Legal Term Dictionary

Search our free database of thousands of legal terms. The easiest-to-read, most user-friendly guide to legal terms.This dictionary is from the early 20th century and is not to be construed as legal advice.

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  • ARIBANNUM
    In feudal law. A fine for not setting out to join the army in obedience to the summons of the king.
  • ARIERBAN, OR ARRIERE-BAN
    An edict of the ancient kings of France and Germany, commanding all their vassals, the noblesse, and the vassals' vassals, to enter the army, or forfeit their estates on refusal. Spelman.
  • ARIMANNI
    A mediaeval term for a class of agricultural owners of small allodial farms, which they cultivated in connection with larger farms belonging to their lords, paying rent and service for the latter, and being under the protection of their superiors. Military tenants holding lands from the emperor. Spelman.
  • ARISTOCRACY
    A government in which a class of men rules supreme. A form of government which is lodged in a council composed of select members or nobles, without a monarch, and exclusive of the people. A privileged class of the people; nobles and dignitaries; people of wealth and station.
  • ARISTO-DEMOCRACY
    A form of government where the power is divided between the nobles and the people.
  • ARLES
    Earnest. Used in Yorkshire in the phrase "Aries-penny." Cowell. In Scotland it has the same signification. Bell.
  • ARM OF THE SEA
    A portion of the sea projecting inland, in which the tide ebbs and flows. 5 Coke, 107. An arm of the sea is considered as extending as far into the interior of a country as the water of fresh rivers is propelled backwards by the ingress of the tide. Ang. More...
  • ARMA
    Lat. Arms; weapons, offensive and defensive.; armor; arms or cognizances of families. -Arma Dare. To dub or make a knight— Arma moluta. Sharp weapons that cut in contradistinction to such as are blunt, which only break or bruise. Fleta, lib. 1, c. 33, par. 6.—Arma reversata. Reversed arms, a punishment More...
  • ARMATA VIS
    In the civil law. Armed force. Dig. 43, 16, 3; Fleta, lib. 4, c 4.
  • ARMED
    A vessel is "armed" when she is fitted with a full armament for fighting purposes. She may be equipped for warlike purposes, without being "armed." By "armed" it is ordinarily meant that she has cannon, but if she had a fighting crew, muskets, pistols, powder, shot, cutlasses, and boarding appliances, More...
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