Legal Term Dictionary

The act or state of going before; adjustment of place. -Precedence, patent of. In English law. A grant from the crown to such barristers as it thinks proper to honor with that mark of distinction, whereby they are entitled to such rank and preaudience as are assigned in their respective More...

The act or state of going before; adjustment of place. -Precedence, patent of. In English law. A grant from the crown to such barristers as it thinks proper to honor with that mark of distinction, whereby they are entitled to such rank and preaudience as are assigned in their respective patents. 3 Steph. Comm. 274. Less...

An adjudged case or decision of a court of justice, considered as furnishing an example or authority for an identical or similar case afterwards arising or a similar question of law. A draught of a conveyance, settlement, will, pleading, bill, or other legal instrument which is considered worthy to serve More...

An adjudged case or decision of a court of justice, considered as furnishing an example or authority for an identical or similar case afterwards arising or a similar question of law. A draught of a conveyance, settlement, will, pleading, bill, or other legal instrument which is considered worthy to serve as a pattern for future instruments of the same nature. Less...

Such as must happen or be performed before an estate can vest or be enlarged. See CONDITION PRECEDENT.

Such as must happen or be performed before an estate can vest or be enlarged. See CONDITION PRECEDENT. Less...

Silent uniform course of practice, uninterrupted though not supported by legal decisions. See Calton v. Bragg, 15 East 226; Thompson v. Musser, 1 Dall. 464, 1 L. Ed. 222. Precedents that pass sub silentio are of little or no authority. 16 Yin. Abr. 499.

Silent uniform course of practice, uninterrupted though not supported by legal decisions. See Calton v. Bragg, 15 East 226; Thompson v. Musser, 1 Dall. 464, 1 L. Ed. 222. Precedents that pass sub silentio are of little or no authority. 16 Yin. Abr. 499. Less...

The continuance of a suit by consent of both parties. Cowell.

The continuance of a suit by consent of both parties. Cowell. Less...

In English and Amerioan law. An order or direction, emanating from authority, to an officer or body of officers, commanding him or them to do some act within the scope of their powers. Precept is not to be confined to civil proceedings, and is not of a more restricted meaning More...

In English and Amerioan law. An order or direction, emanating from authority, to an officer or body of officers, commanding him or them to do some act within the scope of their powers. Precept is not to be confined to civil proceedings, and is not of a more restricted meaning than "process." It includes warrants and processes in criminal as well as civil proceedings. Adams v. Vose, 1 Cray (Mass.) 51, 58. "Precept" means a commandment In witting, sent oat by' a justice of the peace of other like officer, for the bringing of a person or record before him. Cowell. The direction formerly issued by a sheriff to the proper returning officers of cities and boroughs within his jurisdiction for the election of members to serve in parliament. 1 BL Comm. 178. The direction by the judges or commissioners of assize to the sheriff for the summoning a sufficient number of jurors. 3 Steph. Comm. 516. The direction issued by the clerk of the peace to the overseers of parishes for making out the jury lists. 3 Steph. Comm. 516, note. In old English criminal law. Instigation to commit a crime. Bract, fol. 1386; Cowell. In Scotch law. An order, mandate, or warrant to do some act. The precept of seisin was the order of a superior to his bailie, to give infeftment of certain lands to his vassal. Bell. In old French law. A kind of letters Issued by the king in subversion of the laws, being orders to the judges to do or tolerate things contrary to law. -Precept of clarc constat. A deed in the Scotch law by which a superior acknowledges the title of the heir of a deceased vassal to succeed to the lands. PRECES. Lat. In Roman law. Prayers. Ope of the names of an application to the emperor. Tayl. Civil Law, 230. Less...

In English ecclesiastical law. A right of the crown to name to the first prebend that becomes vacant after the accession of the sovereign, in every church of the empire. This right was exercised by the crown of England in the reign of Edward I. 2 Steph. Comm. 670, note.

In English ecclesiastical law. A right of the crown to name to the first prebend that becomes vacant after the accession of the sovereign, in every church of the empire. This right was exercised by the crown of England in the reign of Edward I. 2 Steph. Comm. 670, note. Less...

A constable's or police district The Immediate neighborhood of a palace or court. A poll-district. See Union Pac. Ry. Co. v. Ryan, 113 U. S. 516, 5 Sup. Ct 601, 28 L. Ed. 1098; Railway Co. v. Oconto, 50 Wis. 189, 6 N. W. 607, 36 Am. Rep. 840; State More...

A constable's or police district The Immediate neighborhood of a palace or court. A poll-district. See Union Pac. Ry. Co. v. Ryan, 113 U. S. 516, 5 Sup. Ct 601, 28 L. Ed. 1098; Railway Co. v. Oconto, 50 Wis. 189, 6 N. W. 607, 36 Am. Rep. 840; State v. Anslinger, 171 Mo. 600, 71 S. W. 1041. Less...

Another form of the name of the written instructions to the clerk of court; also spelled "proxrfpe," (q. v.)

Another form of the name of the written instructions to the clerk of court; also spelled "proxrfpe," (q. v.) Less...

Precipitins are formations in the blood of an animal induced by repeated injections into its veins of the blood-serum of an animal of another species; and their importance in diagnosis lies in the fact that when the blood-serum of an animal so treated is mixed with that of any animal More...

Precipitins are formations in the blood of an animal induced by repeated injections into its veins of the blood-serum of an animal of another species; and their importance in diagnosis lies in the fact that when the blood-serum of an animal so treated is mixed with that of any animal of the second species (or a closely related species) and the mixture kept at a temperature of about 98 degrees for several hours, a visible precipitate will result, but not so if the second ingredient of the mixture is drawn from an animal of an entirely different species. In medico-legal practice, therefore, a suspected " stain or clot having been first tested by other methods and demonstrated to be blood, the question whether it is the blood of a human being or of other origin Is resolved by mixing a solution of it with a quantity of blood-serum taken from a rabbit or some other small animal which bas been previously prepared by injections of human blood-serum. After treatment as above described, the presence of a. precipitate will furnish strong presumptive evidence that the blood tested was of human origin. The test is not absolutely conclusive, for the reason that blood from an anthropoid ape would produce the' same result, in this experiment as human blood. But if the alternative hypothesis presented attributed the blood in question to some animal of an unrelated species (as, a dog, sheep, or horse) the precipitin test could be fully relied on, as also in the case where no precipitate resulted. Less...