap, modelled on clickwrap, itself modelled on shrinkwrap.

Relative to clickwrap, browsewrap is easily ignored by consumers, leaving them more vulnerable to exploitation.

2004, Louis S. Freeman, Tax strategies for corporate acquisitions, dispositions, spin-offs, joint ventures, financings, reorganizations and restructurings:

(law, Internet) A form of clickwrap license where the user must consent to the terms in order to use a website.


overbreadth

(US, law) The excessive broadness of a statute that, in proscribing unprotected speech, also proscribes protected speech.


terms of use

(law) The terms, conditions, or restrictions under which a person, commonly called an end user, may or may not utilize the aspects of a particular manufactured object, commonly called the end product.

here whakamahi

terms under which the end user may or may not utilize the end product


reaffirmance

reaffirmance (countable and uncountable, plural reaffirmances)

[B]oth the one and the other were nothing more than a re-affirmance of the still more antient standing law of the kingdom.

1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 32:

(chiefly law) A second or subsequent affirmance; a reaffirmation.


end user license agreement

end user license agreement (plural end user license agreements)

(law, copyright law) A contract between the manufacturer or copyright holder, also commonly called the licensor, of an end product and a person, commonly called the end user, that specifies the licenses under which the end user may utilize the end product, subject to restrictions as specified in the contract or agreement.

最終用戶許可協議

a contract between the manufacturer or copyright holder


privacy policy

privacy policy (plural privacy policies)

Of those apps without privacy policies, 76 percent shared sensitive information with third parties, and of those with privacy policies, 79 percent shared data while only about half admitted doing so in their published disclosures. In other words, privacy policies are more aptly referred to as surveillance policies, and that is what I suggest we call them.

2018, Shoshana Zuboff, chapter 8, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism:

In January, viral posts – ironically, widely spread on WhatsApp – claimed the privacy policy gave the service the right to read users’ messages and hand the information over to its parent company, Facebook.

2021 February 22, Alex Hern, “WhatsApp to try again to change privacy policy in mid-May”, in The Guardian:

(law) A statement detailing policies that an organization or party uses to collect or hide information about an end user or customer of the organization, particularly where it concerns private information.

سياسة الخصوصية

statement detailing policies that an organization uses to collect information about users


antiviolent

en-adj

antiviolent (comparative more antiviolent, superlative most antiviolent)

more antiviolent (comparative)
most antiviolent (superlative)

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


call to the bar

en-noun

call to the bar (plural calls to the bar)

(idiomatic, law) Admission to practice in the courts.


corporatocracy

corporatocracy (usually uncountable, plural corporatocracies)

He spent most of the 1970s and ’80s helping the evil corporatocracy that runs the Secret American Empire establish suzerainty over the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America and Africa.

2007 July 15, Joe Queenan, “Covert Ops”, in New York Times:

This chapter examines the politics of America's corporatocracy, a political system in which powerful corporate interest groups dominate the policy agenda. We can see how the corporatocracy arose as the confluence of four big trends.

2011, Jeffrey Sachs, The Price of Civilization: Economics and Ethics After the Fall, Random House, →ISBN, page 105:


CDDL

(law, software) Initialism of Common Development and Distribution License.


foregift

(law, chiefly British) A payment in advance; an advance payment or premium paid by a lessee on taking or renewing a lease, distinct from the rent.


shield law

(US, law) legislation designed to provide a news reporter with the right to refuse to testify as to information and/or sources of information obtained during the news gathering and dissemination process.


half blood

(law) A person who shares one parent with another; a half-sibling.


nonmolestation

The judge granted a nonmolestation order.

(law, attributive) Absence of molestation.


warrandice

(Scots law) A form of warranty in which a person conveying property is held liable for any outstanding claims on the property.


special master

Daniel: You can't look at medical files, they're confidential.
Kate: That's why I need a special master.
Daniel: A special what?
Kate: A knowledgeable and impartial third party to review the files to report on what Corvis was gonna tell the US attorney without revealing any personal information. That's why I convinced the US attorney to appoint you.

2012 August 20, Lovesick (Perception), season 1, episode 6, spoken by Daniel Pierce and Kate Moretti (Eric McCormack and Rachael Leigh Cook):

Judge Cannon said the special master’s role would be “to review the seized property, manage assertions of privilege and make recommendations thereon, and evaluate claims for return of property.”

2022 September 6, Charlie Savage, “Special Masters and the Trump Records Investigation, Explained”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(UK, US, law) An authority appointed by a judge to make sure that judicial orders are actually followed.


cursitor

From Latin runner; in the legal sense, from Latin cursitor, from the words de cursu, applied in the statute to ordinary writs.

When actions are brought in the Courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, founded upon original writs issuing out of the Courts of Chancery (which writs, as stated in the Report of the 9th of April 1816, it is the duty of the Cursitors to make out) it has been the practice in certain cases for the Filacers of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas respectively, to receive from the Suitors the King's fines (if any) and also the fees payable to the Cursitors in respect of such original writs, and afterwards to account to the Cursitors for the fines and fees so received.

1817 December 20, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, “Second Report of the Commissioners for Examining into the Duties, Salaries and Emoluments, of the Officers, Clerks and Ministers, of the Several Courts of Justice, in England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed;—as to the Court of Chancery”, in Reports from Committees: Fever; Ireland; Courts of Justice: Session 27 January – 10 June, 1818, volume VII, [London]: [s.n.], published 6 April 1818, →OCLC, page 172:

(UK, law, obsolete) A clerk in the Court of Chancery whose business is to make out original writs.


inbring

en-verb

inbring (third-person singular simple present inbrings, present participle inbringing, simple past and past participle inbrought)

inbrings (present singular third-person)
inbringing (participle present)
inbrought (participle past)
inbrought (past)

From Middle English inbringen, from Old English inbringan (“to bring in, bring to, present”), equivalent to in- + bring. Cognate with Scots inbring (“to inbring, import”), Dutch inbrengen (“to bring in”), German einbringen (“to introduce, bring in”), Swedish inbringa (“to bring in, fetch”).

cog

(transitive, Scots law) To bring in by legal authority; produce in court; confiscate (the goods of a condemned criminal).


gallows tree

From earlier gallow tree, from Middle English galowetre, galwe tree, from Old English gealgtrēow, equivalent to gallows + tree. Cognate with Danish galgetræ, Swedish galgträd, Norwegian galgetre, Icelandic gálgatré. Compare also West Frisian galgebeam, German Galgenbaum.

A tree used as a gallows, a tree from which people are hanged (killed by hanging).


chum up

en-verb

chum up (third-person singular simple present chums up, present participle chumming up, simple past and past participle chummed up)

chums up (present singular third-person)
chumming up (participle present)
chummed up (participle past)
chummed up (past)

They have a practice of “chumming up” a new fellow-prisoner—beating him with old swords and staves kept in the prison for the purpose, to exact a fee of a half-crown.

1844 January 13, The Spectator, volume 17, number 811, page 28:

1849, John Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, revised by Henry Ellis, London: Henry G. Bohn, Volume 2, p. 452,
Mr. Miller. They are not very nice whom they chum up?
Boot. Not very; they would as soon chum you up as anybody else.

(obsolete, UK, prison slang, transitive) To initiate (a new prisoner) through a ritual involving beating him with sticks and swords, accompanied by music, to extort money from him.


millage tax

en-noun

millage tax (countable and uncountable, plural millage taxes)

property tax, especially where the tax rate for property is determined in mills.


angel of mercy

A type of mercy killer, i.e., a caregiver who is a serial killer, and who practices mercy killing on both the willing and unwilling, knowing and unknowing, dependent only on the killer's sense of a patient's level of suffering from their illness.


final solution

Criticizing China’s actions alone is not enough. The United States, which at first called the Nazis' Final Solution a "war rumor," according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, must not make the same mistake again. The United States cannot stand idly by and let its economic relationship with Beijing cloud its judgment.

2019, Grace Funk, “Opinion: The U.S. should do more to stop China's reeducation camps”, in Los Angeles Times:

(historical, often capitalized) The planned and attempted mass murder of the European Jews by the Nazis; the Holocaust.


plaidoyer

In this plaidoyer for culture, I will argue that cultural differences are reflected in language in profound ways […]

2010, Guy Deutscher, Through the Language Glass, Arrow, published 2011, page 7:

(chiefly law) An act of pleading; a plea.


nondisparagement

Coordinate term: nondisclosure

Mr. Negroponte said eliminating the comparisons was required as part of a nondisparagement clause in the partnership agreement the two companies had signed.

2008 January 5, John Markoff, “Intel Quits Effort to Get Computers to Children”, in New York Times:

(law) Not disparaging (a competitor, former employer, etc. as part of an agreement).


reargument

reargument (countable and uncountable, plural rearguments)

Voeller asserted that the National Gay Task Force, which initiated the Virginia case, planned to take the case back to the Supreme Court for re-argument.

1976 April 10, Neil Miller, “U.S. Supreme Court Upholds State Sodomy Laws”, in Gay Community News, page 6:

They could set the entire appeal down for reargument, with or without a substitute justice.

2008 January 19, Adam Liptak, “West Virginia Judge Steps Out of Case Involving a Travel Companion”, in New York Times:

(law) The arguing of a legal case again.


detention centre

detention centre (plural detention centres)

Australian immigration detention facilities

New detention centres were opened, all in remote areas — at Woomera in the South Australian desert in November 1999, and the Curtin Detention Centre at Derby in Western Australia in February 2000.

2004, Brian Galligan, Winsome Roberts, Australian Citizenship, page 69:

One of the main features of Australia′s ‘Pacific Solution’ is that it involves the use of the Australian Navy to prevent boat people from landing on mainland Australia. The boat people are then transferred to detention centres on offshore Australian Territories which have been excised from the country′s migration zone where regular immigration rules are in application.⁷⁸ Detention centres for such transfers have also been set up on Nauru and Manus Island (Papua New Guinea).⁷⁹

2005, Geoff Leane, Barbara Von Tigerstrom, International Law Issues in the South Pacific, page 30:

People landing on these islands could also be transferred to detention centres on Nauru or Manus Island and had no access to Australia′s legal system.

2009, Linda Briskman, Chris Goddard, Susie Latham, Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia, page 31:

(Australia) An immigration detention facility; a facility in which people who have attempted to enter Australia without prior authorisation are detained, pending a decision on whether they are to be accepted as refugees or returned to their country of origin.


antikidnap

He was never seen again, and the case remains unsolved today. Its haunting aftermath produced new antikidnap legislation[…]

2002, Michael Newton, The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings, page 187:

A first step in a company's defense against executive kidnapping is to develop a policy and obtain approval of an antikidnap plan.

2010, John Fay, Contemporary Security Management, page 359:

(law enforcement) Preventing or countering kidnapping.


antikidnapping

In the capital on Friday, a city police commander, Esteban Robles Espinosa, 52, who once headed the department’s antikidnapping division, was shot and killed as he left his house at 7:30 a.m.

2008 May 10, James C. Mckinley Jr., “Caught in a Swirl of Drug Violence, Mexico Vows to Fight Back”, in New York Times:


tolt

From Latin tolta, from tollere (“to take away”).

... for a plea pending in a seignorial court could be removed into the county court by a procedure called tolt, and from the county into the common pleas by a writ of pone.

1956, Theodore Plucknett, A Concise History of the Common Law, Butterworth & Co, page 104:

(UK, law, obsolete) A writ by which a cause pending in a court baron was removed into a county court.


creditor's rights

(law) The set of procedural provisions designed to protect the ability of creditors to collect the money that they are owed.


probation officer

probation officer (plural probation officers)

A law enforcement officer who supervises offenders who have been released from incarceration and, often, recommends sentencing in courts of law.


piscary

piscary (countable and uncountable, plural piscaries)

From Latin piscarius (“relating to fishes or to fishing”), from piscis (“a fish”).

uder

It seemed to have been generally understood that the lord could not approve, where the commoners had a right of turbary, piscary, of digging sand, or of taking any species of estovers upon the common.

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

(law) The right or privilege of fishing in somebody else's waters.


estovers

(law, history) An estover, an allowance made from an estate for a person's support.

(law, history) An allowance or alimony granted to a divorced woman, taken from the husband's estate for her support.

(law, history) An allowance of wood made to a tenant.

1770, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England:

(law, history) The freedom of a tenant to take necessary wood from the land occupied by that tenant.


estover

en-noun

estover (usually uncountable, plural estovers)

From Middle English estovers pl, from Old French estover (“obligation”).

Your husband was seised of only one carucate of land, to which was appurtenant house-bote and hay-bote to be taken in that wood for burning at only one hearth in his chief messuage ; and if you by reason of your third part could in that wood take house-bote and hay-bote at your pleasure, there would be taken house-bote and hay-bote and fuel for two hearths, whereas they were previously appendant to only one hearth: wherefore, estovers for house-bote &c. you can not have; and we paray judgment.

1873, Alfred John Horwood, Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the First: XXI-XXII:

(archaic, law, history) An allowance provided from an estate for a person's support; an allowance of wood for repairs, firewood and fencing.


BBA

balanced budget amendment
balanced budget amendment#English

(US, politics, finance, law) Initialism of balanced budget amendment.


teach away

en-verb

teach away (third-person singular simple present teaches away, present participle teaching away, simple past and past participle taught away)

teaches away (present singular third-person)
teaching away (participle present)
taught away (participle past)
taught away (past)

A statement that a particular combination is not a preferred embodiment does not teach away absent clear discouragement of that combination.

2007, Bainbridge Lipscomb, Anthony William Deller, Lipscomb's Walker on Patents: Volume 9, page 1034:

By focusing specifically on the Weissman method, which arguably taught away from the invention, the Federal Circuit court avoided to discuss the more general prior art probing methods the applicants had actually used.

1998, Philippe Georges Ducor, Patenting the Recombinant Products of Biotechnology, page 49:

Disclosed examples and preferred embodiments do not constitute a teaching away from a broader disclosure or nonpreferred embodiments.

1997, J. Michael Thesz, Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, page 163:

(law) In patent law, to describe the solution to a problem in a way that excludes a particular alternative to solving that problem addressed by a later invention.


hidden tax

(taxation) A tax that is not visible to the consumer at the point of retail, having been levied on intermediate products, such as inputs to a finished product, or outputs from raw material production.


TPS

en-noun

TPS (countable and uncountable, plural TPS's or TPSes)

temporary protected status
temporary protected status#English

(US, law) Abbreviation of temporary protected status.


waveson

(law, archaic) Goods found floating on the sea after a shipwreck.


away-going

[...] but there is partially in a few instances where the person has two-thirds of the away-going crop, and where he has that two-thirds, generally their agreement is that they do not pay any offstand; they have it clear.

1886, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, House of Commons papers: Volume 6:

(archaic, law, of crops) Sown during the last years of a tenancy, but not ripe until after its expiration.


psychological injury

psychological injury (plural psychological injuries)

If a soldier suffers a psychological injury as a result of combat he or she may be eligible for compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

With the requisite education, knowledge, and experience, forensic psychologists have a great deal to contribute to the understanding of psychological injuries and the resolution of litigation that may result when those injuries occur.

2008, Andrew W. Kane, Ph.D., Psychological Injury and Law, Springer, page 36:

(law) Damage to the psyche caused by an event that may lead to a tort action (lawsuit) or other compensation claim.


narrow seas

(nautical, law, UK) Those seas (bodies of ocean water) which surround the British Isles, especially the English Channel.


smokey

Short for Smokey Bear (“a cartoon Park Ranger”).

By the time we got into Tulsa Town
We had eighty-five trucks in all
But there's a roadblock up on the cloverleaf
And them bears was wall-to-wall.
Yeah, them smokies is thick as bugs on a bumper
They even had a bear in the air.

1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:

The middle position, or "rocking chair," is so called because the drivers in the middle don't have to worry about watching for smokeys.

1977, Terry Cook, Vans and the Truckin' Life, page 27:

I was keeping an eye out for the smokeys who were no doubt hiding and waiting for unsuspecting tourists on the way in from Jacksonville.

2007, Ben W. Thompson, M'Naghten Rules, →ISBN:

Well let me tell you why I came, Crash: I need something from you, tonight. I had a four-man team for a big grab, lost one to smokies. I came looking to replace him, if you're still a badass.

2014, Nic Pizzolatto, 42:30 from the start, in True Detective, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Ginger (Joseph Sikora):

(CB slang) A state trooper. By extension, a cop, police officer.


skaith

skaith (countable and uncountable, plural skaiths)

[…] 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

There never yet was Englishman
That came to skaith by me.

1904, William Edmonstoune Aytoun, The Bon Gaultier Ballads:

(Scots law, obsolete) Alternative form of scathe (“damage”)


SLD

Statute Law Database
w:Statute Law Database

(UK, law) Initialism of Statute Law Database; the former name for legislation.gov.uk.


come forward

en-verb

come forward (third-person singular simple present comes forward, present participle coming forward, simple past came forward, past participle come forward)

comes forward (present singular third-person)
coming forward (participle present)
came forward (past)
come forward (participle past)

I’m coming forward to publicly share my own story in the hope that I can encourage others to do the same and help tear down the wall of silence that perpetuates further abuse.

2014 August 29, Ruzwana Bashir, “The untold story of how a culture of shame perpetuates abuse. I know, I was a victim”, in The Guardian:

(intransitive, idiomatic, law, criminology) To offer help or information, especially about a crime.


miskenning

From Middle English miskenninge, from Old English miscennung (“a mistake or variation in pleading before a court, a fine exacted for such a mistake”), equivalent to misken + -ing or mis- + kenning. Cognate with Dutch miskenning (“misunderstanding, mistreatment”).

cog

So that by about 1300, Dublin (b) or Waterford spoke with authority thus : "... it may be a cause of miskenning if perchance it happens that a man sues at the bar and the other party answers him, [...]

2005, Herman Cohen, A History Of The English Bar And Attornatus To 1450:

And that they be not made to suffer on account of miskenning in their suits, that is, if they have not pleaded exactly right.

2010, Adolphus Ballard, James Tait, British Borough Charters 1216-1307:


nondisturbance

(law) An agreement not to disturb tenants in a residence.


sublandlord

Ms. Colp-Haber said that companies that sublease space could protect themselves by negotiating the right to stay in the space with the building’s landlord if the sublandlord should default.

2009 March 4, Alison Gregor, “Commercial Renters Have a New Worry: A Landlord’s Default”, in New York Times:


recharacterization

en-noun

recharacterization (countable and uncountable, plural recharacterizations)

You owe tax on April 15 on $100,000, unless you reverse the transaction — a process called recharacterization.

2009 April 2, Deborah L. Jacobs, “For This Year, a Chance to Shift Financial Strategies”, in New York Times:

(law, finance) The treatment of a certain course of conduct in a different manner to which the participants describe it.


parking violation

parking violation (plural parking violations)

The illegal act of parking a motor vehicle in a restricted place or in an unauthorised manner.


bribetaking

My readers will bear in mind, that the “miscreant” has since been convicted and dismissed, for bribetaking and malversation of ofiice, in the cases, which were transmitted by Colonel Outram, and quashed by the said minute!

1853, Indus, Bombay Briberies; a tale of the present charter, page 45:

To look the dishonors straight in the face; to flay bribe-sanctioning at the top, as we flay bribetaking at the bottom; to see that the corrupting of a legislature is a darker and a meaner sin than the slugging of a scab; to ask for "law and order" among the mighty as we ask it among the obscure; to set ourselves grimly and a little sadly — as if with a sense of commmon frailty — to the great task of national house cleaning, is the solemn beginning to which we are committed in these early days of the twentieth century.

1909, John Graham Brooks, As Others See Us: A Study of Progress in the United States, page 344:

The union representing New York City carpenters, one of the area’s largest construction trades, continues to be roiled by turmoil after years of investigations into corruption and organized-crime influence and, since 2007, the federal convictions of four shop stewards for fraud, conspiracy or bribetaking.

2009 May 7, Paul Von Zielbauer, “New Fines Pit Carpenters Against Union Leaders”, in New York Times:


Mareva injunction

Mareva injunction (plural Mareva injunctions)

Named after the legal case Mareva Compania Naviera SA v International Bulkcarriers SA [1975] 2 Lloyd's Rep 509, decided in 1975.

(law, British, Canada) A court order which freezes assets so that a defendant to an action cannot dissipate their assets from beyond the jurisdiction of the court.


decree arbitral

decree arbitral (plural decrees arbitral)

(Scots law) An award made by an arbiter.


BCL

Bachelor of Civil Law
w:Bachelor of Civil Law

(education, law) Initialism of Bachelor of Civil Law.


copyfight

Unless users and developers of open source software join the copyfight, they will find the new reality of copyright law restricting not just their freedom to play blockbuster movies, but also their core freedoms to write and run interdependent and interoperable software.

2005, Chris DiBona, Danese Cooper, Mark Stone, Open sources 2.0: the continuing evolution, page 150:

For participant-fans, they valorize interventionist and interruptive art and music that broaden the discussion of the copyfights raging within the culture industries.

2010, Patrick Burkart, Music and cyberliberties:


carucage

carucage (countable and uncountable, plural carucages)

From Late Latin carrucagium, from carruca (“plough”); compare tillage.

(historical) A form of land taxation that replaced Danegeld in twelfth-century England.


antilaundering

(law enforcement) Countering money laundering.


yasak

Borrowed from Russian ясак (jasak), from Turkic.

(historical) An in-kind tribute in Imperial Russia exacted from the indigenous peoples of Siberia, usually in fur.


procurator fiscal

procurator fiscal (plural procurators fiscal)

There was word of the procurator fiscal taking note of his doings, and troth, if they had continued long he must have fled the country.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force, which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year.

2004 April 15, “Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer”, in The Scotsman:

For other notifications that do not meet the investigative threshold, RAIB may respond by writing a letter to the industry and issuing a press statement, taking no further action, or in the event of a fatality writing a letter to the coroner or the procurator fiscal (in Scotland) containing a summary of evidence.

2021 December 29, Paul Stephen, “Rail's accident investigators”, in RAIL, number 947, page 32:

A local coroner and public prosecutor in Scotland.


body corporate

body corporate (plural bodies corporate or body corporates)

bodies corporate (plural)
body corporates (plural)

From Middle English body corporat, body corporate (also body incorperate), equivalent to body + corporate (adjective) and modelled on Middle French corps corporat.

The Procureur at Singapore of La Société des Missions Étrangères to be a body corporate [section title] [section] 2.—(1) The said Nicolas Justin Couvreur and his successors for the time being in the office of Procureur at Singapore of "La Société des Missions Étrangères", duly qualified as hereinafter provided, shall be a body corporate, hereinafter called the corporation, and shall for the purposes of this Ordinance have the name of "The Procureur in Singapore of La Société des Missions Étrangères", and by that name have perpetual succession, and shall and may have and use a corporate seal.

1891 November 13, Missions Étrangères Ordinance (Ordinance 11 of 1891; Chapter 369, 1985 Revised Edition), Singapore: Government Printer, published 1986, →OCLC:

Section 314 of the 1980 Act provides that a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of a body corporate that has committed particular offences under the 1980 Act will also be guilty of those offences if it can be proved that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance of that officer or is attributable to the neglect of the officer.

2004, Highways (Obstruction by Body Corporate) Act 2004:

A body corporate is the holding body corporate of another if that other body corporate is its subsidiary.

2016, IBP, Inc., Canada Company Laws and Regulations Handbook Volume 1:

In relation to the conduct of a corporation, which is usually relevant to the physical element of a criminal offence, s 769B(1) of the Corporations Act provides that conduct engaged in on behalf of a body corporate […] is taken for the purposes of a provision of this Chapter, or a proceeding under this Chapter, to have been engaged in also by the body corporate.

2019, Juliette Overland, Corporate Liability for Insider Trading:

A corporation, when viewed as a legal person.

Rules governing the behaviour of residents or tenants are set in two ways: by legislation and by the body corporate creating its own rules of management.

2011, Stephen Raff, The Body Corporate Handbook:

This commission is not paid by the body corporate and does not come out of the levies paid by lot owners. Rather, it is a commission paid by each lot owner of the apartments that the onsite letting agent manages as real estate agent.

2011, Jeff Ball, Buying An Apartment Off The Plan in Queensland:

Units in blocks of more than two are almost always part of a body corporate.

2012, Melissa Opie, Find the Right Property, Buy at the Right Price, page 78:

The owners elect representatives from among themselves to sit on a body corporate committee, and the committee collects an annual levy from the owners. It then uses that levey to run the building, paying for things like maintenance, repairs and insurance.

2017, Maria Slade, Buyer Beware: A New Zealand Home Buyer's Guide:

(Australia, New Zealand) An organization of individuals that jointly own a shared housing facility such as a condominium or set of townhouses under a community titles scheme.

業主法團

organization of individuals owning a shared housing facility


blawg

Blend of blog + law. Coined by American lawyer and podcaster Denise Howell.

coined

Keeping a blawg also can be helpful when you update your resume and compose cover letters[…]

2004, American Bar Association, Student lawyer: Volume 33:

If there is a blawg you would like to see added, please feel free to suggest that we add it to the list.

2006, Carole A. Levitt, Mark E. Rosch, The lawyer's guide to fact finding on the Internet, page 738:

The vowel of blog can mutate, as when law blogs are called blawgs or requests via blog posts are called blegs (combining blog and beg).

[2010 November 11, Ben Zimmer, “Web”, in The New York Times Magazine:

(Internet) A weblog dealing with topics related to the law.


vadimony

(obsolete, law) A bond or pledge for appearance before a judge on a certain day.


vouchee

(law, archaic) The person who is vouched, or called into court to support or make good his warranty of title in the process of common recovery.


patent thicket

(law) A group of patents in a field of technology which collectively impede a party from commercializing its own patents or products in that field.


vadium

From Medieval Latin wadium, from Frankish *wadja, from Proto-Germanic *wadją (“pledge”); akin to Old English wedd (“pledge”). More at wed.

(law, archaic) A pledge or security; bail.


prison labor

Work which one is compelled to perform due to lack of options, by choice while in prison, or outright against one's will, while in a condition of confinement or slavery.


potestative

en-adj

potestative (comparative more potestative, superlative most potestative)

more potestative (comparative)
most potestative (superlative)

From Latin potestativus, from potestas (“power”). Compare French potestatif. See potent.

A potestative condition is that which is in the power of the person in whose favor it is contracted; as, if I engage to give my neighbor a sum of money, in case he cuts down a tree which obstructs my prospect.

1843 John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary. Reprinted by G.W. Childs: Philadelphia, 1864. Entry for "Condition", p. 264. (online)

Articles 1170 and 1174 of the French Civil Code deal with potestative conditions. The former defines as potestative a contractual condition the fulfillment of which is within the power of one of the contracting parties to bring about or hinder. The latter article provides that every obligation contracted on a potestative condition on the part of him who purports to bind himself is null.

1962, William Shelby McKenzie, “Obligations — Potestative Conditions — Right to Terminate In Employment Contracts”, in Louisiana Law Review, volume 22:

(law) of a condition in a legal contract: being completely controlled by exactly one of the parties to the contract


ROAH

restraining order
restraining order#English

(law) Initialism of restraining order after hearing.


PNP

Philippine National Police
w:Philippine National Police

(Philippines, law enforcement) Initialism of Philippine National Police.


nonconstitutionality

(law) The status of being nonconstitutional, of not being in accord with the provisions of a constitution.


nonterm

(law) A vacation between two terms of a court.


nontenure

(law) A defendant's plea that he/she did not hold the land, as affirmed.


preliminarily enjoin

en-verb

preliminarily enjoin (third-person singular simple present preliminarily enjoins, present participle preliminarily enjoining, simple past and past participle preliminarily enjoined)

preliminarily enjoins (present singular third-person)
preliminarily enjoining (participle present)
preliminarily enjoined (participle past)
preliminarily enjoined (past)

preliminary injunction
preliminary injunction

(law) To impose a preliminary injunction upon; to restrain by court order from engaging in a certain activity after a hearing and before a final resolution of a dispute.


inter partes

Borrowed from Latin inter partes (“between parts”).

(law) Of, relating to, or characteristic of a proceeding where multiple parties to a dispute are present.


inter partes

(law) In the manner of a proceeding where multiple parties to a dispute are present.


simultaneous death

en-noun

simultaneous death (plural simultaneous deaths)

(law) In the law of wills, the death of two persons, each of whom would inherit the estate of the other if deemed to have survived the other, where such deaths occur within a time period set by statute (typically 120 hours), because of which the law treats each person as if they had died before the other in determining the distribution of estates.


last meal

Inmate Arthur Dennis Rutherford, who was executed in Florida on October 18, 2006, enjoyed a last meal of fried catfish, fried green tomatoes, fried eggplant, hush puppies, and sweet tea.

2007, Lee Lofland, Howdunit Book of Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers:

Heathers: the Musical - Dead Girl Walking
Cuz Heather says I gotsta go / You're my last meal on death row / Shut your mouth, and lose them tighty-whities!

A final meal that a prisoner may choose before being executed.


declinature

declinature (countable and uncountable, plural declinatures)

(law) The legal privilege of a party, in certain circumstances, to decline the jurisdiction of a judge before whom the party's case sits.


damage feasant

damage feasant (countable and uncountable, plural damages feasant)

From an Old French phrase (compare modern French faisant dommage).

Actual damages must be shown to justify impounding cattle taken for damage feasant. Where there is no real damage, the cattle cannot be held for the costs.

1882 September 4, Dudley v McKenzie, a case before the Supreme Court of Vermont, reported in The Reporter: Containing Decisions of the Supreme and Circuit Courts

(law) The doing of damage; in particular, the doing by animals such as cattle of damage by trespassing.


decreet

(Scots law) The final judgment of the Court of Session, or of an inferior court, by which the question at issue is decided.


local administrative unit

local administrative unit (plural local administrative units)

(administration, law) In the European union, a low-level administrative division of a country, ranked below a province, region, or state.


date rapist

1994. "Date Rape"
T. here is no such thing as the typical date rapist.

2009. "Sex and Society Volume 1"
The date rapist often plans a date intending to have sex with the woman.

2011. "Sex, Love, and Friendship"
Since dating behaviors are derived from the prostitution model, date rape, instead of being a crime of violence, ... The date rapist is confused.

It is very easy to fall prey to a date rapist if you are attractive and alone in a bar in a new city.

A person that commits date rape, typically a male perpetrator that commits a form of sexual assault or coercion upon a new acquaintance during what is usually a first date, either by force or with the assistance of a date rape drug.


iPod tax

(slang, taxation) A levy or tax on digital storage products (e.g. iPods), levied at a per unit capacity rate, used to compensate content providers for piracy of their goods.


resetter

(law, Scotland) One who receives or conceals, as stolen goods or a criminal.


water law

(law) A branch of law dealing with the ownership, control, and use of water as a resource.


annual report

(law) In business law, a comprehensive report on a the activities of a company throughout the preceding year, generally produced in compliance with requirements established by government agencies.

年度報告

company report of activities for the preceding year


confidence trick

confidence trick (plural confidence tricks)

He was telling northern Europeans that some of the devotions which most deeply satisfied them […] were nothing but clerical confidence tricks.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, Penguin, published 2010, page 558:

A method of cheating somebody by winning their confidence and inducing them to hand over money (or other valuables).


elocute

en-verb

elocute (third-person singular simple present elocutes, present participle elocuting, simple past and past participle elocuted)

elocutes (present singular third-person)
elocuting (participle present)
elocuted (participle past)
elocuted (past)

The girl, now 13, wore a green dress. She was somber as [Rudy Lozano] required Beith to elocute – state the charges against him and account for his role in the crime.

2002 July 2, Steve Walsh, “‘Because I’m Guilty’: Maximum sentence is 15 years in prison and fine”, in The Post-Tribune, Gary, Indiana, page A1:

“If the defendant gets up and elocutes today that he’s sorry – the facts show that he is not sorry, that he doesn’t believe he committed any crimes,” York County Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan told the court.

2013 March 21, Seth Koenig, “Mark Strong gets 20 days in Kennebunk Zumba prostitution case, sent directly to jail”, in Bangor Daily News, Bangor, Maine:

Does anybody really think that Newt Gingrich[…] let alone people such as Dennis Hastert, who later elocuted in court to abusing young boys sexually,[…] does anybody think that these people really went all Aunt Pittypat with shock at Bill and Monica having a little after-hours fun?

2018 January/February, Telly Davidson, “Monica’s Lingering Legacy”, in The American Conservative, volume 17, number 1, page 12:

Yes, Manafort pled guilty to essentially these charges in federal court. He elocuted to them and he also admitted that he was guilty of the counts that hung where the jury didn’t reach a verdict.

2019 March 13, The Beat with Ari Melber, spoken by Daniel Alonso, via MSNBC:


disponee

(law, Scotland, historical) The person to whom any property is legally conveyed.


indorsee

(law, archaic) The person to whom a note or bill is indorsed, or assigned by indorsement.


judicable

en-adj

judicable (comparative more judicable, superlative most judicable)

more judicable (comparative)
most judicable (superlative)

Pride is soon discernable, but not easily judicable.

1651–1653, Jer[emy] Taylor, ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ [Eniautos]. A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Royston […], published 1655, →OCLC:

(law) Able to be judged; capable of being tried or decided upon, especially in a legal case.


theftbote

(law, obsolete) The receiving of a person's goods again from a thief, or a compensation for them, by way of composition, with the intent that the thief shall escape punishment.


redemise

en-noun

redemise (countable and uncountable, plural redemises)

(law) The transfer of an estate back to the person who demised it; reconveyance.


redemise

en-verb

redemise (third-person singular simple present redemises, present participle redemising, simple past and past participle redemised)

redemises (present singular third-person)
redemising (participle present)
redemised (participle past)
redemised (past)

(law, transitive) To demise back; to convey or transfer back, as an estate.


jurisprudent

en-adj

jurisprudent (comparative more jurisprudent, superlative most jurisprudent)

more jurisprudent (comparative)
most jurisprudent (superlative)

For if belligerent rights were worthy to be gravely discussed by conferences and commissions of very jurisprudent gentlemen, why shall not expectorant rights — never until now discussed or settled, but existing only in the great common or unwritten law of usage—be once for all clearly confirmed, settled, and defined?

1875 April, “Nebulæ”, in The Galaxy, volume 19, page 580:

'Adieu!' he says, 'I am going to my tutor's lectures on one Puffendorf, a very jurisprudent author as you shall read on a summer's day.'

1878, George Birkbeck Norman Hill, Dr. Johnson, His Friends and His Critics, page 82:

Understanding law; skilled in jurisprudence.


gabel

From French gabelle, from Late Latin gabella, gabulum, gablum; of uncertain origin. Compare gavel (“tribute”).

He enables St. Peter to pay his gabel by the ministry of a fish.

1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:

(UK, law, obsolete) A rent, service, tribute, custom, tax, impost, or duty; an excise.


hypothecator

(law) One who hypothecates or pledges anything as security for the repayment of money borrowed.


bail-piece

(law, archaic) A document containing a recognizance or bail bond.


demisable

a demisable estate


discontinuee

(law, historical) One whose possession of an estate is broken off, or discontinued; one whose estate is subject to discontinuance.


defeasanced

(law) Liable to defeasance; capable of being made void or forfeited.


nonconstat

(law) It does not appear; it is not plain or clear; it does not follow.


underlease

en-verb

underlease (third-person singular simple present underleases, present participle underleasing, simple past and past participle underleased)

underleases (present singular third-person)
underleasing (participle present)
underleased (participle past)
underleased (past)

(property law, informal) Synonym of sublet.


pickpurse

From Middle English pikepurse, pykeporse, equivalent to pick + purse.

Down with Christ's cross, up with purgatory pickpurse, up with him, the popish purgatory, I mean.

1548 January 18, Hugh Latimer, Sermon of the Plough, quoted in Sermons by Hugh Latimer, Cambridge University Press, published 1884, page 71:

No, it is false, if it is a pickpurse.

1602, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 1, scene 1:

(obsolete) Someone who steals purses, or money from purses.


outcourt

As Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat apologises for having published the claims originally published by The Sunday Telegraph regarding Mr. Rached Ghannouchi who has won a court case against the paper. It publishes this clarification in its insistance upon objective truth and the rights of readers and of Mr. Ghannouchi, after having reached an outcourt settlement with Mr. Ghannouchi, and expresses its regret for what the news item has caused him.

(law) Occurring outside the courtroom; adjudicated outside of a trial.


butlerage

en-noun

butlerage (countable and uncountable, plural butlerages)

There is also another very antient hereditary duty belonging to the crown, called the prisage or butlerage of wines; which is considerably older than the customs, being taken notice of in the great roll of the exchequer, 8 Ric. I. still extant. Prisage was a right of taking two tons of wine from every ship importing into England twenty tons or more; which by Edward I. was exchanged into a duty of 2s for every ton imported by merchant-strangers, and called butlerage, because paid to the king's butler.

1771, William, Sir Blackstone, “Of the King's Revenue”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, volume 1, pages 314–315:

(law, archaic or historical) A duty formerly paid to the king's butler on every ton of wine imported into England by foreign merchants.


prodigus

(law, obsolete) A prodigal person; a spendthrift.


forejudger

(law) A judgement by which one is deprived or put of a right or thing in question.


non-pros

en-verb

non-pros (third-person singular simple present non-prosses, present participle non-prossing, simple past and past participle non-prossed)

non-prosses (present singular third-person)
non-prossing (participle present)
non-prossed (participle past)
non-prossed (past)

To decline or fail to prosecute; to allow (a lawsuit) to be dropped.


testatum

Mr. Edwin perceives no contradiction in the two clauses; certainly the testatum proceeds to say that the assignment is made “in accordance with the bequests in the said will contained,” but the executor and legatees by the deed put their own construction on the will […]

(law) One of the clauses of an English deed, enumerating the operative words of transfer, statement of consideration, money, etc.


venire facias

Borrowed from Latin venire facias (“that you make or cause to come”), from the opening words of the writ.

bor

[A] Venire facias is the foundation and Cauſa ſine qua non, of a Jury (I mean in Civil Causes; for in Criminals, as upon Indictments, the Justices of Gaol-Delivery, give a general Command to Sheriff, to cauſe the Country to come against their coming, and take the Pannels of the Sheriff, without any Proceſs directed to him; yet Proceſs may be made againſt the Jury, though it is not much uſed.[…]) I will firſt recite the Writ in terminis, the rather becauſe I intend to order my Diſcourse, according to the method of the Writ. / Rex. &c. Vic. B. Salutem. Præcipimus tibi quod venire facias coram Juſticiariis noſtris de Banco apud Weſtm. tali die, duodecim liberos & legales homines de vicinet. de C. quorum quilibet habeat quatuor libras terræ, […]

1702, G[iles] D[uncombe], Tryals per Pais: or, the Law of England Concerning Juries by Nisi Prius, &c. Newly Revised, and much Enlarged, with an Addition of Precedents, and Forms of Challenges, Demurrers upon Evidence, Bills of Exception, Pleas Puis le Darrein Continuance, &c. The Fourth Edition with Large Additions. To which is now Added, a farther Treatise of Evidence. Together with a New and Exact Table to the whole Matter. Very Useful and Necessary for all Lawyers, Attornies and other Practisers, especially at the Assises, 4th edition, London: Printed by the Assigns of Rich. and Edw. Atknis [sic: Atkins], Esquires, for J. Walthoe in Middle-Temple Cloysters, →OCLC, pages 30–31:

Venire facias, A Writ judicial awarded to the Sheriff to cauſe a Jury of the Neighbourhood to appear, when a Cauſe is brought to Iſſue, to try the ſame; and if the Jury come not at the Day of this Writ, then there ſhall go a Habeas Corpora, and after a Diſtreſs until they appear.

1729, Giles Jacob, A New Law-dictionary Containing the Interpretation and Definition of Words and Terms Used in the Law; and also the Whole Law, and the Practice thereof, under all the Heads and Titles thereof. Together with such Informations Relating thereto, as Explain the History and Antiquity of the Law, and our Manners, Customs, and Original Government. Abstracted from all Dictionaries, Abridgements, Institutes, Reports, Year-Books, Charters, Registers, Chronicles, and Histories, Published to this Time. And Fitted for the Use of Barristers, Students, and Practisers of the Law, Members of Parliament, and other Gentlemen, Justices of Peace, Clergymen, &c., In the Savoy [London]: Printed by E. and R. Nutt, and R. Gosling, (Assigns of E. Sayer, Esq;) for J. and J. Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page [704]:

After verdict, it was moved in arreſt of judgment, that one John Wale was returned upon the venire facias, and upon the diſtringas one John Wats was returned and ſworn. Upon examination it appeared that the juror was named John Wats, and not John Wale.—Wherefore the Court held, that the trial was ill, and the record not amendable.

1791, George Croke, “Goddard against Hampton”, in Harbottle Grimston, Thomas Leach, editors, Reports of Sir George Croke, Knight, formerly One of the Justices of the Courts of King's-Bench and Common-Pleas, of such Select Cases as were Adjudged in the Said Courts during the Reign of James the First. Collected and Written in French, by Himself; Revised and Published in English by Sir Harbottle Grimston, Baronet, Master of the Rolls. The Fourth Edition, Corrected, with Marginal Notes and References to the Later Reports, and other Books of Authority, by Thomas Leach, Esq. of the Middle Temple, Barrister at Law, 4th corr. edition, volume II, London: Printed for E. and R. Brooke, Bell-Yard, Temple-Bar; and Whieldon and Butterworth, No. 43, Fleet-Street, →OCLC, page 458:

(law) A judicial writ or precept directed to the sheriff, requiring him to cause a certain number of qualified persons to appear in court at a specified time to serve as jurors.

Venire facias, Is alſo the common Proceſs upon any Preſentment, being in Nature of a Summons for the Party to appear; and is a proper Proceſs to be firſt awarded on an Indictment for any Crime, under the Degree of Treaſon, Felony, or Maihem, except in ſuch Caſes wherein other Proceſs is directed by Statute: […]

1729, Giles Jacob, A New Law-dictionary Containing the Interpretation and Definition of Words and Terms Used in the Law; and also the Whole Law, and the Practice thereof, under all the Heads and Titles thereof. Together with such Informations Relating thereto, as Explain the History and Antiquity of the Law, and our Manners, Customs, and Original Government. Abstracted from all Dictionaries, Abridgements, Institutes, Reports, Year-Books, Charters, Registers, Chronicles, and Histories, Published to this Time. And Fitted for the Use of Barristers, Students, and Practisers of the Law, Members of Parliament, and other Gentlemen, Justices of Peace, Clergymen, &c., In the Savoy [London]: Printed by E. and R. Nutt, and R. Gosling, (Assigns of E. Sayer, Esq;) for J. and J. Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page [705]:

(law, historical) A summons to cause the party indicted on a penal statute to appear.

Process of Venire facias ad respondendum is a writ addressed to the Sheriff, commanding him that he cause the party who is the object of it to come before the Barons of the Exchequer on a day certain (either a general or a special return day) to answer the suitor of a plea of debt, (&c.) […] At this day the Venire facias is regarded and used (like all other mesne process) in this department of the Court as a mere measure of compelling appearance or bringing a party before the Court, differing from other mesne process only in tenor and form, not in object or ultimate effect; and it has no distinct influence on subsequent proceedings. […] The following is the form of the Venire facias: William the Fourth, by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, To the Sheriff of [county] greeting.—We command you that you omit not by reason of any liberty of your county, but that you enter the same, and cause [the defendant's name] to come before the Barons of our Exchequer at Westminster […]

1831, G[eorge] Price, Attorney's Practice in the Exchequer of Pleas, being a Practical Summary of the Course and Forms of Proceeding at Law by the Exchequer Process, London: Saunders and Benning, law booksellers, (successors to J[oseph] Butterworth & Son,) 43, Fleet Street, →OCLC, pages 130–131:

venire facias ad respondendum
venire facias ad respondendum#English

(law, historical) (Clipping of venire facias ad respondendum.) A writ directed to the sheriff, requiring him to cause the person named in the writ to appear in court to respond to a civil (non-criminal) claim against him or her.


adrogate

en-verb

adrogate (third-person singular simple present adrogates, present participle adrogating, simple past and past participle adrogated)

adrogates (present singular third-person)
adrogating (participle present)
adrogated (participle past)
adrogated (past)

There were certain sacred rites (sacra gentilitia) which belonged to a gens, to the observance of which all the members of a gens, as such, were bound, whether they were members by birth, adoption, or adrogation. A person was freed from the observance of such sacra, and lost the privileges connected with his gentile rites, when he lost his gens, that is, when he was adrogated, adopted, or even emancipated; for adrogation, adoption, and emancipation were accompanied by a diminutio capitis.

1848, G[eorge] L[ong], “GENS”, in William Smith, editor, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2nd improved and enlarged edition, London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly, Upper Gower Street; and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street, →OCLC, page 568, column 2:

(transitive, Ancient Rome, law, historical) To adopt (a free citizen).


disentail

disentail (third-person singular simple present disentails, present participle disentailing, simple past and past participle disentailed)

disentails (present singular third-person)
disentailing (participle present)
disentailed (participle past)
disentailed (past)


disentail

(law) The act of freeing from entailment.


disaffirmance

en-noun

disaffirmance (countable and uncountable, plural disaffirmances)

disaffirmance of judgement

(law) Overthrow or annulment by the decision of a superior tribunal.


improving lease

improving lease (plural improving leases)

(law, Scotland, historical) An extended lease to induce the tenant to make improvements to the premises.


instrumentary

en-adj

instrumentary (comparative more instrumentary, superlative most instrumentary)

more instrumentary (comparative)
most instrumentary (superlative)

The nearest relations of a party by whom a deed is granted, or in whose favour it is conceived, are good instrumentary witnesses; and although it has been generally laid down by the text writers, that women cannot be instrumentary witness, it is extremely doubtful how far this is correct.

1832, The Institutions of the Law of Scotland, page 23:

(law, Scotland) Pertaining to a legal instrument.


hangmanship

The office, character, or state of being of a hangman.


debellation

Borrowed from Medieval Latin dēbellātiō (“total defeat”), from dēbellō (“conquer, subjugate”).

bor

Strupp goes on to speak of transfer of territory ‘by annexation after debellation’.

1951, Hersch Lauterpacht, editor, Annual Digest and Reports of Public International Law Cases […] Year 1946, →ISBN, page 189:

This time, the arguments of those who favored the total debellation of the defeated adversary were again defeated […]

2009, Michael Howard, “Preface”, in The Making of Peace: Rulers, States, and the Aftermath of War, →ISBN, page xii:

They exclude […] wars that resulted in surrender or “debellation,” in which one side is completely vanquished […]

2017, Michael J. Glennon, “How Not To End War”, in The Lawfare Book Review, page 7:

(international law, uncommon) The annihilation of a sovereign state through its complete destruction in a war.


debtee

If a person indebted to another makes his creditor or debtee his executor , or if such a creditor obtains letters of administration to his debtor ; in these cases the law gives him a remedy for his debt by allowing him to retain so much as will pay himself

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

The debtee also relies on the debtor to be financially successful themselves to pay the instalments of the debt as necessary.

2022, Richard J. Britton, Romans and the Power of the Believer:

(law) One who is owed a debt; a creditor.


knight banneret

en-noun

knight banneret (plural knights bannerets)

(law, historical) A knight entitled to subinfeudate his estate and to lead troops under his own banner.

baanderheer

Knight entitled to lead men under his own banner


disseizee

(law, archaic) One who is disseized, or put out of possession of an estate unlawfully.


consultary

a consultary response

(law) Formed by consultation; resulting from conference.


hallage

hallage (countable and uncountable, plural hallages)

(law, obsolete) A fee or toll paid for selling goods in a hall.


wrongous

en-adj

wrongous (comparative more wrongous, superlative most wrongous)

more wrongous (comparative)
most wrongous (superlative)

From Middle English wrongous, for earlier wrongwis, wrangwis, from Old English wrongwīs, wrangwīs (“wrongous, rough, uneven”), equivalent to wrong + -ous (see also wrongwise). Cognate with Swedish vrångvis (“wrong, iniquitous”). See wrong, and compare righteous.

It’s my opinion that the creature Dougal will have a good action of wrongous imprisonment and damages again him, under the Act seventeen hundred and one, and I’ll see the creature righted.

1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Rob Roy. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 61:

If the prisoner is detained an unreasonable time, he would have an action for wrongous imprisonment.

1879, James Paterson, Reports of Scotch Appeals in the House of Lords:

(UK dialectal, Scotland, especially law) Wrongful; not right; unjust; illegal.


nol-pros

en-verb

nol-pros (third-person singular simple present nol-prosses, present participle nol-prossing, simple past and past participle nol-prossed)

nol-prosses (present singular third-person)
nol-prossing (participle present)
nol-prossed (participle past)
nol-prossed (past)

(law, transitive) To discontinue by entering a nolle prosequi; to decline to prosecute.


replead

replead (third-person singular simple present repleads, present participle repleading, simple past and past participle (North America, Scotland) repled or (England) repleaded)

repleads (present singular third-person)
repleading (participle present)
repled (North-America Scotland participle past)
repled (North-America Scotland past)
repleaded (England participle past)
repleaded (England past)

(law, transitive, intransitive) To present a rewritten argument.


forfeiter

One who forfeits; (law, specifically) one who incurs a penalty of forfeiture.


undeeded

undeeded land


irritancy

en-noun

irritancy (countable and uncountable, plural irritancies)

(law, Scotland) The state or quality of being null and void; invalidity


non assumpsit

(law) The general plea or denial in an action of assumpsit.


non liquet

non liquet (plural non liquets or non liquent)

non liquets (plural)
non liquent (plural)

(law) A verdict given by a jury when a matter is to be deferred to another day of trial.


thief in law

Calque of Russian вор в зако́не (vor v zakóne).

calque

вор в зако́не

A criminal who is respected, has authority and a high ranking status within the criminal underworld in the old Soviet Union, Russia and the republics that formed the former Soviet Union.


non obstante

(law) A clause in old English statutes and letters patent, designating a licence from the Crown to do a thing notwithstanding any laws to the contrary.


formedon

From Old French [Term?], from Latin [Term?], so called because the plaintiff claimed “by the form of the gift”: per formam doni.

So, if Lands be given to Father and Son, and to the heirs of their two bodies begotten, the remainder over in fee, and afterwards the Father dieth without any Iſſue but the Son, and afterwards the Son dieth without Iſſue, and a Stranger abateth, he in the remainder ſhall have one Formedon in the remainder, although the Eſtate tails were ſeveral, […]

1680, Edward Coke, “Mich. 7 Jacobi. In the Common Pleas. Buckmere’s Case.”, in The Reports of Sir Edward Coke, Kt. […], 2nd edition, London: […] H. Twyford, […], →OCLC, part VI, pages 570–571:

(British, law, historical) A writ of right for a tenant in tail in case of a discontinuance of the estate tail.


bribeless

c. 1603?, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Walter Raleigh's Pilgrimage
From thence to heaven's bribeless hall.

Incapable of being bribed; free from bribes.


filcher

But to return — Poor Paddy had a wife,
 The very plague and torment of his soul,
The harbinger of battle and of strife,
 And, what was worse, the filcher of his bowl ;

1820 August, Daniel O'Rourke, “An Epic Poem, in Six Cantos”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 7, number 41, page 35:

Well, she sneaks around the world from Kiev to Carolina / She's a sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to Belize

1991, “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?”, Sean Altman, David Yazbek (music), performed by Rockapella:


fightwite

(UK, historical, law) In Medieval Britain, a fine imposed on someone for disturbing the peace with a fight or quarrel.


ingross

en-verb

ingross (third-person singular simple present ingrosses, present participle ingrossing, simple past and past participle ingrossed)

ingrosses (present singular third-person)
ingrossing (participle present)
ingrossed (participle past)
ingrossed (past)

(UK, historical, law) Prior to the abolition of inrollment in 1849, to engross a Parliamentary bill prior to royal assent by preparing it on a roll, incorporating any amendments.


non est inventus

And in case of the principal's avoidance and the return of non est inventus (g) upon the execution, the bail shall be obliged to satisfy the judgment out of his own estate

(law) The response of a sheriff on a writ, when the defendant is not found in his county.


prison bitch

What kind of life can a prison bitch expect to lead once he is released?

2004, Alexander Cockburn, Serpents in the garden: liaisons with culture & sex, page 273:

What's the tattoo for a prison bitch? A rabbit? A pansy? Maybe,” she added scornfully, “a nice big bull's eye tattooed right on your ass

2007, Gil Snider, Brain Warp: A Medical Thriller, page 255:

“More like the big house,” Tyree snapped. “Mama, I don't wanna end up a prison bitch,” Cecile cried.

2009, R.A. Melos, The Adventures of Homosexual Man and Lesbian Ladd, page 79:

(prison slang) A male prisoner used as a sex slave by another man in the absence of available women.


palliatory

en-adj

palliatory (comparative more palliatory, superlative most palliatory)

more palliatory (comparative)
most palliatory (superlative)


bargainee

A lease , or rather bargain and sale , upon some pecuniary consideration , for one year , is made by the tenant of the freehold to the lessee or bargainee

(law, historical) The party to a contract who receives, or agrees to receive, the property being sold.


child neglect

A form of child abuse caused by the denial of basic needs like proper nutrition, care, and love.

nevypolnénije objázannostej v otnošénii rebjónka

невыполне́ние обя́занностей в отноше́нии ребёнка


socager

(law, historical, UK) A tenant by socage.


portmote

From Middle English portemot, portemote, portmot, portmote; equivalent to port + mote; compare Anglo-Latin portimōtus.

And in England it hath always been held, that the king is lord of the whole shore, and particularly is the guardian of the ports and havens, which are the inlets and gates of the realm: and therefore, so early as the reign of king John, we find ships seised by the king's officers for putting in at a place that was not a legal port. These legal ports were undoubtedly at first assigned by the crown; since to each of them a court of portmote is incident, the jurisdiction of which must flow from the royal authority: the great ports of the sea are also referred to, as well known and established, by statute 4 Hen. IV. c. 20. which prohibits the landing elsewhere under pain of confiscation: and the statute 1 Eliz. c. 11. recites that the franchise of landing and discharging had been frequently granted by the crown.

1771, William, Sir Blackstone, “Of the King's Prerogative”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, volume 1, page 264:

(law, obsolete, UK) A court, or mote, held in a port town.


vicontiel

From Anglo-Norman vicontiel, from Middle French visconte (“viscount”) + -iel. Equivalent to viscount + -ial.

Vicontiel writs were those that were triable in the sheriff, or county, court.

It is in the election of the party injured by a trespass, to sue out a writ of trespass that is returnable, or one that is not. The latter writ is called a vicontiel writ; because the matter therein complained of is to be determined before the sheriff ...

1798, Henry Gwillim, A New Abridgment of the Law in Seven Volumes: 6: 5th edition, page 554:

(law, UK, obsolete) Of or pertaining to the viscount or sheriff of a county.


visne

From Old French visné, veisiné, visnet (“neighborhood”), from Vulgar Latin *vīcīnātus, from Latin vīcīnus (“neighboring, a neighbor”). See vicinity.

der

(law, obsolete or historical) neighborhood; vicinity; venue


onerosity

From onerous + -ity, from Latin onerositas.

It may be presumed to be a necessary ingredient in onerosity, that the obligation to be fulfilled is a legal one.

1845, John Hill Burton, The Law of Bankruptcy, Insolvency, and Mercantile Sequestration, in Scotland, W. Tait, page 145:

(Scots law) The legal state of affairs resulting from being done or given in return for receipt of something of value.


in transitu

stoppage in transitu

(law, archaic) in transit; during transportation


vavasory

(law, obsolete) The quality or tenure of the fee held by a vavasor.

(law, obsolete) The lands held by a vavasor.


non prosequitur

(law) A judgement entered against the plaintiff in a suit where he/she fails to appear to prosecute.


shareholders' meeting

en-noun

shareholders' meeting (plural shareholders' meetings)

(law) A meeting of all shareholders of a company, usually held at least annually to approve the accounts and elect the members of the board.


vicontiels

(UK, law, obsolete) Things belonging to the sheriff, especially farms (also called "vicontiel rents") for which the sheriff used to pay rent to the king.


non est factum

(law) A defence in contract law that allows a signing party to escape performance of an agreement that is fundamentally different from what they intended to execute or sign.


redhibitory

Borrowed from Late Latin redhibitōrius, from redhibeō.

a redhibitory action or fault

rescinding both contracts because the cars had redhibitory defects

1998, “Watkins v. Freeway Motors - A need to clarify the principle of novation”, in Louisiana Law Review:

(law) Of or pertaining to redhibition (the annulling of a sale).


loanland

loanland (usually uncountable, plural loanlands)

(law, UK, obsolete) Land that has been granted temporarily, without any loss of ownership.


folkland

folkland (countable and uncountable, plural folklands)

From Old English folcland. Equivalent to folk + land.

The folkland, the national fund, was administered and conveyed conjointly by the king and the witan.

1889, Hannis Taylor, The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution:

(law, historical, UK) Land held in villeinage, being distributed among the folk, or people, at the pleasure of the lord of the manor, and taken back at his discretion.


mainor

From Anglo-Norman meinoure, Old French manuevre. See maneuver and French main (“hand”).

(law, UK, obsolete) The act or fact, especially of theft.

for the future one credible Witness proveing the Fact, and supported by probable Circumstances, or the Mainor being upon Search or otherwise found with or upon the Malefactor[…]

1821, Anthony Mills, The Ancient Ordinances and Statute Laws of the Isle of Man:

(law, UK, obsolete) A stolen article found on the person of the thief.


subagent

Where a subagent is appointed pursuant to actual or implied authority from the principal the principal is liable directly to the subagent for his compensation .

1915, Harry Noyes Greene, William Mark McKinney, David Shephard Garland, American and English Annotated Cases, page 22:

Where a subagent is appointed by authority of the principal, the subagent is, so far as relates to third persons, the agent of the principal, and the acts of the subagent are binding upon the principal;

1918, Israel A. Washburne, Principles of the Law of Contracts, page 37:

Confusing relationships, disclosures, and conflicts arise if the licensee acts as subagent with one buyer and buyer's agent with another buyer on the same property.

2003, Donna K. Peeples, Minor Peeples, Texas Real Estate Agency, page 120:

(law) A person employed by an agent to transact the whole, or a part, of the business entrusted to the latter.


subreader

When his lordship was reader, he made him his subreader, which shewed him to the society, and to men of his profession

1819, Roger North, The Life of the Right Honourable Francis North:

(law, UK, archaic) An under reader in the inns of court, who reads the texts of law the reader is to discourse upon.


upsun

(law, Scotland) The time during which the sun is up, or above the horizon; the time between sunrise and sunset.


surrenderee

The lord is compellable by mandamus to admit the surrenderee, that is, the person to whose use the surrender is made.

1876, Herbert Newman Mozley, George Crispe Whiteley, A Concise Law Dictionary, page 435:

(law) The person to whom a surrender is made.


manbote

Learned borrowing from Old English manbōt (“fine paid to the lord of a slain man or vassal”). More at man, bote.

lbor

Manbote of freedom

1628–1644, Edw[ard] Coke, (please specify |part=1 to 4), London:

Three weeks later an equal sum, under the name of manbote, was paid to the lord, as a compensation for the loss of his vassal.

1688, John Lingard, A History of England:

1962, H.R. Loyns, quoted in NYT, Daily Lexeme: Maegbot, 2011

If a man was slain a special manbot, or compensation for the loss of a man, had to be paid to the lord side by side with the mægbot to the kin.

(law, historical, Anglo-Saxon) A sum paid to a lord as a pecuniary compensation for killing his vassal, servant, or tenant.


excisable

Tobacco is an excisable commodity.


indictor

As because in them, if they be followed in course of indictment, there passeth a double jury, the indictors and the triers.

1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:


essoiner

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman essoigniour, from Old French essoignier. By surface analysis, essoin + -er.

(England, archaic, law) An attorney who sufficiently excuses the absence of another.


repleader

Whenever a repleader is granted, the pleadings must begin de novo.

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

(law) A second pleading, or course of pleadings.


home invasion

(law, criminology) An assault on the possessor(s) of a household committed by an intruder by using forced entry or otherwise having unauthorized presence in the household.


intercommonage

(law, UK, obsolete) The right or privilege of intercommoning.


intromit

en-verb

intromit (third-person singular simple present intromits, present participle intromitting, simple past and past participle intromitted)

intromits (present singular third-person)
intromitting (participle present)
intromitted (participle past)
intromitted (past)

/ˌɪntɹəˈmɪt/

(law, Scotland) To intermeddle with the effects or goods of another.


appellancy

As Paul Strohm argues, the absence of evidence to suggest that Usk was formally charged with any crime at this juncture indicates a creative use of the concept of appellancy, which typically enabled felons to mitigate their punishment through confession and the provision of testimony contributing to the conviction of their accomplices.

2016, Elizabeth Elliott ·, Remembering Boethius:

(law) A form of plea bargain in which someone is granted immunity or a reduced sentence in return for providing testimony to convict their accomplices.


repleviable

repleviable fruit

repleviable person

(law, archaic) Capable of being replevied.


arraigner

This having been premised, I replied to the assertion above stated, by asserting the direct contrary; namely, that were a similar case conceived between man and man, the severest arraigners of the measure would, on their grounds, find nothing to blame in it.

1809, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Friend:


wokou

From Mandarin 倭寇 (wōkòu, “Japanese pirates”).

(historical) Pirates of a mixture of ethnicities who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th to 16th centuries.


light-handed

en-adj

light-handed (comparative lighter-handed or more light-handed, superlative lightest-handed or most light-handed)

lighter-handed (comparative)
more light-handed (comparative)
lightest-handed (superlative)
most light-handed (superlative)

From Middle English lyghte handyd, from light (adjective) + honded, participle of honden (“to seize, take charge of”), from the noun hond (“hand”). See more at hand.

Thae Hielandmen are o' the westland clans, and just as light-handed as their neighbours, an a' tales be true

Indeed, she knew how to make young Deelbelicket, old Dougald Baresword, the Laird of Bandybrawl, and others, pay for the hospitality which she did not think proper to deny them, by rendering them useful in her negociations with the light-handed lads beyond the Cairn, who, finding their late object of plunder was allied to "kend folks, and owned by them at kirk and market," became satisfied, on a moderate yearly composition, to desist from their depredations.

1822, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Pirate. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 68:

He has a great many amusing episodes describing the light-handed lads from the hills coming down, and in the general confusion of the times plundering Cavalier and Covenanter alike; [...]

1862, Blackwood's Magazine, volume 91, page 313:

Another of his duties was to keep a sharp look-out for light-handed customers, besides other occupations which time, as Mr. Blackley said, would teach him.

1894, “Autumn Leaves: Worth a Guinea”, in Charles Dickens, Jr., editor, All the Year Round, page 26:

You understand what darkies are—as curious as magpies and quite as lighthanded. If one of them had chanced to see Effingham hiding something behind the clock, he would be sure to investigate for himself at the first convenient opportunity.

1922, Van Tassel Sutphen, In Jeopardy, →ISBN:

Captive rowlocks keep the oars in the boat while you 're rowing and discourage lighthanded hardware seekers when you go ashore.

1997 January, Time Carr, “Choosing A Dinghy -- The Hard Way”, in Cruising World:


opening statement

en-noun

opening statement (plural opening statements)

(law) In adversarial legal systems, a statement made by a party at the beginning of a trial or comparable factfinding proceeding, in which that party lays out their case, generally including the points of fact that they intend to demonstrate and to some degree indicating the rhetorical arguments for why they should prevail.


opening argument

opening argument (plural opening arguments)

(law) In adversarial legal systems, a statement made by either party at the beginning of a trial or comparable factfinding proceeding, in which that party lays out their case, generally including the points of fact that they intend to demonstrate and to some degree indicating the rhetorical arguments for why they should prevail.


opening speech

opening speech (plural opening speeches)


reclaimant

Compare French réclamant, present participle.


impact statement

impact statement (plural impact statements)

The lawyer for a teenager at the center of Lawrence Taylor's sexual misconduct case says the girl will make an impact statement at the former football star's sentencing.

2011 March 22, “Ex-NFL star Lawrence Taylor's sentencing today”, in USA Today, retrieved 2011-12-02:

(law) Testimony, either oral or written, provided during a proceeding in a court of law which describes the harmful effects produced by the actions of an accused or convicted party and suffered by the victim or others, offered especially for consideration by the court in deciding an appropriate punishment.


forisfamiliate

en-verb

forisfamiliate (third-person singular simple present forisfamiliates, present participle forisfamiliating, simple past and past participle forisfamiliated)

forisfamiliates (present singular third-person)
forisfamiliating (participle present)
forisfamiliated (participle past)
forisfamiliated (past)

Late Latin forisfamiliatus, past participle of forisfamiliare (“to forisfamiliate”).

(intransitive, law, obsolete) To renounce a legal title to a further share of paternal inheritance.

(transitive, law, obsolete) Of a father: to put (a son or daughter) in possession of land which the son or daughter accepts as their whole portion of the father's property.


tied oil

(UK, law) Any oil that is either a light oil, or a heavy oil that falls into the excise definition of gas oil, fuel oil or kerosene.


ballastage

en-noun

ballastage (countable and uncountable, plural ballastages)

The better regulation of lastage and ballastage in the Thames.

A toll paid for the privilege of taking up ballast in a port or harbour.


incumbrancer

jointress , a tenant by the courtesy , a remainderman and reversioner , a judgment creditor , and every other incumbrancer , unless he be an incumbrancer pendente lite[…]

1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law:

(law, historical) One who holds incumbrance, or some legal claim, lien, or charge on an estate.


forisfamiliation

forisfamiliation (usually uncountable, plural forisfamiliations)

(law, obsolete) The act of forisfamiliating.


bargainor

The conveyance called a bargain and sale of lands , whereby the bargainor bargains and sells the land to the bargainee , and becomes by such a bargain seised to the use of the bargainee

(law, archaic) One who makes a bargain or contract with another, especially to sell property.


recoveree

As already indicated elsewhere (vide ante, c. ix.), a recovery was only, even if real and adverse, effective as against the party — the recoveree and his heirs and legal representatives — that is, those "privy" to him in estate.

1879, John Reeves, William Francis Finlason, Reeves' History of the English Law, page 496:

In all recoveries it is necessary that the recoveree, or tenant to the præcipe, as he is usually called, be actually seised of the freehold, else the recovery is void.

1915, William Blackstone, William Carey Jones, Commentaries on the Laws of England - Volume 1, page 1202:

For it was thought, that upon suffering the recovery or levying the fine, the use ressulted to the recoveree or conuzor, which resulting use the statute immediately executed: so that the use being once vested and executed by the statute, it could not be divested by any subsequent declaration.

2007, Francis Williams Sanders, John Warner, An Essay on Uses and Trusts, and on the Nature and Operation of Conveyances at Common Law, page 219:

(law, historical) The person against whom a judgement is obtained in common recovery.


gabeler

(law, historical) A collector of gabels or taxes.


housebote

(law, obsolete) Wood allowed to a tenant for repairing the house and for fuel.


ne bis in idem

Latin, meaning "not twice for the same".

(law) The concept that no legal action can be instituted twice for the same cause.


misadvice

misadvice (usually uncountable, plural misadvices)


Bates number

Derived from Bates, the surname of the inventor of the first serial number-stamping machine.

(law) A number affixed to a document indicating its number in a series of documents, usually with respect to evidentiary documents being provided to the other party in a legal proceeding.


big business

Because he is liberal, temperate and articulate, and because he freely recognizes past Big Business abuses, Wendell L. Willkie, president of huge Commonwealth & Southern Corp., is in a class by himself as a persuasive businessman-critic of the New Deal. . . . "Today it is not Big Business that we have to fear," concluded Businessman Wilkie. "It is Big Government."

1940 March 18, “Life on the Newsfronts of the World: Big Government”, in Life, retrieved 2011-12-13, page 26:

In an uncharacteristic rebuff to big business, President Carlos Saul Menem plans this week to propose a package of labor regulations that leaves intact most Government-mandated severance benefits and limits companies' right to hire part-time workers.

1998 March 17, Clifford Krauss, “International Business: Argentine Labor Code Largely Intact”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-12-14:

That smacks of cozy dealings between the government and the tycoons . . . . "Invariably, people see this as a conspiracy between the government and big business," says legislator Alan Leong.

2005 January 17, Chaim Estulin, “Hong Kong's New Culture”, in Time:

(sometimes capitalized) Large, for-profit corporations collectively, understood as having significant economic, political, or social influence.


hallmote

From Middle English hallmote, equivalent to hall + mote (“meeting”), see moot.

(law) In England, a court held in a justice's hall; a court-leet; court-baron.


receiptor

The receiptor of property received from the sheriff assumes the relationship of bailee toward the officer and the possession of the receiptor is that of the sheriff. Where the receiptor takes possession of the property, this does not have any effect on the attachment lien whatsoever, and the goods are regarded as still being in the possession of the officer.

1941, Walter Houston Anderson, Clyde Bowen, Gus Carr Anderson, A Treatise on the Law of Sheriffs, Coroners and Constables: With Forms:

(law) One who receipts for property taken by the sheriff; one to whom property is delivered for storage or safekeeping, subject to a bond to produce it when litigation concludes.


Dobbs

en-proper noun

Dobbs (countable and uncountable, plural Dobbses)

From a medieval diminutive form of the given name Robert + the patronymic suffix -s.

By overturning Roe v. Wade, Dobbs is sure to go down as one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions, undoing a constitutional right that’s been in place for nearly half a century and delivering a decisive victory to the anti-abortion movement.

2022 June 24, “‘Abortion Is Just the Beginning’: Six Experts on the Decision Overturning Roe”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-01:

What makes Republicans and progressives come together? “It was honestly Dobbs,” Ms. Watson-Whittaker said. “The decision brought everybody together.” In Michigan, at least, that togetherness seems to have paid off for Democrats.

2022 November 19, Amy Littlefield, “Democrats Need to Realize How Much Dobbs Mattered”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-11:

Dobbs demolished a federal right to abortion, and its legality currently rests with each state. This has created a patchwork of laws that have made legislation designed to stop abortions less effective in some parts of the country.

2023 July 6, Sarah Boden, “A year after victory in Dobbs decision, anti-abortion activists still in fight mode”, in NPR, archived from the original on 2023-07-07:

“People who reported using more substances or having more mental health conditions were more likely to report a policy-related barrier to obtaining an abortion,” Roberts said. In the aftermath of Dobbs, she said, “There’s no reason to believe that things would have become easier.”

2023 October 26, Nada Hassanein, “Medical exceptions to abortion bans often exclude mental health conditions”, in USA Today, online edition:

w:en:Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

unenumerated right
unenumerated right#English

(US, law, US politics, informal, uncountable, neologism) Ellipsis of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which stated that access to abortion was not a constitutionally protected right, overturning the earlier Roe ruling which established this unenumerated right.


appointor

(law) The person who selects the appointee.


plainant

(law, obsolete) someone who makes complaint; the plaintiff.


tortiously

en-adv

tortiously (comparative more tortiously, superlative most tortiously)

more tortiously (comparative)
most tortiously (superlative)

tortiously injured

tortiously possessed himself of goods

tortiously interfered


syngraph

(law) A document signed by both or all of the parties to a contract or bond.


hedgebote

From Middle English hege botte; equivalent to hedge + bote.


recognizor

No crime attaches to the recognizors for suffering a forfeiture, any more than in failing to perform any other civil contract

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

(law) One who enters into a recognizance.


synallagmatic

From Ancient Greek συναλλαγματικός (sunallagmatikós).

uder

συναλλαγματικός

a synallagmatic contract

(law) Imposing reciprocal obligations upon the parties; bilateral.

synallagmatique

imposing reciprocal obligations upon the parties


deed poll

(law) A deed relating only to one party, distinguished from an indenture by having the edge of the paper cut evenly, or "polled", rather than being indented.

I changed my name by deed poll.

(law, UK, Ireland) A deed that effects a change of an individual's name.


barrator

From Middle English baratour, from Old French barateor (“deceiver”), from Old French barater, bareter (“to deceive, cheat, barter”). Compare barter (intransitive verb).

One who abuses their office by dealing fraudulently.

(maritime, admiralty law) A ship's master who commits gross fraud or barratry.


pill mill

2011, Jane Musgrave, The Palm Beach Post, 4 men sentenced in pill mill scheme, link
Four men who helped Jeff and Chris George run their lucrative pill mills received sentences ranging from 9 months to 14 years today in federal court.

2014, JB McMunn, M.D., Naked Capitalism, The Stealthy, Ugly Growth of Corporatized Medicine, link
Needless to say, the professional bullying from the primary care physicians (PCPs) and the [hospital] administrators to run both a pill mill and a needle jockey business was tremendous. I resisted the entire time, but god it wore me out. [From a pain specialist for a large multi-specialty group.]

(idiomatic) A clandestine operation where a medical worker illicitly offers prescription medication to patients in exchange for bribes.


Englishry

en-noun

Englishry (countable and uncountable, plural Englishries)

/ˈɪŋ(ɡ)lɪʃɹi/

/ˈɪŋ(ɡ)lɪʃɹi/

From English + -ry, in legal senses after Anglo-Norman englescherie, englecherie. Compare Late Latin Anglescheria, Englescheria (“the state of being English”).

(uncountable, law, now historical) The state or privilege of being an Englishman.


deforce

en-verb

deforce (third-person singular simple present deforces, present participle deforcing, simple past and past participle deforced)

deforces (present singular third-person)
deforcing (participle present)
deforced (participle past)
deforced (past)

(law, transitive) To withhold land unlawfully from its true owner or from any other person who has a right to the possession of it, after one has lawfully entered and taken possession of it.

(law, Scotland) To resist an officer of the law in the execution of his duty.


essoin

essoin (third-person singular simple present essoins, present participle essoining, simple past and past participle essoined)

essoins (present singular third-person)
essoining (participle present)
essoined (participle past)
essoined (past)

Inherited from Middle English essoyne, from Old French essoignier, from Medieval Latin exoniō, essoniō (“excuse oneself; accept an excuse”), from ex- + sonium + -ō, sonium being from Proto-West Germanic *sunnju (“care, need”).

der

I'll not essoin thee.

(UK, law, transitive) To excuse for failure to appear in court.


essoin

[W]ith Rejoinders and Replies, / Long Bills, and Anſvvers, ſtuft vvith Lies, / Demurr, Imparlance, and Eſſoign, / The Parties ne'er could Iſſue join: / For Sixteen Years the Cauſe vvas ſpun, / And then ſtood vvhere it firſt begun.

1726, [Jonathan Swift], Cadenus and Vanessa. A Poem, London: […] J. Roberts […], →OCLC, page 9:

(UK, law, obsolete) An excuse for not appearing in court at the return of process; the allegation of an excuse to the court.


abkari

en-noun

abkari (countable and uncountable, plural abkaris)

From Persian آبکاری (âbkâri), from آبکار (âbkâr).

(India) A revenue tax on the manufacture or sale of liquors and drugs.

आबकारी

tax on the manufacture or sale of liquors and drugs in India


issuably

to plead issuably

(law, archaic) In an issuable manner; by way of issue.


chiminage

From Old French cheminage, from chemin (“way, road”).

Chiminage ſhal not be taken but in ſuch places only wher it hath ben vſed to be. Those which beare upon their backes bruſhment, barke or cole to ſel; though it be their liuing, ſhall paie no chiminage to our foſters

1564, Statutes made and established from the Time of Kyng Henry the Thirde:

(obsolete, law) A toll paid for passage through a forest.


seizor

(law) One who seizes or takes possession.


escambio

From Latin escambium, excambium. See excamb.

(UK, law, obsolete) A licence formerly required for the making over a bill of exchange to another person overseas.


inofficious

en-adj

inofficious (comparative more inofficious, superlative most inofficious)

more inofficious (comparative)
most inofficious (superlative)

From Latin inofficiōsus. Compare French inofficieux. See in- (“not”) + officious.

the inofficious testament

an inofficious disposition of his fortune

1785, William Paley, The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy:

(obsolete, law) Contrary to one's natural obligation or duty, as of a testament by which a child is unjustly deprived of inheritance.


preaudience

From pre- + audience, i.e. the right to be heard before another.

A patent of precedence is sometimes granted cedence to barristers , which entitles them to such rank and preaudience as are assigned in their respective patents

(UK, law) Precedence of rank at the bar among lawyers.