manucaptor

Later in the same day, however, he was taken to the manor of Cippenham, Buckinghamshire, the property of Richard, earl of Cornwall, and there, under duress (as he later pleaded) and in the presence of John Chishall, the chancellor, he made over all his lands to eleven ‘manucaptors’, all notable royalists, as a security for the payment of his £50,000 debt.

a'''. 1279, J. R. Maddicott, Ferrers, Robert de, sixth earl of Derby (c. 1239–1279), in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004

(law, obsolete) In English common law, a person empowered to take bail and capture a person who forfeits it.


jugging

en-noun

jugging (countable and uncountable, plural juggings)

(slang, criminology) A crime where a suspect observes a customer at a bank or high-end store and then follows the customer after they leave the establishment in order to steal their money or valuables.


Good Samaritan law

Good Samaritan law (plural Good Samaritan laws)

(law) A law that exempts from legal liability a person who attempts to give reasonable aid to another person who is injured, ill, or otherwise imperiled.

It was not immediately clear what those charges could be, and Mr. Bernhardt said he did not want to speculate. He added that Pennsylvania does not have a good Samaritan law and said it would be “very difficult to bring charges against those” who witnessed the attack but did not intervene.

2021 October 17, Eduardo Medina, “As a Woman Was Raped, Train Riders Failed to Intervene, Police Say”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(law) A law that requires able persons, without putting themselves at risk, to provide reasonable aid to persons who are injured, ill, or otherwise imperiled.

loi du bon Samaritain

law that requires to provide aid to persons

obligation d'assistance à personne en danger


carnet

From French carnet (“notebook”), from Middle French quernet (“group of four sheets”).

der

If you plan to sell your car, of course, a carnet is the last thing you need: if the vehicle isn't correctly stamped in and out of each country you'll lose your deposit.

2003, Jim Hudgens et al., The Rough Guide to West Africa, →ISBN, page 20:

(law) A customs document that allows the temporary duty-free importation of a particular article


noncriminal

The police department was enjoined from conducting any surveillance of non-criminal activity of gay people, from maintaining files dealing with non-criminal activity, and from harassing the plaintiffs or other gay people in the absence of any actual criminal activity.

1978 April 8, “Gay Victory in Texas”, in Gay Community News, page 3:


LLM

(education, law) Alternative form of LL.M. (“Master of Laws”)


majorat

en-noun

majorat (countable and uncountable, plural majorats)

(law) property that descends with a title


nonexempt

(law) Subject to taxation; not within any category of income to which taxes are not applied.


appropriable

en-adj

appropriable (comparative more appropriable, superlative most appropriable)

more appropriable (comparative)
most appropriable (superlative)


RICO

w:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations

(law) Acronym of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Act).


will contest

(law) A legal action brought to dispute the validity of a will.


LLLP

(business, law) Initialism of limited liability limited partnership.


LLP

limited liability
limited liability#English

(business, law) Initialism of limited liability partnership.


employment at will

(law) A traditional principle of law, recognized in some jurisdictions, which holds that, in the absence of a contract to the contrary, an employment relationship can be terminated at any time by the employer or employee, for any reason or for no reason whatever.


plea of the crown

en-noun

plea of the crown (plural pleas of the crown)

(British law) A legal action against a criminal.


anti-lapse

(law) Of or relating to a statute that abrogates the common-law rule that if the person to whom property is willed were to die before the testator, then the gift would be ineffective.


rivage

rivage (countable and uncountable, plural rivages)

From Anglo-Norman rivage, Middle French rivage, from Late Latin rīpāticum.

(law, UK, historical) A duty paid to the crown for the passage of vessels on certain rivers.


nonuser

An office may be forfeited by mis-user or non-user.

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

The subject of the forfeiture of corporate franchises by nonuser or misuser , was fully discussed in the case of The King v . Amery

1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law:

(law) Neglect or omission to use an easement or franchise or to assert a right.


nonresident

From Middle English non-resident, nounresident, equivalent to non- + resident.

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


emptor

“The point at issue seems to be now a mere difference of opinion as to the definition of the word ‘payment’ between the vendor and emptor.[…]”

1923 April, Emeric Hulme Beaman, “A Matter of Principle”, in The Windsor Magazine, number 340, page 560:

Nolte […] is of the following opinion: As a rule, the emptor cannot waive his claim for delivery of documents and demand delivery of the discharged goods […]

1940 August, William L. Smyser, “Delivery of Possession Under Straight Bills of Lading in Germany”, in Comparative Law Series, volume 3, number 8, page 446:

This was treacherous territory for both the emptor and the vendor, made even riskier by the sheer size of the market.

2016, M. R. Griffiths, J. R. Lucas, Value Economics: The Ethical Implications of Value for New Economic Thinking, →ISBN, page 204:


slayer rule

(law) A legal doctrine that prevents a murderer from realizing any inheritance from their victim, in effect in most jurisdictions.


DCA

(law) Initialism of district court of appeal or appeals, in various jurisdictions.


Cir.

(law) Abbreviation of circuit, with respect to a circuit court.


bookman

From Middle English bocman, from Old English bōcmann (“bookman, a holder of bookland”), equivalent to book + man.

inh

(historical, Old English law) One who held bookland.


materiality

en-noun

materiality (countable and uncountable, plural materialities)

From material (adjective and noun) + -ity, perhaps modelled on Latin māteriālitās.

(law) The quality of being of consequence to a legal decision.


recoupment

recoupment (countable and uncountable, plural recoupments)

(law) A reduction of the plaintiff's damages by keeping out a part.


rogatory

en-adj

rogatory (comparative more rogatory, superlative most rogatory)

more rogatory (comparative)
most rogatory (superlative)

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

cog

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


against the law

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

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


penal notice

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


vestee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


inside job

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


misbrand

en-verb

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

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

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


misbranded

en-adj

misbranded (comparative more misbranded, superlative most misbranded)

more misbranded (comparative)
most misbranded (superlative)

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


peace bond

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

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

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

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

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

lähestymiskielto

Court order forbidding one party to bother another


juvenile delinquent

en-noun

juvenile delinquent (plural juvenile delinquents)

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

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

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


purparty

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

uder

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

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


petit jury

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

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

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

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


grand jury

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

19 December 2014, Paul M Farber in The Guardian Online, Die-ins demand that we bear witness to black people's fears that they'll be next
Though the current wave of die-ins began after grand juries in Ferguson and New York City refused to indict the cops who used lethal force against Michael Brown and Eric Garner, they tap into a deep well of what professor Salamishah Tillet calls “civic estrangement” from a state that ignores excessive police violence against black and brown people.

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

(law) The legal process that uses such a jury


rebutter

/ɹɪˈbʌtə(ɹ)/

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


in force

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


lay open

en-verb

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

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

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


retroactivity

en-noun

retroactivity (usually uncountable, plural retroactivities)

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

retroaktivita

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


surrebutter

From sur- + rebutter, on the pattern of surrejoinder

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


survival statute

survival statute (plural survival statutes)

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


surrejoinder

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

1852, Washington Irving, Tales from the Alhambra:

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


pain and suffering

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


wrongful death statute

wrongful death statute (plural wrongful death statutes)

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

estatuto de la muerte por negligencia de otro


GPL

General Public License
w:GNU General Public License

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


GPL

en-verb

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

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

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


mutual will

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


mirror will

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


will contract

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


outlawry

en-noun

outlawry (countable and uncountable, plural outlawries)

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

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

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

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

fredløshed

declaration removing someone from protection of law


residuary estate

residuary estate (plural residuary estates)

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


residuary

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


playright

playright (countable and uncountable, plural playrights)

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

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

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


elective share

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


surviving spouse

surviving spouse (plural surviving spouses)

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


Restatement

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


black-letter law

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


judgement proof

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


JR

(Hong Kong, law, informal) judicial review


accessory before the fact

accessory before the fact (plural accessories before the fact)

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


HB

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


grant-back

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


grant-forward

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


but for

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


severable

en-adj

severable (comparative more severable, superlative most severable)

more severable (comparative)
most severable (superlative)

(law, economics) Capable of being separated.


Totten trust

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

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


bailor

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


bailee

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


injunct

en-verb

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

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

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

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


pro se

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


litigant in person

en-noun

litigant in person (plural litigants in person)


natural law

natural law (countable and uncountable, plural natural laws)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


petty larceny

petty larceny (countable and uncountable, plural petty larcenies)

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


pretermitted heir

pretermitted heir (plural pretermitted heirs)

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


pretermitted child

pretermitted child (plural pretermitted children)

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


pretermitted spouse

pretermitted spouse (plural pretermitted spouses)

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


minovery

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


DWOP

without prejudice
without prejudice#English

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

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


high treason

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


undiscoverable

en-adj

undiscoverable (comparative more undiscoverable, superlative most undiscoverable)

more undiscoverable (comparative)
most undiscoverable (superlative)

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


discovery request

en-noun

discovery request (plural discovery requests)

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


request for production

request for production (plural requests for production)

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


request for admission

request for admission (plural requests for admission)

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


Romanist

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

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

(law) A scholar of Roman law and jurisprudence.


Romanist

en-adjective

Romanist (comparative more Romanist, superlative most Romanist)

more Romanist (comparative)
most Romanist (superlative)

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

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

(law) Pertaining to Roman law and jurisprudence.


deceptively misdescriptive

en-adj

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

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

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


conservatorship

en-noun

conservatorship (countable and uncountable, plural conservatorships)

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

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

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

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


conservatee

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

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


affirmance

affirmance (countable and uncountable, plural affirmances)

Either affirm + -ance or from Old French afermance

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

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

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

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

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


insurance fraud

insurance fraud (countable and uncountable, plural insurance frauds)

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

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

vakuutuspetos

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


hochepoche

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


when, as, and if

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

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

jos ja kun

conjugation indicating time and contingency


champerty

champerty (countable and uncountable, plural champerties)

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

der

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


clear title

en-noun

clear title (countable and uncountable, plural clear titles)

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


nunc pro tunc

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


affirmative defense

affirmative defense (plural affirmative defenses)

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


dolose

Borrowed from Latin dolosus; compare dolus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


JNOV

Abbreviation of judgment notwithstanding (the) verdict.

abbreviation of

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


declaratory judgment

en-noun

declaratory judgment (plural declaratory judgments)

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

viðurkenningardómur

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


as a matter of law

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


advisory opinion

advisory opinion (plural advisory opinions)

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


honorary trust

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


mineral right

Near-synonym: mines and minerals

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


MMA

MMA (countable and uncountable, plural MMAs)

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


planning permission

planning permission (countable and uncountable, plural planning permissions)

/ˈplænɪŋ pəˈmɪʃən/

/ˈplænɪŋ pɚˈmɪʃən/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

omgevingsvergunning

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


remainder trust

remainder trust (plural remainder trusts)

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


restraining order

restraining order (plural restraining orders)

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

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

限制令

order forbidding contacting and close proximity to the protected party

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

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

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

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

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


due diligence

/ˈd͡ʒʉː ˌdɪl.ɪ.d͡ʒəns/

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

盡職調查

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


cognatus

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


deposit contract

en-noun

deposit contract (plural deposit contracts)

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

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

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


arbitrability

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


advisatory

en-adj

advisatory (comparative more advisatory, superlative most advisatory)

more advisatory (comparative)
most advisatory (superlative)


arbitrable

arbitrable (comparative more arbitrable, superlative most arbitrable)

more arbitrable (comparative)
most arbitrable (superlative)

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


approver

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


evidentiary

/ˌɛvɪˈdɛnʃəɹi/

/ˌɛvɪˈdɛnʃiˌɛɹi/

Evidentiary investigations are common in legal proceedings.


amove

en-verb

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

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

(law) To dismiss from an office or station.


in rem

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

Coordinate term: in personam

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

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

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

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


ad coelum

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

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

Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos


e-right

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

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

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

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


bill of sale

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


power of appointment

en-noun

power of appointment (plural powers of appointment)

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


remitter

/ɹɪˈmɪtə(ɹ)/

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

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


chilling effect

chilling effect (plural chilling effects)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


tortious interference

tortious interference (countable and uncountable, plural tortious interferences)

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

Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
tortious interference

sopimussuhteiden häiritseminen

business relationship damage which gives rise to torts

exact concept may not exist in Finnish law

without prejudice to specific regulations concerning particular matters

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


tallage

tallage (countable and uncountable, plural tallages)

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

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

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

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


coparcener

Old French copartsonnier, see co- + parcener.

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


cy pres

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

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


executory

fee simple subject to executory interest

fee simple subject to executory limitation

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


approvement

approvement (countable and uncountable, plural approvements)

(obsolete, Old English law) Improvement of common lands by converting them for advantage of the landlord.

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

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

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


advocation

advocation (countable and uncountable, plural advocations)

From Latin advocātiō. Doublet of advowson.

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


attorney-in-fact

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

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


extinguishment

extinguishment (countable and uncountable, plural extinguishments)

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


ejectment

ejectment (countable and uncountable, plural ejectments)

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

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


jointure

/ˈdʒɔɪn.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


rescript

From Latin rescriptum (“written reply”).

rescrit

legal gloss provided by the pope without precedential force

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

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

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


forestaller

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

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

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


allonge

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

negotiable instrument
negotiable instrument

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


requirements contract

requirements contract (plural requirements contracts)

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


executorial trustee

executorial trustee (plural executorial trustees)

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


disgorgement

disgorgement (countable and uncountable, plural disgorgements)

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

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

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


Certificate of Need

Certificate of Need (plural Certificates of Need)

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


guardian ad litem

guardian ad litem (plural guardians ad litem)

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

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

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


several states

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

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

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

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

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


resident alien

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


stet docket

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


allocution

allocution (countable and uncountable, plural allocutions)

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

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

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

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

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

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


pour-over will

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


third-degree

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

At the third level of some system, particularly:

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


frankpledge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(law, historical, uncommon) The tithing itself.


interplea

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


interpleader

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

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


de bene esse

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

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


suit costs

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


precedentially

/ˌpɹɛsəˈdɛnʃəli/

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


conclusory

en-adj

conclusory (comparative more conclusory, superlative most conclusory)

more conclusory (comparative)
most conclusory (superlative)

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

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


prestation

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

der

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

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


relator

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


litigable

en-adj

litigable (comparative more litigable, superlative most litigable)

more litigable (comparative)
most litigable (superlative)

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

(law) Able or likely to be successfully litigated


heads of agreement

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

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

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


Newton hearing

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

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


zealous witness

en-noun

zealous witness (plural zealous witnesses)

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


spiller

From Middle English spiller, from spill + -er.

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


resulting trust

resulting trust (plural resulting trusts)

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


jus gentium

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(law) The law of nations; international law.


trier of fact

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


nonsuit

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

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


nonsuit

en-verb

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

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

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

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

he shall be nonsuited , and pay cost to the defendant

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

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


reddendo

en-noun

reddendo (plural reddendos or reddendoes)

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


corollary relief

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


talis qualis

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

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


romanette

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

affix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


ground rent

en-noun

ground rent (countable and uncountable, plural ground rents)

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

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

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

retributie

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

(law, Pennsylvania, Maryland) Rentcharge.


cognosce

en-verb

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

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

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


allocute

allocute (third-person singular simple present allocutes, present participle allocuting, simple past and past participle allocuted)

allocutes (present singular third-person)
allocuting (participle present)
allocuted (participle past)
allocuted (past)

Ms. Collotta had to be steadied several times by her lawyers as she allocuted to the facts on the Macromedia deal and admitted to taking part in a larger conspiracy.

2007 May 11, Mark Hamblett, "Attorney Couple Plead Guilty to Insider Trading," New York Law Journal (retrieved from law.com, 10 May 2008)

(chiefly US, law) To make an allocution.


recordation

en-noun

recordation (countable and uncountable, plural recordations)

/ˌɹɛkəɹˈdeɪʃən/

/ˌɹikɔɹˈdeɪʃən/

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

uder

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

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


inlaw

en-verb

inlaw (third-person singular simple present inlaws, present participle inlawing, simple past and past participle inlawed)

inlaws (present singular third-person)
inlawing (participle present)
inlawed (participle past)
inlawed (past)

From Middle English inlawen, inlaghen, from Old English inlagian, ġeinlagian (“to restore to the protection of the law, inlaw”), equivalent to in- + law.

The king, indignant that an attempt should be made to exempt the vast ecclesiastical lands from taxation at a time of national crisis, sequestrated the estates of the see of Canterbury, and copied John’s conduct in 1208 by outlawing the whole body of the clergy. Winchelsea in return excommunicated all those who refused to recognize the authority of the pope’s bull... Harassed by these domestic troubles, the king could not carry out his intention of sailing for Flanders in the spring, and spent the greater part of the campaigning season in wrangles with his subjects. He was obliged to come to a compromise. If the clergy would give him a voluntary gift, which was in no way to be considered a tax, he agreed to inlaw them.

1911, Charles William Chadwick Oman, "English History", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. IX, p. 497

(UK, law, historical, transitive) To clear of outlawry or attainder, to return to the protection of the law


contract of sale

en-noun

contract of sale (plural contracts of sale)

(law) A contract that involves an exchange of goods, services or property to be exchanged from seller (or vendor) to buyer (or purchaser) for an agreed upon value in money (or money equivalent) paid or the promise to pay same.


employment contract

employment contract (plural employment contracts)

(law, business, human resources) A category of contract used in labor law to attribute right and responsibilities between parties to a bargain.


statute of limitations

statute of limitations (plural statutes of limitations)

(law) A law passed by a legislative body that sets a maximum time limit after an incident, in which legal proceedings may be initiated.

消滅時效

law that sets a time limit after some legal action may not take place — see also prescription


homologation

homologation (countable and uncountable, plural homologations)


man on the Clapham omnibus

man on the Clapham omnibus (plural (rare) men on the Clapham omnibus)

men on the Clapham omnibus (plural rare)

First put to legal use in a reported judgement by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in the 1903 English Court of Appeal libel case, McQuire v. Western Morning News, who attributed it to Lord Bowen.

(UK, law) Any hypothetical reasonable person used by the Courts in considering questions of reasonableness; an everyman.


advowson

From Middle English avowson, from Anglo-Norman avouson, from Latin advocātiō. Doublet of advocation.

The advowson of the parsonages of Sempringham and Tirington, being the right of his father, he [St. Gilbert] was presented by him [his father] to those united livings, in 1123.

1866, Rev. Alban Butler, chapter IV, in The Lives of the Saints, volume II (February):

Advowson is the right to appoint the incumbent clergy of a parish, so three advowsons meant three incumbents.

2017, Ben Aaronovitch, The Furthest Station, Gollancz, page 88:

(UK, ecclesiastical law) The right to present a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church office.


counterparty

(finance, insurance, law) The other party to a financial transaction.


country of origin

country of origin (plural countries of origin)

(law) The country in which a person or thing is deemed to have originated for the purposes of laws and regulations.


corpus delicti

From New Latin corpus dēlictī (literally “body of the crime”).

bor

(law) The evidence that a crime has occurred.


clawback

en-noun

clawback (countable and uncountable, plural clawbacks)

Deverbal from claw back. In the financial senses, refers to something being "clawed back", or reclaimed; in the sense of a flatterer, it suggests the idea of a person's back being scratched (see scratch someone's back).

(US law of evidence) A rule that permits a party to take back evidentiary materials that were mistakenly turned over to the other party but to which the other party would not have been entitled.

(US taxation law) Money that a party is entitled to keep under one tax provision but is taken by another tax provision.


semisweet chocolate

semisweet chocolate (countable and uncountable, plural semisweet chocolates)

clause (a) (3):
Semisweet chocolate or bittersweet chocolate is sweet chocolate that contains not less than 35 percent by weight of chocolate liquor complying with the requirements of Sec. 163.111 and calculated in the same manner as set forth in paragraph (a)(2) of this section.
clause (c), in part:
The name of the food is “sweet chocolate”, “sweet chocolate coating”, “semisweet chocolate”, “semisweet chocolate coating”, “bittersweet chocolate”, or “bittersweet chocolate coating”, as appropriate.

a. 1998, United States Code of Federal Regulations revised as of April 1, 1998, Title 21, Volume 2 and Chapter I, Part 163, Section 123 (21CFR163.123)

standards of identity
standard of identity

(uncountable, US law, standards of identity) See quotation.


duces tecum

Learned borrowing from Latin duces tecum, from duces (“you will lead, you will guide”) + tecum (“with you”).


subpoena duces tecum

en-noun

subpoena duces tecum (plural subpoenas duces tecum)

(law) A writ requiring someone to appear in court to give testimony, and to bring something (usually documents) to accompany that testimony.


rap sheet

From RAP (“record of arrest and prosecution”) + sheet.

af

Three counts of breaking and entering, four counts of assault, seven misdemeanors for carrying illegal substances, and a partridge in a pear tree,” Paul finished with a smirk, handing the rap sheet to Mason.

Seeking a new approach, he applied for an editor position at the Earth First! Journal, an environmental newsletter in Eugene, Ore. His application included a copy of his rap sheet; he was hired immediately.

2022 May 26, Matthew Wolfe, “The Rise and Fall of America’s Environmentalist Underground”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, law, criminology) A printed police record of an individual's citations, arrests, convictions, and incarcerations, usually in a single jurisdiction.


adiate

en-verb

adiate (third-person singular simple present adiates, present participle adiating, simple past and past participle adiated)

adiates (present singular third-person)
adiating (participle present)
adiated (participle past)
adiated (past)

Coined in the mid-19th century. Latin adīre + -ate, cf Dutch adiëren.

If he adiates, the adiation should take place unconditionally and without limitation of time.

1844, Hercules Tennant, The Notary's Manual: Containing: Instructions for the Notaries at the Cape of Good Hope:

(South Africa, law) To receive an inheritance.


appealable

en-adj

appealable (comparative more appealable, superlative most appealable)

more appealable (comparative)
most appealable (superlative)

(law, of a verdict etc.) That may be appealed, or sent to a higher court for judgement.


demurrer to evidence

en-noun

demurrer to evidence (plural demurrers to evidence)

(law) A stop or pause by a party to an action in order to ask the court to determine the question of whether the evidence as it stands ought to be admitted, based on the law of admissibility of evidence.


M.D.

(law) Middle District, used in case citations to identify courts, particularly United States Federal courts designated to cover the central part of a multi-district state.


mesne

From Anglo-Norman mesne, a variant of moien. Doublet of mean.

a mesne lord

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

1767, William Blackstone, “The Rights of Things”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, volume 2, page 60:


mesne

Lord, mesne, and tenant; the tenant holdeth by four pence, and the mesne by twelve pence.

1628, Sir Edward Coke, Sir Thomas Littleton, Francis Hargrave, Charles Butler, Sir Matthew Hale, Heneage Finch Earl of Nottingham, The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, Or, A Commentary Upon Littleton, 16th edition, volume 1, L. Hansard & Sons,, published 1809, page 20:


special damages

(law) Damages that can be quantified precisely, including such things as plaintiff's medical expenses, lost wages, and similar out-of-pocket costs (as contrasted with general damages, such as pain and suffering, which must be estimated).


lost wages

(law) Income that a plaintiff in a lawsuit would have received but for the actions of the defendant, and for which the defendant is therefore liable.


distraint

distraint (countable and uncountable, plural distraints)

From distrain, on the model of such pairs as constrain, constraint and restrain, restraint.

(law) The legal right of a landlord to seize the property of a tenant in the event of nonpayment of rent.


preceptive

en-adj

preceptive (comparative more preceptive, superlative most preceptive)

more preceptive (comparative)
most preceptive (superlative)

If it was necessary, that Christ as our surety should suffer the penalty of the law in our stead, because we have sinned; then it was also necessary that as our Surety, he should yield obedience to the preceptive part of the law also;

1677, John Owen, The Doctrine of Justification by Faith:

(law) Of, pertaining to, or based on precepts


querele

(law, obsolete) A complaint to a court in Old English law.


querela

From Latin querēla (“complaint, grievance”).


warrantless search

en-noun

warrantless search (plural warrantless searches)

(US, law) A search of someone's body or property conducted by law enforcement personnel without the issuance of a search warrant.


fruit of the poisonous tree

fruit of the poisonous tree (plural fruits of the poisonous tree)

(US, law, idiomatic) Evidence that has been obtained as the result of an illegal act on the part of law enforcement personnel (such as an unlawful warrantless search, or continued questioning of a witness who has invoked the right of counsel), and which is therefore excluded from being admitted as evidence in a trial.


right of counsel

(US, law) The right of a person accused of a crime to consult with an attorney before speaking with police.


nuncupate

en-verb

nuncupate (third-person singular simple present nuncupates, present participle nuncupating, simple past and past participle nuncupated)

nuncupates (present singular third-person)
nuncupating (participle present)
nuncupated (participle past)
nuncupated (past)

Borrowed from Latin nuncupātus, past participle of nuncupō (“pronounce, name as heir”), contraction of nōmen (“name”) and capiō (“take, seize”).

(transitive, law) To declare, usually of a will, by word of mouth only.


REIT

real estate investment trust
w:real estate investment trust

(law) Acronym of real estate investment trust, an investment device where the holding company uses the funds invested to hold real estate.


sandbagging

en-noun

sandbagging (countable and uncountable, plural sandbaggings)

“Sandbagging” in the M&A legal context refers to the right of the buyer to seek indemnification for a breach of a seller’s reps and warranties even though the buyer had knowledge of the misrepresentation on which it is basing its claim prior to the closing date. U.S. case law on sandbagging varies widely across jurisdictions and is subject to change over time.

2017, Stephen M. Bainbridge, Mergers and Acquisitions: A Transactional Perspective, St. Paul, MN: Foundation Press, →ISBN, page 346:

In the United States, sandbagging is a matter of state law, and the state laws are inconsistent on the matter.

2023, Robin A. Boyle-Laisure, Teaching Contract Drafting, page 55:

(law, M&A) The act of bringing a claim for breach of a covenant or misrepresentation even though the person bringing the claim knew about the issue before closing the transaction and did it anyway.


circuit court

(law) A court that sits at more than one location in the district that it serves.


commutate

en-verb

commutate (third-person singular simple present commutates, present participle commutating, simple past and past participle commutated)

commutates (present singular third-person)
commutating (participle present)
commutated (participle past)
commutated (past)

Back-formation from commutation (in the late 19th century), as is commutator (noun) too.

Specifically, the seminary was challenged by industrial millers who petitioned to build steam-powered mills and by large Montreal property holders who demanded that the crown commutate their lands.

1986, Brian J. Young, In Its Corporate Capacity: The Seminary of Montreal as a Business Institution 1816-1876., →ISBN, page 52:

(transitive, law) To remove or reduce the legal obligations or restrictions on


quoad hunc

(law) With reference to the non-consummation of a marriage


uncopyrightability

(copyright law) The condition of being uncopyrightable.


Rand formula

From Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ivan C. Rand (1884–1969), who developed the formula in 1946.

collective agreement
collective agreement

(Canada, law) The principle, widely recognized in Canadian law and in collective agreements, that all employees of a unionized workplace must pay dues to the labor union, whether they choose to be members of the union or not.


right to choose

Strict abortion laws have been attacked in the courts, on the grounds that they violate a woman's fundamental right to choose whether or not to bear children.

1969 November 12, “Significant Step Taken on Abortion”, in St. Petersburg Times (Washington Post Service), retrieved 2009-03-22, page 7D:

(public policy, law, ethics) The moral or legal entitlement of a pregnant woman to make the full and final decision either to give birth to her child or to abort the fetus.

(public policy, law, ethics) The entitlement of a person to make the decision to end their own life through euthanasia.


right to life

(public policy, law, ethics) The right of a human being to the continuation of his or her life.

Texas Right to Life, a statewide, anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia organization, was organized last summer. Right to Life groups in Dallas and Houston have been active for some time.

1974-03, Martha Hume, "Abortions in Texas", Texas Monthly, page 65

That means women should have the right to be free about their own bodies. I believe a woman has a right to life. The opposition is an anti-freedom group, rather than, as they have very effectively called themselves, a right-to-life group.

1987-06, Dale Keiger, "The Quiet Minority", Cincinnati Magazine, page 68

(US, public policy, law, ethics) The moral or legal entitlement of an unborn child to be born, and not have its birth prevented through an abortion or other medical procedure.


avizandum

en-noun

avizandum (countable and uncountable, plural avizandums)

From Late Latin avizō (“consider”), from Latin a + vīsō (“look carefully”).

The judge made avizandum with the cause.

(law) time for a judge to consider a case and reach a decision.


ab intra

/ˌæb ˈɪn.tɹə/

Borrowed from New Latin ab intrā (“from within”).

We need to get information ab intra to win this case.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press


ab extra

First attested in the mid 17th century. Learned borrowing from Latin ab extra (literally “from outside”) From Late Latin ab (“from”) extra (“outside”).

learned borrowing

Sometimes I wonder if this country is being controlled ab extra.


traverse

From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).

(law) A formal denial of some matter of fact alleged by the opposite party in any stage of the pleadings. The technical words introducing a traverse are absque hoc ("without this", i.e. without what follows).


traverse

en-verb

traverse (third-person singular simple present traverses, present participle traversing, simple past and past participle traversed)

traverses (present singular third-person)
traversing (participle present)
traversed (participle past)
traversed (past)

Without their coſt, you terminate the cauſe; / And ſave th' expence of long litigious laws: / Where ſuits are travers'd; and ſo little won, / That he who conquers, is but laſt undone: […]

a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “Epistle the Thirteenth. To My Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden, of Chesterton, in the County of Huntingdon, Esq”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 186:


PHOSITA

person having ordinary skill in the art#English

(patent law) Abbreviation of person having ordinary skill in the art.


usufruct

From Late Latin ūsufrūctus, from ūsus + frūctus (“usage of the fruits of production”). Cognate with French usufruit, Italian usufrutto, usofrutto, Occitan usufrug, Portuguese usufruto, Spanish usufructo.

We ought to obſerve, that Uſufruct or Uſe for the Profits, and other ſort of Servitudes are the Rights which we enjoy gratuitouſly: For if we pay an Annual Rent, 'twill be then a kind of Letting or Hiring.

1729, [Samuel von Pufendorf], “Of Right over Other Mens Goods or Possessions”, in Basil Kennett, transl., Of the Law of Nature and Nations. Eight Books. Written in Latin by the Baron Pufendorf, Counsellor of State to His Late Swedish Majesty, and to the Late King of Prussia. …, 4th corr. edition, London: Printed for J. Walthoe, R. Wilkin, J. and J. Bonwicke, S. Birt, T. Ward, and T[homas] Osborne, →OCLC, page 407, § VII, footnote 1:

[T]eaching the Koran is not property; neither does usufruct constitute property (according to the sentiments of our doctors), because that is not substantial or permanent, whereas property is a thing of a permanent nature, and what constitutes actual wealth; […]

1870, [Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani], Standish Grove Grady, “Of the Mihr, or Dower”, in Charles Hamilton, transl., The Hedaya, or Guide: A Commentary on the Mussulman Laws, 2nd edition, volume I, London: W[illia]m H. Allen & Co., 13 Waterloo Place, S.W., →OCLC, book II (Of Nikkah, or Marriage), page 47, column 2:

In that old former time this one was Chang, that one was Eng. The sympathy existing between the two was most extraordinary; it was so fine, so strong, so subtle, that what the one ate the other digested; when one slept, the other snored; if one sold a thing, the other scooped the usufruct.

1888 November, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Dinner to Hamilton W[right] Mabie”, in Mark Twain’s Speeches, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, published 1910, →OCLC:

Every American college president, it appears, is in duty bound to write and utter at least one book upon the nature, aims and usufructs of the Higher Education.

1931 September, H[enry] L[ouis] Mencken, “The Boon of Culture”, in The American Mercury, Torrance, Calif.: American Mercury, ISSN 0002-998X, →OCLC, page 36; reprinted in H. L. Mencken, editor, A Mencken Chrestomathy: Edited and Annotated by the Author, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, May 1982, part XVII (Pedagogy), page 313

International law recognizes a use right that is akin to the civil law usufruct or the common law life estate, lease, or profit. Like other property rights, such a usufruct may be characterized as an entitlement of a person that is related to an immovable or movable thing. It differs from ownership in certain respects. First, although the holder is entitled to the exclusive possession and use of the thing, and to all fruits it produces, he or she may not cause damage to the thing itself. Second, the duration of a usufruct may be limited in time, unlike ownership which is usually viewed as perpetual. Finally, the rights of the usufruct holder are effective against both the owner and the world in general.

2014, John G. Sprankling, “An International Definition of ‘Property’”, in The International Law of Property, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

(law) The legal right to use and derive profit or benefit from property that belongs to another person, as long as the property is not damaged.


usufruct

usufruct (third-person singular simple present usufructs, present participle usufructing, simple past and past participle usufructed)

usufructs (present singular third-person)
usufructing (participle present)
usufructed (participle past)
usufructed (past)

An enabling myth is just that—a myth that enables those who benefit from the status quo to keep on benefiting. Thorstein Veblen would say that it enabled the usufructuaries to keep on usufructing.

1992, William M. Dugger, “Three Modes of Income Distribution”, in Underground Economics: A Decade of Institutionalist Dissent (Institutional Economics Series), Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, →ISBN, page 315:

The use of the property of an orphan by a guardian who carries out his guardianship, is allowed for the latter's daily subsistence. Such use should be just and reasonable. […] According to al-Sha'bá, such just and reasonable use is like usufructing the milk of cattle, having services from servants and riding animals or vehicles, as long as such usufruction does not impair or damage the property itself.

1994, Abdullah Alwi Haji Hassan, “Loans, Deposit and al-Ḥajr”, in Sales and Contracts in Early Islamic Commercial Law, Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University, (Islamic Research Institute, Islamabad; no. 92), →OCLC; republished Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia: The Other Press, 2007, page 199

The El Ferrocarril newspaper on May 26, 1889 worried that foreign capital had transformed the nitrate region into "a kind of English India, usufructed [i.e. deriving profit from land which is not theirs] by a multitude of limited companies organized outside Chile, without any national interest, whose directors can easily come to understandings on monopolies of production and consumption, leaving the nation with a sovereignty more nominal than real" (author's translation).

2011, William Edmundson, The Nitrate King: A Biography of “Colonel” John Thomas North (Studies of the Americas), New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN:

So they got together for a big meeting someplace and started an organization that would protect bullies from people who would not allow them to usufruct with impunity.

2012, Frederic Voss, “The Origins of Usufruct”, in The Newshawk Reports: The Writings of a Politically Incorrect Newsbird, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 257:

[Lucio] Gutiérrez was sold to public opinion as an ally of the popular sectors, with the promise of putting an end to the oligarchic elites who had usufructed and seized the Ecuadorian state. The truth is that, once in power, Gutiérrez broke the pact with the indigenous sector; three years later, in April 2005, he was deposed from government.

2016, Octavio Humberto Moreno Velador, “The National-Popular Alternative and the Processes of Democratization from Below in the Andean Nations”, in Emelio Betances, Carlos Figueroa Ibarra, editors, Popular Sovereignty and Constituent Power in Latin America: Democracy from Below, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →DOI, →ISBN, page 54:

(law, also figuratively) To use and derive profit or benefit from property that belongs to another person.

usufructuar

to use and derive profit or benefit from property that belongs to another person


service mark

(law) A trademark denoting the source of a service rather than a product.


base rent

en-noun

base rent (countable and uncountable, plural base rents)

(law) The amount of rent assessed before inclusion of additional expenses or other factors that increase the amount of rent to be paid.

perusvuokra

Rent paid before inclusion of other factors


legally binding

en-adj

legally binding (comparative more legally binding, superlative most legally binding)

more legally binding (comparative)
most legally binding (superlative)

A contract is a legally binding agreement.


nonapplication

(law) The failure to apply an existing law, rule, regulation etc.


hereditament

From mediaeval Latin hērēditāmentum, from late Latin hērēditō (“to inherit”), from hērēs (“heir”).

The captain […] had been greatly enamoured; that is to say, of Mr Allworthy's house and gardens, and of his lands, tenements, and hereditaments[…].

1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1979, page 25:

And be it further ordained and enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That […] the Domains, Lands, Reservations, Buildings, Messuages, Tenements, and Hereditaments within the said several Fiefs and Seigniories now held and possessed by them as Proprietors thereof, […] shall be and they are hereby confirmed and declared good, valid, and effectual in the Law […].

1840 June 8, C[harles] Poulett Thomson, “An Ordinance to incorporate the Ecclesiastics of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice of Montreal[No. 164 of 1840]”, in Copy of Ordinances Passed by the Governor and Special Council of Lower Canada, in the Third and Fourth Years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (Accounts and Papers. United Kingdom. Parliament. House of Commons; 1841, session 1), volume XV, published 3 February 1841, →OCLC, pages 151–152:


AWDWWITK

(law, US) Initialism of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.


GBI

(law) Initialism of great bodily injury. This term is American criminal justice jargon.


coparcenary

en-noun

coparcenary (countable and uncountable, plural coparcenaries)

From co- + parcenary (from the Old French parçonerie).

(law) Joint inheritance or ownership of property.

сона́следство

joint inheritance or ownership of property


mittimus

From Latin mittimus (the opening word of such a document), first-person plural of mittō (“send”).

Away George, away, raise the watch at Ludgate, and bring a Mittimus from the Iustice for this desperate villaine.

1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, […], published 1613, →OCLC, Act III, signature F2, verso:

But she pertinaciously refused to make any response. So that he was about to make her mittimus to Bridewell when I departed.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter X, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV:

(law, archaic outside the US) A warrant issued for someone to be taken into custody.


personal property

personal property (countable and uncountable, plural personal properties)

(law) Any property that is movable, that is, not real estate.