contracts. An instrument or writing made by creditors to their insolvent debtor, by which they bind themselves to allow him a longer time than he had ...
War. A commission granted by the government to a private individual, to take the property of a foreign state, or of the citizens or subjects of such s...
missive, Engl. law. After a bill has been filed against a peer or peeress, or lord of parliament, a petition is presented to the lord chancellor for h...
A written document addressed by the executive of one government to the executive of another, informing the latter that a minister sent by the former t...
com. law. An instrument given by one person to another, addressed to a third, in which the bearer is represented as worthy of credit. 1 Bell s Com. 37...
A document delivered to a minister, by the secretary of state of the government to which he was accredited. It is addressed to the executive of the mi...
Engl. law. Close letters are grants, of the king, and being of private concern, they are thus distinguished from letters patent....
practice. In default of the representatives and creditors to administer to the estate of an intestate, the officer entitled to grant letters of admini...
The name of an instrument granted by the government to convey a right to the patentee; as, a patent for a tract of land; or to secure to him a right w...
s his own jurisdiction in favor of a court of appeal immediately superior to it.2. Letters of request, in general, lie only where an appeal would lie,...
A letter rogatory is an instrument sent in the name and by the authority of a judge or court to another, requesting the latter to cause to be examined...
y the probate court of the district in which there shall be estate to administer; and the administration first legally granted, shall extend to all th...
This French phrase, which ought perhaps more properly to be couchant et levant, signifies literally rising and lying down. In law, it denotes that spa...
Eng. law. A writ of execution against the goods and chattels of a clerk. Also the writ of execvtion on a judgment at the suit of the crown. When issue...
Those degrees ofkindred set forthin the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus, within which persons are prohibited to marry. Vide Branch; Descent; Line....
practice. A seizure (q. v.) the raising of the money for which an execution has been issued.2. ln order to make a valid levy on personal property, the...
The law. A law for the government of mankind in society. Among the ancient Romans, this word was frequently used as synonymous with right, jus. When p...
civ. law. The name of a law which permitted a testator to dispose of three-fourtbs of his property, but he could not deprive his heir of the other fou...
practice. The law of the court or forum.2. The forms of remedies, the modes of proceeding, and the execution of judgments, are to be regulated solely ...
contracts. The law of the place where an agreement is made.2. Generally, the validity of a contract is to be decided by the law of the place where, th...
The name of an ancient code in force among the Lombards. It contains many evident traces of feudal policy. It survived the destruction of the ancient ...
That system of laws which is adopted by all commercial nations, and which, therefore, constitutes a part of the law of the land. Vide Law Merchant....
in the law of Moses, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, &c.2. Jurists and writers on international law are divided as to the right of one nation ...
The law of the land. The phrase is used to distinguisb this from the civil or Roman law.2. By lex terrae, as used in Magna Charta, is meant one proces...
This word is old French, a corruption of loi, and signifies law; for example, Termes de la Ley, Terms of the Law. In another, and an old technical sen...
Wager of Law. (q. v.)...
Responsibility; the state of one who is bound in law and justice to do sometbing which may be enforced by action. This liability may arise from contra...
practice. A libel has been defined to be "the plaintiff s petition or allegation, made and exhibited in a judicial process, with some solemnity of law...
ding to blacken the memory of one who is dead, with intent to provoke the living; or the reputation of one who is alive, and to expose him to public h...
A term used in Scotland to designate the instrument which contains the charge against a person accused of a crime. Libels are of two kinds, namely, in...
The party who fires a libel in a chancery or admiralty case, correspondes to the plaintiff in actions in the common law courts, is called the libellan...
A party against whom a libel has been filed in chancery proceedings, or in admiralty, corresponding to the defendant in a common law suit....
A book; a principal subdivision of a literary work: thus, the Pandects, or Digest of the Civil Law, is divided into fifty books....
The book of assizes, or pleas of the crown; being the fifth part of the Year Books. (q. v.)...
A code of the feudal law, which was compiled by direction of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and published in Milan, in 1170. It was called the Libe...
A freeman lawfully competent to act as a juror. Raym. 417; Keb. 563....
English practice. A writ which issues on lands, tenements, and chattels, being returned under an extent on a statute staple, commanding the sheriff to...
civil law. This term is synonymous with payment. Dig. 50, 16, 47. It is the extinguishment of a contract by which he who was bound become s free, or l...
These two words were, at different times, made to express among the Romans, the condition of those who, having been slaves, had been made free. 1 Brow...
Freedom from restraint. The power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature.2. Liberty is divided ...
The right to print and publish the truth, from good motives, and for justifiable ends. 3 Johns. Cas. 394.2. This right is secured by the constitution ...
The right given by the constitution and the laws to public support in speaking facts or opinions.2. In a republican government like ours, liberty of s...
pleading. The name of a plea in an action of trespass, by which the defendant claims the locus in quo to be his soil and freehold, or the soil and fre...
estate. The same as, freehold, (q. v.) or frank tenement. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1690....
contracts. A right given by some competent authority to do an act, which without such authority would be illegal. The instrument or writing which secu...
the rules of war to the extent of the authority given. It is the assumption of a state of peace to the extent of the license. In the country which gra...
pleading. The name of a plea of justification to an action of trespass. A license must be specially pleaded, and cannot, like liberum tenementum, be g...
One to whom a license has been given. 1 M. Q. & S. 699 n....
estates, conveyancing, practice. When an action is brought for the purpose of levying a fine, the defendant, knowing himself to be in the wrong, is su...
Imparlance. (q. v.)...
Legal Dictionary 
