Legal Term Dictionary

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  • LITERA
    Lat A letter. The letter of a law, as distinguished from its spirit. See LiETTEB. -Liter* Plsana. The Pisan letter. A term applied to tbe old character in which the copy of the Pandects formerly kept at Pisa, in Italy, was written. Spelman.
  • LITERAE
    Letters. A term applied in old English law to various instruments in writing, public and private. -Litem dimissorisB. Dimissory letters, (q. v.)-Liters* humaniores. A term including Greek, Latin, general philology, logic, moral philosophy, metaphysics; the name of the principal course of study in the University of Oxford. Wharton.-Literae mortuss. Dead More...
  • LITERAL
    According to language; following expression in words. A literal construction of a document adheres closely to Its words, without making differences for extrinsic circumstances; a literal performance of a condition is one which complies exactly with its terms. -Literal contract. In Roman law. A species of written contract in which More...
  • LITERARY
    Pertaining to polite learning; connected with the study or use of books and writings. The word "literary," having no legal signification, is to be taken in its ordinary and usual meaning. We speak of literary persons as learned, erudite; of literary property, as the productions of ripe scholars, or, at More...
  • LITERATE
    In English ecclesiastical law. One who qualifies himself for holy orders by presenting himself as a persou accomplished in classical learning, etc.. not as a graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, etc.
  • LITERATURA
    "Ad literaturam po-neve" means to put children to school. This liberty was anciently denied to those parents who were servile tenants, without the lord's consent. The prohibition against the education of sons arose from the fear that the son, being bred to letters, might enter Into holy orders, and so More...
  • LITERIS OBLIGATIO
    In Roman law. The contract of nomen, which was constituted by writing, (stripturd.) It was of two kinds, viz.: (1) A re in personam, when a transaction was transferred from the daybook (adversaria) into the ledger (codex) in the form of a debt under the name or heading of the More...
  • LITIGANT
    A party to a lawsuit; one engaged in litigation; usually spoken of active parties, not of nominal ones.
  • LITIGARE
    Lat. To litigate; to carry on a suit, (litem agcre,) either as plaintiff or defendant; to claim or dispute by action; to test or try the validity of a claim by action.
  • LITIGATE
    To dispute or contend in form of law; to carry on a suit.
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