Legal Term Dictionary

Lat. A friend of the court A by-stander (usually a counsellor) who interposes and volunteers information upon some matter of law in regard to which the judge is doubtful or mistaken, or upon a matter of which the court may take judicial cognizance. Counsel in court frequently act in this More...

Lat. A friend of the court A by-stander (usually a counsellor) who interposes and volunteers information upon some matter of law in regard to which the judge is doubtful or mistaken, or upon a matter of which the court may take judicial cognizance. Counsel in court frequently act in this capacity when they happen to be in possession of a case which the judge has not seen, or does not at the moment remember. Taft v. Northern Transp. Co., 56 N. H. 416; Birmingham Loan, etc., Co. v. Bank, 100 Ala. 249, 13 South. 945, 46 Am. St. Rep. 45; In re Columbia Real Estate Co. (D. C.) 101 Fed. 970. It is also applied to persons who have no right to appear in a suit, but are allowed to introduce evidence to protect their own interests. Bass v. Fontleroy, 11 Tex. 699, 701, 702. Less...

Fr. In French maritime law. Admiral. Ord. de la Mar. liv. 1, tit. 1, § 1.

Fr. In French maritime law. Admiral. Ord. de la Mar. liv. 1, tit. 1, § 1. Less...

Lat. A paternal aunt. An aunt on the father's side. Amita magna. A great-aunt on the father's side. Amita major. A great-great aunt on the father's side. Amita maxima. A great-great-great aunt, or a great-great-grandfather's sister. Calvin.

Lat. A paternal aunt. An aunt on the father's side. Amita magna. A great-aunt on the father's side. Amita major. A great-great aunt on the father's side. Amita maxima. A great-great-great aunt, or a great-great-grandfather's sister. Calvin. Less...

The child of a brother or sister; a cousin; one who has the same grandfather, but different father and mother. Calvin.

The child of a brother or sister; a cousin; one who has the same grandfather, but different father and mother. Calvin. Less...

Lat. In the civil and old English law. To lose. Hence the old Scotch "amitt." —Amittere curiam. To lose the court; to be deprived of the privilege of attending the court.—Amittere legem terras. To lose the protection afforded by the law of the land.— Amittere liberam legem. To lose one's More...

Lat. In the civil and old English law. To lose. Hence the old Scotch "amitt." —Amittere curiam. To lose the court; to be deprived of the privilege of attending the court.—Amittere legem terras. To lose the protection afforded by the law of the land.— Amittere liberam legem. To lose one's frank-law. A term having the same meaning as amittere legem terra, (q.v.) He who lost his law lost the protection extended by the law to a freeman, and became subject to the same law as thralls or serfs attached to the land. Less...

A sovereign act of pardon and oblivion for past acts, granted by a government to all persons (or to certain persons) who have been guilty of crime or delict, generally political offenses—treason, sedition, rebellion—and often conditioned upon their return to obedience and duty within a prescribed time. A declaration of More...

A sovereign act of pardon and oblivion for past acts, granted by a government to all persons (or to certain persons) who have been guilty of crime or delict, generally political offenses—treason, sedition, rebellion—and often conditioned upon their return to obedience and duty within a prescribed time. A declaration of the person or persons who have newly acquired or recovered the sovereign power in a state, by which they pardon all persons who composed, supported, or obeyed the government which has been overthrown. The word "amnesty" properly belongs to international law, and is applied to treaties of peace following a state of war, and signifies there the burial in oblivion of the particular cause of strife, so that that shall not be again a cause for war between the parties; and this signification of "amnesty" is fully and poetically expressed in the Indian custom of burying the hatchet. And so amnesty is applied to rebellions which by their magnitude are brought within the roles of international law, and in which multitudes of men are the subjects of the clemency of the government. But in these cases, and in all cases, it meanss only "oblivion." and never expresses or implies a grant. Knots v. United States, 10 Ct. CI. 407. "Amnesty" and "pardon" are very different. The former is an act of the sovereign power, the object of which is to efface and to cause to be forgotten a crime or misdemeanor: the latter is an act of the same authority, which exempts the individual on whom it is bestowed from the punishment the law inflicts for the crime he has committed. Bouvier; United States v. Bassett, 5 Utah, 131, 13 Pac. 237; Davies v. McKeeby. 5 Nev. 373: State v. Blalock. 61 N. C. 247; Knote v. United States, 95 U. S. 149, 152, 24 L. Ed. 442. Less...

Intermingled with. "A thing which is among others is intermingled with them. Commerce among the states cannot stop at the external boundary line of each state, but may be introduced into the interior." Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat 194, 6 L. Ed. 23. Where property is directed by will to More...

Intermingled with. "A thing which is among others is intermingled with them. Commerce among the states cannot stop at the external boundary line of each state, but may be introduced into the interior." Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat 194, 6 L. Ed. 23. Where property is directed by will to be distributed among several persons, it cannot be all given to one, nor can any of the persons be wholly excluded from the distribution. Hudson v. Hudson, 6 Munf. (Va.) 352. Less...

An alienation of lands or tenements in mortmain. The reduction of the property of lands or tenements to mortmain. In its modern sense, amortization is the operation of paying off bonds, stock, or other indebtedness of a state or corporation. Sweet.

An alienation of lands or tenements in mortmain. The reduction of the property of lands or tenements to mortmain. In its modern sense, amortization is the operation of paying off bonds, stock, or other indebtedness of a state or corporation. Sweet. Less...

To alien lands in mortmain.

To alien lands in mortmain. Less...

In the civil law. A moving or taking away. "The slightest amotio is sufficient to constitute theft, if the animus furandi be clearly established." 1 Swint 205.

In the civil law. A moving or taking away. "The slightest amotio is sufficient to constitute theft, if the animus furandi be clearly established." 1 Swint 205. Less...