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- A cash compensation ordered by a court to offset
losses or suffering caused by another's fault or
negligence. Damages are a typical request made of
a court when persons sue for breach of
contract or tort.
- Also known as capital
punishment, this is the most severe form of corporal
punishment as it is requires law enforcement
officers to kill the offender. Forms of the death
penalty include hanging from the neck, gassing,
firing squad and has included use of the guillotine.
- A person who owes money, goods or services to
another, the latter being referred to as the creditor.
- The act of beheading a person, usually instantly
such as with a large and heavy knife or by guillotine, as
a form of capital punishment. This form of capital
punishment is still in use in some Arab
countries, notably Saudi Arabia.
- The name given to the final and conclusive court
order after the condition of a decree nisi is met.
- A provisional decision of a court which does not
have force or effect until a certain condition is
met such as another petition brought before the
court or after the passage of a period time,
after which it is called a decree absolute.
Although no longer required in many
jurisdictions, this was the model for divorce procedures wherein a
court would issue A decree nisi, which would have
no force or effect until a period of time passed
(30 days or 6 months).
- A written and signed document which sets out the
things that have to be done or recognitions of
the parties towards a certain object. Under older
common law, a deed had to be sealed; that is,
accompanied not only by a signature but with an
impression on wax onto the document. The word
deed is also most commonly used in the context of
real estate because these transactions must
usually be signed and in writing.
- To accept a document or an event as conclusive of
a certain status in the absence of evidence or
facts which would normally be required to prove
that status. For example, in matters of child
support, a decision of a foreign court could be
"deemed" to be a decision of the court
of another for the purpose of enforcement.
- Latin: as a matter of fact; something which,
while not necessarily lawful or legally
sanctified, exists in fact. A common law spouse
may be referred to a de facto wife or de
facto husband: although not legally married,
they live and carry-on their lives as if married.
A de facto government is one which has
seized power by force or in any other
unconstitutional method and governs in spite of
the existence of a de jure government.
- 1. Defaulting on a debt or other
obligation such to account for public or trust
funds. Usually used in the context of public
officials. 2. Defalcation has another
legal meaning referring to the setting-off of two
debts owed between two people by the agreement to
a new amount representing the balance. I owe you
$7 and you owe me $3; we agree to
"defalk"; the result is that I owe you
$4. This is a type of novation.
- An attack on the good reputation of a person, by slander or libel.
- A side-contract which contains a condition which,
if realized, could defeat the main contract. The
common English usage of the word
"defeasance" has also become acceptable
in law, referring to a contract that is
susceptible to being declared void as in
"immoral contracts are susceptible to
defeasance."
- The person, company or organization who defends a
legal action taken by a plaintiff and
against whom the court has been asked to order
damages or specific corrective action redress
some type of unlawful or improper action alleged
by the plaintiff.
- French for outside. In the context of legal
proceedings, it refers to that which is
irrelevant or outside the scope of the debate.
- Latin: "of the law." The term has come
to describe a total adherence of the law. For
example, a de jure government is one which
has been created in respect of constitutional law
and is in all ways legitimate even though a de facto government may be
in control.
- Delegatus
non potest delegare
- One of the pivotal principles of administrative
law: that a delegate cannot delegate. In other
words, a person to whom an authority or
decision-making power has been delegated to from
a higher source, canot, in turn, delegate again
to another, unless the original delegation
explicitly authorized it.
- A letter from a lawyer, on behalf of a client,
that demands payment or some other action, which
is in default. Demand letters are not always
prerequisites for a legal suit but there are
exceptions such as legal action on promissory
notes or if the contract requires it.
Basically, a demand letter sets out why the
payment or action is claimed, how it should be
carried out (eg. payment in full), directions for
the reply and a deadline for the reply. Demand
letters are often used in business contexts
because they are a courtesy attempt to maintain
some goodwill between business parties and they
often prompt payment, avoiding expensive litigation. A
demand letter often contains the
"threat" that if it is not adhered to,
the next communication between the parties will
be through a court of law in the form of formal
legal action.
- A word coined by the diplomatic community and
referring to a strongly worded warning by one
country to another and often, either explicitly
or implicitly, with the threat of military
consequence. Demarches are often precursors to
hostilities or war. In September, 1996, for
example, US President Clinton issued a demarche
to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein when
intelligence reports showed troops massing along
the border of Kurd communities.
- Latin: a common law principle whereby judges will
not sit in judgement of extremely minor
transgressions of the law. It has been restated
as "the law does not concern itself with
trifles".
- This is a motion put to a trial judge after the
plaintiff has completed his or her case, in which
the defendant, while not objecting to the facts
presented, and rather than responding by a full
defence, asks the court to reject the petition
right then and there because of a lack of basis
in law or insufficiency of the evidence. This
motion has been been abolished in many states
and, instead, any such arguments are to be made
while presenting a regular defence to the
petition.
- Latin: new. This term is used to refer to a trial
which starts over, which wipes the slate clean
and begins all over again, as if any previous
partial or complete hearing had not occurred.
- The removal of a foreign national under
immigration laws for reasons such as illegal
entry or conduct dangerous to the public welfare.
The grounds for deportation varies from country
to country.
- The official statement by a witness taken in
writing (as opposed to testimony which
where a witnesses give their perception of the
facts verbally). Affidavits
are the most common kind of depositions.
- Those person who are born of, or from children
of, another are called that person's descendants.
Grandchildren are descendants of their
grandfather as children are descendants of their
natural parents. The law also distinguishes
between collateral
descendants and lineal
descendants.
- A common law action similar to conversion and
also involving the possession of property by the defendant but belonging to
the plaintiff but
in which the plaintiff
asks the court for the return of the property,
although the plaintiff
may also ask for damages for the duration of the
possession.
- Latin for "he has wasted." This is the
technical word referring to a personal
representative who has mismanaged the estate
and allowed an avoidable loss to occur. This
action opens the personal
representative to personal liability for the
loss.
- The transfer or conveyance of real property by will.
- Latin: an observation by a judge on a matter not
specifically before the court or not necessary in
determining the issue before the court; a side
opinion which does not form part of the judgment
for the purposes of stare
decisis. May also be called "obiter dictum."
- An official representative of a state, present in
another state for the purposes of general
representation of the state-of-origin or for the
purpose of specific international negotiations on
behalf of the diplomat's state-of-origin.
- A trust in which
the settlor has
given the trustee
full discretion to decide which (and when)
members of a group of beneficiaries is to receive
either the income or the capital of the trust.
- A term of maritime
law where an officer or other seaman is
either demoted in rank or deprived of a
promotion.
- To disagree. The word is used in legal circles to
refer to the minority opinion of a judge which
runs contrary to the conclusions of the majority.
- The act of ending, terminating or winding-up a
company or state of affairs. For example, when
the life of a company is ended by normal legal
means, it is said to be "dissolved".
The same is said of marriage or partnerships
which, by dissolution, ends the legal
relationship between those persons formally
joined by the marriage or partnership.
- The right of a landlord
to seize the property of a tenant which is in
the premises being rented, as collateral
against a tenant that has not paid the rent or has otherwise
defaulted on the lease, such as wanton disrepair
or destruction of the premises. A common way to
"distrain" against a tenant is by
changing locks and giving notice to the tenant. A legal
action to reclaim goods that have been distrained
is called replevin.
- A proportionate distribution of profits made in
the form of a money payment to shareholders, by a
for-profit corporation. Dividends are declared by
a company's board of directors.
- The final, legal ending of a marriage, by Court
order.
- Abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid. A
chromosome molecule which carries genetic coding
unique to each person with the only exception of
identical twins (that is why it is also called
"DNA fingerprinting"). Through
laboratory process, DNA can be extracted from
body tissue such a strand of hair, semen, blood
and matched against DNA discovered at a crime
scene or on a victim to scientifically implicate
an accused. Can also be used to match DNA between
parents in a paternity
suit.
- An official court record book which lists all the
cases before the court and which may also note
the status or action required for each case.
- A rule or principle or the law established
through the repeated application of legal
precedents.
- The permanent residence of a person; a place to
which, even if he or she were temporary absence,
they intend to return. In law, it is said that a
person may have many residences but only one
domicile.
- Used when referring to easements to
specify that property (i.e. tenement) or piece
of land that benefits from, or has the advantage
of, an easement.
- Latin: the qualified ownership of a landlord, not
having possession or use of property but
retaining ownership. Used in feudal English land
systems to describe the King's ownership of all
the land, even though most of it was lent out to
lords for their exclusive use and enjoyment.
- Latin: the property rights of a tenant. While not
owning the property in a legal sense, the tenant, as having dominion
utile, enjoys full and exclusive possession
and use of the property.
- A death-bed gift, made by a dying person, with
the intent that the person receiving the gift
shall keep the thing if death ensues. Such a gift
is exempted from the estate of the deceased as
property is automatically conveyed upon death. In
most jurisdictions, real
property cannot be transferred by these
death-bed gifts.
- Another word to describe the beneficiary of
a trust. Also used
to describe the person who is the recipient of a power of
attorney; the person who would have to
exercise the power of
attorney.
- The person who donates property to the benefit of
another, usually through the legal mechanism of a
trust. The law
books of some countries refer to the trust donor
as a "settlor."
Also used to describe the person who signs a power of
attorney.
- Latin: bring with you. Used most frequently for a
species of subpoena
(as in "subpoena
duces tecum") which seeks not so much
the appearance of a person before a court of law,
but the surrender of a thing (eg. a document or
some other evidence) by its holder, to the court,
to serve as evidence in a trial.
- A term of US law which refers to fundamental
procedural legal safeguards of which every
citizen has an absolute right when a state or
court purports to take a decision that could
affect any right of that citizen. The most basic
right protected under the due process doctrine is
the right to be given notice, and an opportunity
to be heard. The term is now also in use in other
countries, again to refer to basic fundamantal
legal rights such as the right to be heard.
- Latin: for so long as she remains chaste. Separation
agreements years ago used to contain dum casta
clauses which said that if the women were to
start another relationship, she forfeited her
entitlement to maintenance.
- Latin: for so long as she remains unmarried.
- Latin: for so long as she remains a widow.
- A house which has separate but complete
facilities to accommodate two families as either
adjacent units or one on top of the other.
- Where a person is prevented from acting (or not
acting) according to their free will, by threats
or force of another, it is said to be "under
duress". Contracts
signed under duress are voidable and, in may
places, you cannot be convicted of a crime if you
can prove that you were forced or threatened into
committing the crime (although this defence may
not be available for serious crimes).
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