n. 1. An established standard, guide, or regulation; a principle or regulation set up by authority, prescribing or directing action or forbearance; as, the rules of a legislative body, of a company, court, public office, of the law, of ethics. 2. A regulation made by a court of Justice or
More... n. 1. An established standard, guide, or regulation; a principle or regulation set up by authority, prescribing or directing action or forbearance; as, the rules of a legislative body, of a company, court, public office, of the law, of ethics. 2. A regulation made by a court of Justice or public office with reference to the conduct of business therein. 3. An order made by a court at the in¬stance of one of the parties to a suit commanding a ministerial officer, or the opposite party, to do some act, or to show cause why some act should not be done. It Is usually upon some interlocutory matter, and has not the force or solemnity of a decree or judgment. 4. "Rule" sometimes means a rule of law. Thus, we speak of the rule against perpetui¬ties ; the rule in Shelley's Case, etc. —Cross-rules. These were rules where each of the opposite litigants obtained a rule am, as the plaintiff to increase the damages, and tbe defendant to enter a nonsuit. Wharton. 'Pen-oral rules. General or standing orders of a court. In relation to practice, etc—Rule absolute. One which commands the subject-mat¬ter of the rule to be forthwith enforced. It is usual, when the party has failed to show sufficient cause against a rule nisi, to "make the rule absolute. i.e., imperative and final.— Rule- day. In practice. The day on which a rule is returnable, or on which the act or duty enjoined by a rule is to be performed. See Cook v. Cook, 18 Fla. 637.—Rule in Shelley's Case. A celebrated rule in English law, propounded in Lord Coke's reports m the following form: That whenever a man, by any gift or conveyance, takes an estate of freehold, and in the same gift or conveyance an estate is limited, either mediately or immediately, to his heirs in fee or in tail, the word "heirs" is a word of limitation and not of purchase. In other words, it is to be understood as expressing the quantity of estate which the party is to take, and not as conferring any distinct estate on tne persona who may become his representa¬tives. 1 Coke, 104a; 1 Steph. Comm. 308. Bee Zabriskie v. Wood. 23 N. X Eq. 544; Duf¬fy v. Jarvis (C. C.) 84 Fed. 733; Hampton v. Rather. 30 Miss. 203; Hancock v. Butler, 21 Tex. 807; Rogers v. Rogers, 3 Wend. 511. 20 Am. Dec. 716; Smith v. Smith. 24 S. C. 814. —Rule nisi. A rule which will become imper¬ative and final unless cause be shown against it This rule commands the party to show cause why he should not be compelled to do the act required, or why the object of the rule should not be enforced.—Rule of 1756. A rule of international law, first practically established in 1756V by which neutrals, in time of war, are prohibited from carrying on with a belligerent power a trade which is not open to them in time of peace. 1 Kent Comm. 82.—Rale of course. There are some rules which the courts authorise their officers to grant as a matter of course, without formal application being made to a judge in open court, and these are tech¬nically termed, in English practice, "side-bar rules" because formerly they were moved for by the attorneys at the Bide bar in court. They are now generally termed "rules of course." Brown.—Rules of court. The rules for regu-lating the practice of the different courts, which the judges are empowered to frame and put in force as occasion may renuire, are term¬ed "rules of court" Brown. See Ooodlett v. Charles. 14 Rich. Law (S. C.) 49.—Rule of law. A legal principle, of general application, sanctioned by the recognition of authorities, and usually expressed in tbe form of a maxim or logical proposition.. Called a "rule," because in doubtful or unforeseen cases it is a guide or norm few their deefcioa. Toullier, tit. prel. no. 17.—Rules of practice. Certain orders made by the courts for the purpose of regulat¬ing the practice in actions and other proceed¬ings before them.—Rules of procedure. Rules made by a legislative body concerning the mode and manner of conducting its business, and for the purpose of making an orderly and proper disposition of the matters before it, such as rules prescribing what committees shall be appointed, on what subjects they shall act, what shall be the daily order in which business shall be taken up, and in what order certain motions shall be received and acted on. Hei-skell v. Baltimore, 65 Md. 125. 4 Atl. 116, 57 Am. Rep. 308; Hevker v. McLaughlin, 1U0 Ky. 509, 50 S. W. 859.—Rule of property. A settled rule or principle, resting usually on precedents or a course of decisions, regulating the ownership or devolution- of property. Yazoo & M. Y. R. Co. v. Adams, 81 Miss. 90. 32 South. 937: Edwards v. Davenport (C. C.) 20 Fed. 763.—Rule of tbe road. The popular English name for the regulations governing the navigation of vessels in public waters, with a view to preventing collisions. 'Sweet—Rule to lead. A rule of court, taken by a plaintiff of esume vequiriag the defendant to plead within a given time, on pain of having judg¬ment taken against him by default—Rule to show cause. A rule commanding the party to appear and show cause why he should not be compelled to do the act required, or why the object of the rule should not be enforced; a rule nisi, (q. e.)—Special rule. Rules granted without any motion in court, or when the motion is only assumed to have been made, and is not actually made, are called "common" rules; While the rules granted upon motion actually made to the court in term, or upon a judge's order in vacation, are termed "special" rules. Brown. The term may also be understood as opposed to "general" rule; in which case it means a particular direction, in a matter of practice, made for the purposes of a particular case.
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