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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  • BULLETIN
    An officially published notice or announcement concerning the progress of matters of public importance. In France, the registry of the laws. -Bulletin des lois. In France, the official sheet which publishes the laws and decrees; this publication constitutes the promulgation of the law or decree.
  • BULLION
    Gold and silver intended to be coined. The term is usually applied to a quantity of these metals ready for the mint, but as yet lying in bars, plates, lumps, or other masses; but it may also include ornaments or dishes of gold and silver, or foreign coins not current More...
  • BUM-BAILIFF
    A person employed to dun one for a debt; a bailiff employed to arrest a debtor. Probably a vulgar corruption of "bound-bailiff," (q. v.)
  • BUNDA
    In old English law. A bound, boundary, border, or limit, (terminus, limes.)
  • BUOY
    In maritime law. A piece of wood or cork, or a barrel, raft, or other thing, made secure and floating upon a stream or bay, intended as a guide and warning to mariners, by marking a spot where the water is shallow, or where there is a reef or other More...
  • BURDEN OF PROOF
    (Lat. onus probanda) In the law of evidence. The necessity or duty of affirmatively proving a fact or facts in dispute on an issue raised between the parties in a cause. Willett v. Rich, 142 Mass. 356, 7 N. E. 776, 56 Am. Rep. 684; Wilder v. Cowles, 100 Mass. More...
  • BUREAU
    An office for the transaction of business. A name given to the several departments of the executive or administrative branch of government, or to their larger subdivisions. In re Strawbridge, 39 Ala. 375.
  • BUREAUCRACY
    A system in which the business of government is carried on in departments, each under the control of a chief, in contradistinction from a system in which the officers of government have a coordinate authority.
  • BURG, BURGH
    A term anciently applied to a castle or fortified place; a borough, (q. v.) Spelman.
  • BURGAGE
    A name anciently given to a dwelling-house in a borough town. Blount.
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