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- A right of passage over a neighbor's land or
waterway. An easement is a type of servitude. For
every easement, there is a dominant
and a servient
tenement. Easements are also classified as
negative (which prevents the servient land owner
from doing certain things) or affirmative
easements (the most common, which allows the
beneficiary of the easement to do certain things,
such as a right-of-way). Although right-of-ways
are the most common easements, there are many
others such as rights to tunnel under another's
land, to use a washroom, to emit smoke or fumes,
to pass over with transmission towers, to access
a dock and to access a well.
- Synonymous to canon
law: the body of church-made law which binds
only those persons which recognize it, usually
only church officers, and based on aged precepts
of canon law.
- Term used to describe the act of freeing a person
who was under the legal authority of another
(such as a child before the age of majority) from
that control (such as child reaching the age of
majority). The term was also used when slavery
was legal to describe a former slave that had
bought or been given freedom from his or her
master. When Abraham Lincoln outlawed slavery he
did so in a law called the "emancipation
proclamation".
- This is an act of international military
aggression where an order is made prohibiting
ships or goods from leaving a certain port, city
or territory and may be enforced by military
threat of destroying any vehicle that attempts to
break it or by trade penalties. The word has also
come to refer to a legal prohibition of trade
with a certain nation or a prohibition towards
the use of goods or services produced by or
within a certain nation.
- The illegal transfer of money or property that,
although possessed legally by the embezzler, is
diverted to the embezzler personally by his or
her fraudulent action. For example, an employee
would embezzle money from the employer or a
public officer could embezzle money received
during the course of their public duties and
secretly convert it to their personal use.
- USA: The legal power to expropriate
private land for the sake of public necessity.
- A legal word which refers to all wages, benefits
or other benefit received as compensation for
holding some office or employment.
- Civil law: a long-term (many years or in
perpetuity) rental of land or buildings including
the exclusive enjoyment of all product of that
land and the exercise of all property rights
typically reserved for the property owner such as
mortgaging the property for the term of the
emphyteusis or permitting a right of way.
- Latin for "purchase" or the contract in
which something is bought.
- A law or a statute;
a document which is published as an enforceable
set of written rules is said to be
"enacted".
- Something written on the back of a document. An
alternate spelling, in some English
jurisdictions, is "indorsement." In the
laws of bills
of exchange, an endorsement is a signature on
the back of the bill of
exchange by which the person to whom the note
is payable transfers it by thus making the note
payable to the bearer or to a specific person. An
endorsement of claim means that if you want to
ask a court to issue a writ
against someone, you have to "endorse"
your writ with a
concise summary of the facts supporting the
claim, sometimes called a statement of claim.
- The transfer of money or property (usually as a
gift) to a public organization for a specific
purpose, such as medical research or
scholarships.
- The inducement, by law enforcement officers or
their agents, of another person to commit a crime
for the purposes of bringing charges for the
commission of that artificially-provoked crime.
This technique, because it involves abetting the
commission of a crime, which is itself a crime,
is severely curtailed under the constitutional
law of many states.
- A branch of English law which developed hundreds
of years ago when litigants would go to the King
and complain of harsh or inflexible rules of common law which
prevented "justice" from prevailing.
For example, strict common
law rules would not recognize unjust enrichment,
which was a legal relief developed by the equity
courts. The typical Court of Equity decision
would prevent a person from enforcing a common
law court judgment. The kings delegated this
special judicial review power over common law court
rulings to chancellors. A new branch of law
developed known as "equity", with their
decisions eventually gaining precedence over
those of the common
law courts. A whole set of equity law
principles were developed based on the
predominant "fairness" characteristic
of equity such as "equity will not suffer a
wrong to be without a remedy" or "he
who comes to equity must come with clean
hands". Many legal rules, in countries that
originated with English law, have equity-based
law such as the law of trusts and mortgages.
- Where property is returned to the government upon
the death of the owner, because there is nobody
to inherit the property. Escheat is based on the
Latin principle of dominion
directum as was often used in the feudal system
when a tenant
died without hiers or if the tenant was convicted
of a felony.
- When the performance of something is outstanding
and a third party holds onto money or a written
document (such as shares or a deed) until a
certain condition is met between the two
contracting parties.
- A term used by the law to decribe that part of
the law which regulates wills, probate and other
subjects related to the distribution of a
deceased person's "estate".
- A rule of law that when person A, by act or
words, gives person B reason to believe a certain
set of facts upon which person B takes action,
person A cannot later, to his (or her) benefit,
deny those facts or say that his (or her) earlier
act was improper. A 1891 English court decision
summarized estoppel as "a rule of evidence
which precludes a person from denying the truth
of some statement previously made by
himself".
- The putting to death, by painless method, of a
terminally-ill or severely debilitated person
through the omission (intentionally withholding a
life-saving medical procedure, also known as
"passive euthanasia") or commission of
an act ("active euthanasia'). See also living will.
- Proof of fact(s) presented at a trial. The best
and most common method is by oral testimony;
where you have an eye-witness swear to tell the
truth and to then relate to the court (or jury)
their experience. Evidence is essential in
convincing the judge or jury of your facts as the
judge (or jury) is expected to start off with a
blank slate; no preconceived idea or knowledge of
the facts. So it is up to the opposing parties to
prove (by providing evidence), to the
satisfaction of the court (or jury), the facts
needed to support their case. Besides oral
testimony, an object can be deposited with the
court (eg. a signed contract). This is sometimes
called "real evidence." In other rarer
cases, evidence can be circumstantial.
- Latin for "in justice and fairness."
Something to be decided ex aequo et bono
is something that is to be decided by principles
of what is fair and just. Most legal cases are
decided on the strict rule of law. For example, a
contract will be normally upheld and enforced by
the legal system no matter how "unfair"
it may prove to be. But a case to be decided ex
aequo et bono, overrides the strict rule of
law and requires instead a decision based on what
is fair and just given the circumstances.
- The questioning of your own witness under oath.
Witnesses are introduced to a trial by their
examination-in-chief, which is when they answer
questions asked by the lawyer representing the
party which called them to the stand. After their
examination-in-chief, the other party's lawyer
can question them too; this is called "cross-examination".
- Something that excuses or justifies a wrong
action.
- A person specifically appointed by a testator to
administer the will
ensuring that final wishes are respected (i.e.
that the will is properly "executed").
An executor is a personal
representative.
- A document or object shown to the court as
evidence in a trial. They are each given a number
or letter by the court clerk as they are
introduced for future reference during the trial.
For example, weapon are frequently given as
exhibits in criminal trials. Except with special
permission of the court, exhibits are locked up
in court custody until the trial is over.
- Latin: for one party only. Ex parte refers
to those proceedings where one of the parties has
not received notice and, therefore, is neither
present nor represented. If a person received
notice of a hearing and chose not to attend, then
the hearing would not be called ex parte.
Some jurisdictions expand the definition to
include any proceeding that goes undefended, even
though proper notice has been given.
- A person who has abandoned his or her country of
origin and citizenship and has become a subject
or citizen of another country.
- Latin: after the fact. Legislation is called ex
post facto if the law attempts to extend
backwards in time and punish acts committed
before the date of the law's approval. Such laws
are constitutionally prohibited in most modern
democracies. For example, the USA Constitution
prohibits "any ex post facto
law".
- Canada: the forced sale of land to a public
authority. Synonymous to the USA doctrine of
"eminent domain".
- A trust which is
clearly created by the settlor, usually in
the form of a document (eg. a will), although they
can be oral. They are to be contrasted with trusts which come to
being through the operation of the law and which
do not result from the clear intent or decision
of any settlor
to create a trust
(eg. constructive
trust).
- To physically erase; to white or strike out. To
"expunge" something from a court record
means to remove every reference to it from the
court file.
- An abbreviation of "ex relatione",
Latin for "on the relation of." Refers
to information or action taken that is not based
on first-hand experience but is based on the
statement or account of another person. For
example, a criminal charge "ex rel"
simply means that the attorney general of a state
is prosecuting on the basis of a statement of a
person other than the attorney general himself
(or herself.)
- Forcing a person to give up property in a thing
through the use of violence, fear or under
pretense of authority.
- The arrest and delivery of a fugitive wanted
for a crime committed in another country, usually
under the terms of a extradition treaty.
- Ex turpi causa
non oritur actio
- Latin: "Of an illegal cause there can be no
lawsuit." In other words, if one is engaged
in illegal activity, one cannot sue another for
damages that arose out of that illegal activity.
A example is an injury suffered by a passenger in
a stolen car, which that passenger knew to be
stolen and was a free participant in the
joyriding. If vehicle crashes injuring the
passenger, there is no action in tort against the
driver under the ex turpi causa non oritur
actio principle.
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