Legal Term Dictionary

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  • FACULTY OF A COLLEGE
    The corps of professors, instructors, tutors, and lecturers. To be distinguished from the board of trustees, who constitute the corporation.
  • FACULTY OF ADVOCATES
    The college or society of advocates in Scotland.
  • FADERFIUM
    In old English law. A marriage gift coming from the father or brother of the bride.
  • FAEDER-FEOH
    In old English law. The portion brought by a wife to her husband, and which reverted to a widow, in case the heir of her deceased husband refused his consent to her second marriage; i. e., it reverted to her family in case she returned to them. Wharton.
  • FAESTIN G-MEN
    Approved men who were strong-armed; habentes homines or rich men, men of substance; pledges or bondsmen, who, by Saxon custom, were bound to answer for each other's good behavior. Cowell; Du Cange.
  • FAGGOT
    A badge worn in popish times by persons who had recanted and abjured what was then adjudged to be heresy, as an emblem of what they had merited. Cowell.
  • FAGGOT VOTES
    A faggot vote is where a man is formally possessed of a right to vote for members of parliament, without possessing the substance which the vote should represent; as if he is enabled to buy a property, and at the same moment mortgage it to its full value for the More...
  • FAIDA
    In Saxon law. Malice; open and deadly hostility; deadly feud. The word designated the enmity between the family of a murdered man and that of his murderer, which was recognized, among the Teutonic peoples, as justification for vengeance taken by any one of the former upon any one of the More...
  • FAIL
    1. The difference between "fail" and "refuse" is that the latter involves an act of the will, while the former may be an act of inevitable necessity. Taylor v. Mason, 9 Wheat. 344, 6 L. Ed. 101. See Stallings v. Thomas, 55 Ark. 326, 18 S. W. 184; Telegraph Co. More...
  • FAILLITE
    In French law. Bankruptcy; failure; the situation of a debtor who finds himself unable to fulfill his engagements. Code de Com. arts. 442, 580; Civil Code La. art 3522.
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