Terms beginning with G
614 headwords
- G reorganizationA reorganization in which a company moves all or part of its assets to another company as part of a bankruptcy or sim…
- GAGeneral average: the loss that follows when part of a ship or its cargo is deliberately sacrificed to save the rest f…
- GAAPGenerally accepted accounting principles: the conventions, rules, and procedures that mark out approved accounting pr…
- GAASGenerally accepted auditing standards: the guidelines issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant…
- gabelA tax or duty on movable goods. In older usage, a tribute, toll, or payment made to a superior.
- gabellaA tax or duty on merchandise.
- gablatorA person who pays gabel: a villager or tenant who owes rent or tribute to a superior.
- gag orderA judge's order telling parties, lawyers, witnesses, or reporters not to discuss the facts of a case publicly. Aimed…
- gageTo pawn or pledge something, or to hand it over as security. The word is an older form of wage, and turns up in phras…
- gager del leyA method of proof in which the defendant swore the claim was groundless and produced others, called compurgators, to…
- gainAn increase in amount, degree, or value.
- gainful employmentWork a person can take up and perform for money.
- gainorA person who holds land by socage tenure.
- galeA rent paid at set intervals, in particular the rent a free miner, called the galee, paid for the right to work a plo…
- Gallagher agreementA contract letting one of several codefendants settle with the plaintiff for a fixed sum at any point during the tria…
- gallowsA wooden frame of two uprights and a crossbeam from which condemned prisoners are hanged.
- gamalisA child born to married parents. The word also covers a child born to parents who were betrothed but never married.
- gamblingRisking something of value, usually money, on the chance of winning a prize. State and federal law regulate it.
- gambling contractAn agreement to gamble; a contract in which the parties stake something, usually money, on the chance of winning.
- gambling deviceAnything, such as cards, dice, or an electronic or mechanical machine, that lets a person play a game of chance for m…
- gambling placeAny place where gambling goes on.
- gambling policyAn insurance policy taken out by someone shown to have no insurable interest in the person or property covered. Most…
- gambling verdictA verdict reached by chance or by drawing lots, which the law no longer allows.
- gameWild animals and birds hunted for food or sport, especially those a hunter needs a licence to take.
- game lawA federal or state law regulating the hunting of game: banning the taking or killing of particular animals outright o…
- game of chanceA game whose result turns on luck rather than skill.
- gamingRisking something of value, usually money, on the chance of winning a prize. State and federal law regulate it.
- gaming contractAn agreement to gamble: a deal under which two people stake something of value, usually money, on the chance of winni…
- gaming deviceAnything, such as cards, dice, or an electronic or mechanical machine, that lets a person play a game of chance for m…
- gaming houseAny place where gambling goes on.
- gaming roomAny place where gambling goes on.
- ganancialHaving to do with community property, or made up of it.
- gangA group of people who move about together or act together, especially for antisocial or criminal ends. Many gangs, ab…
- ganglandThe world of criminal gangs and organized crime.
- gangsterA member of a criminal gang or an organized-crime outfit.
- gantletA military punishment, long abolished, in which the offender was stripped to the waist and made to run between two li…
- GAOGovernment Accountability Office, called the General Accounting Office until 2004: the agency that works for Congress…
- gaolA place holding people awaiting trial and people serving sentences for minor offenses.
- gaol deliveryAn escape from a jail by several prisoners at once. Formerly the phrase meant a clearing-out procedure under which ev…
- gaol libertiesThe area around a jail or prison within which certain prisoners could move about freely, usually after posting a bond…
- gaolerA keeper, guard, or warden of a prison or jail.
- gap creditorIn bankruptcy law, a creditor whose claim arises between the filing of an involuntary petition and the order for reli…
- gap financingShort-term money borrowed to bridge the difference between a loan already in hand and a larger loan expected later.
- gap periodIn bankruptcy, the stretch of time between the filing of an involuntary petition and the court's order for relief.
- gap reportIn federal rulemaking, a report explaining any wording changes an advisory committee made to a proposed procedural ru…
- gap theoryIn insurance law, the rule that a wrongdoer counts as underinsured whenever their liability cover, even if it meets t…
- gap-fillerA rule that supplies a contract term the parties left out.
- garageman's lienA lien on a vehicle securing what is owed for repairing, servicing, or storing it.
- garageman’s lienA lien on a vehicle for the value of repairs the garage has done to it.
- garandiaA warranty.
- garauntorA person who warranted title to land. The warrantor had to defend the buyer's title and possession, and if the buyer…
- Garcia hearingIn criminal procedure, a hearing held to make sure that a defendant sharing a lawyer with one or more codefendants un…
- gardWardship or custody of a person; also a precinct or ward of a city.
- gardeIn civil law, the relationship that makes a person liable when injury is caused by a thing, such as a consumer produc…
- gardeinA guardian or keeper.
- gardianusA guardian, defender, protector, or warden, including a churchwarden.
- gareneA place where wildlife such as pheasants, partridges, or rabbits is kept and protected; also the right to keep game i…
- Garmon doctrineThe rule barring state and local regulation of activity that either is or arguably is protected by the National Labor…
- Garmon preemptionThe rule barring state and local regulation of activity that either is or arguably is protected by the National Labor…
- Garner doctrineThe rule letting shareholders suing on the company's behalf obtain confidential communications between a company offi…
- garnishMoney squeezed out of a new prisoner by the other prisoners, or charged by the jailer as a fee. England banned the pr…
- garnisheeA person or institution, such as a bank, that owes money to, or holds property for, someone whose property is being g…
- garnisherA creditor who starts a garnishment case to get at the debtor's property believed to be held or owed by a third party…
- garnishmentA court proceeding in which a creditor, or someone who may become one, asks the court to order a third party who owes…
- garnishment lienA lien on the debtor's property in the garnishee's hands. It arises in the garnishing creditor's favor the moment the…
- garnishorA creditor who starts a garnishment case to get at the debtor's property believed to be held or owed by a third party…
- Garrity statementA statement a public employee gives, spoken or written, under threat of losing the job, usually during an internal in…
- gas chamberA small sealed room used for executions, in which the prisoner is strapped into a chair and poisonous fumes are relea…
- gas soldIn oil-and-gas law, the natural gas a well actually sells, which is not necessarily everything it produces. Gas lease…
- gas usedIn oil-and-gas law, natural gas burned to keep a well running, which is not necessarily sold.
- gas-balancing agreementIn oil-and-gas law, a contract among the owners of a producing gas well setting out how output will be divided up if…
- gationsThe state of having been declared bankrupt under a bankruptcy statute; also, the field of law governing the rights of…
- GATTGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade: the multi-country treaty first signed in 1948 to encourage trade by cutting i…
- gaugerA surveying officer who inspected containers of liquid and marked them as holding the lawful measure.
- gavelA mallet a presiding officer, often a judge, uses to bring a meeting or court to order. In older usage the word meant…
- gavelbredRent paid in bread, corn, or other provisions rather than money.
- gaveletA writ used in Kent and London to recover rent owed on land held in gavelkind.
- gavelgeldProperty that yields a profit or a toll; also the toll or tribute itself.
- gavelhertePlowing done for the lord as a customary tenant's service.
- gaveling manA tenant who owed the lord money rent on top of a customary service. The word once meant a villein released from vill…
- gavelkindA form of socage tenure under which land passed in equal shares to all the dead man's sons. It was common before 1066…
- gavelmanA tenant who owed the lord money rent on top of a customary service. The word once meant a villein released from vill…
- gavelmedA tenant's customary service of mowing the lord's meadow or cutting grass for hay.
- gavelrepA tenant's duty to reap the lord's fields whenever the lord called for it.
- gavelwerkCustomary service done for the lord, either by the tenant's own hands or with the tenant's carts.
- GazetteThe official newspaper of the British government, carrying acts of state, Crown appointments, bankruptcy notices, and…
- gazumpingInformally, the underhanded sale of a house. It usually means the seller raising the price after already accepting an…
- GBMIGuilty but mentally ill: a verdict finding the defendant criminally responsible but also mentally ill, so that the se…
- geldA tax paid to the Crown under the Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings.
- geldableSubject to tax or tribute.
- GEMGrowing-equity mortgage: a mortgage whose payments rise each year, so that the loan is paid off in far less time than…
- gender discriminationDiscrimination on grounds of sex, especially against women.
- General Accounting OfficeThe agency that works for Congress, auditing and investigating federal programs and spending, giving legal and accoun…
- general administrationAn administration with authority over the whole of an estate.
- general administrative expenseThe overhead cost of running a business as a whole, which cannot be pinned to any one product or department, such as…
- general administratorSomeone appointed to administer the entire estate of a person who died without a will.
- general agencyA principal's authorization of an agent, without restriction, to do anything connected with a particular trade, busin…
- general agentAn agent authorized to handle all the principal's business of a particular kind or in a particular place. Factors, br…
- General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeThe multi-country treaty first signed in 1948 to encourage trade by cutting import duties and opening markets on equa…
- general appearanceAn appearance for general purposes, which gives up any later objection to the court's personal jurisdiction.
- general assemblyThe name many states give their legislature; also the debating body of the United Nations.
- general assignmentAn assignment of a debtor's property for the benefit of all the creditors rather than only some of them.
- general assumpsitAn action for breach of an implied promise to pay a debt.
- general authorityThe authority of a general agent, meant to cover every matter arising in the course of the business.
- general averageLoss arising from a deliberate partial sacrifice of ship or cargo to prevent a total loss. Everyone with an interest…
- general average lossA loss caused by a general-average sacrifice, borne by everyone with an interest in the voyage in proportion to what…
- general benefitIn eminent-domain law, the benefit the whole community gains from a taking. It cannot be set against the compensation…
- general bequestA gift by will payable out of the general assets of the estate.
- general challengeA challenge to a juror supported by a stated reason, such as bias or prejudice, that would disqualify that person fro…
- general compromisAn agreement by which countries send all their disputes, or a defined class of them, to an arbitral body, a court, or…
- general contractorSomeone who contracts to complete a whole project, buying all the materials, hiring and paying the subcontractors, an…
- general counselA lawyer or firm handling all or most of a client's legal work, though sometimes sending out unusual matters such as…
- general countA count that states the claimant's claim without going into unnecessary detail.
- General CourtThe name of the legislatures of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
- general court-martialThe highest military trial court, presided over by a military judge with at least five members sitting as jurors, and…
- general covenant against encumbrancesA promise by the seller that the property carries no burdens on it, visible or hidden. In a special warranty deed the…
- general creditorA creditor who, in giving credit, takes no rights over any particular property of the debtor.
- general customA custom followed throughout a country, forming one of the sources of its law; also, a custom that businesses general…
- general damagesDamages the law presumes to follow from the kind of wrong complained of. They need not be specifically pleaded or pro…
- general debtA government body's debt payable out of general revenue and backed by its full faith and credit.
- general demurrerAn objection pointing to a defect of substance in the other side's pleading, such as that it does not state a claim o…
- general denialA response putting in issue every material assertion in a complaint or petition.
- general depositA deposit of money mixed with other depositors' funds, credited to the depositor and creating the relationship of deb…
- general deputyA deputy appointed to act in another officer's place and carry out all the ordinary functions of the office.
- general deterrenceA purpose of criminal law, and of a particular conviction and sentence, to discourage people at large from committing…
- general deviseA gift by will of the testator's land without listing or describing the particular parcels.
- general disability insuranceDisability insurance that pays out when the insured cannot do any job at all, not merely their own occupation.
- general dischargeOne of the administrative discharges given to a service member who does not qualify for an honorable discharge.
- general electionAn election held at regular intervals; also, an election for all the seats at once, as opposed to a by-election.
- general employerAn employer who lends an employee to another employer for a limited period.
- general exceptionAn objection pointing to a defect of substance in the other side's pleading, such as that it does not state a claim o…
- general executionA court order telling a sheriff or other officer to enforce a judgment, usually by seizing and selling the debtor's p…
- general executorAn executor with power to administer the whole of a dead person's estate until it is finally settled.
- general expenseA cost of running a business as a whole rather than of any one job, product, or department.
- general federal common lawBefore the decision in Erie v. Tompkins, the law federal courts made for themselves when deciding diversity cases. Si…
- general fee conditionalAn estate limited to certain named heirs and shutting out the rest, as in a grant to a person and the male heirs of t…
- general findingA finding simply for one party, without any breakdown of the facts behind it.
- general franchiseThe right the government grants to carry on a particular business or to exercise corporate powers.
- general fundA government's main operating account, holding the assets that pay for running the government and cover whatever the…
- general guarantyA guaranty addressed to no one in particular, so that anyone who acts on it may hold the guarantor to it.
- general guardianA person with the legal authority and the duty to look after another person or that person's property, usually becaus…
- general imparlanceTime granted until the court's next term, with no exceptions saved for the defendant. A defendant who asked for it co…
- general improvementAn improvement made mainly to benefit the public at large, even if nearby property owners happen to gain from it too.
- general indorsementAn indorsement naming no particular payee, which makes the instrument payable to whoever holds it and transferable by…
- general intangiblePersonal property that is none of the following: goods, accounts, chattel paper, documents, instruments, investment p…
- general intentThe state of mind needed for certain common-law crimes that require neither a specific intent nor strict liability. I…
- general issueA plea, often a general denial, by which a party denies every material allegation in the other side's pleading; also…
- general jail deliveryAcquittals in large numbers, brought about by lax or careless enforcement of the law or by flaws in the law itself.
- general jurisdictionA court's power to hear a broad range of cases, civil or criminal, arising in its territory. The phrase also covers a…
- general jurisprudenceThe scholarly study of the basic building blocks of a particular legal system.
- General Land OfficeA former division of the Interior Department that handled public lands, including surveying them, issuing patents, an…
- general lawLaw that is neither local nor aimed at particular people. A law counts as general if it purports to apply to everyone…
- general ledgerThe book, or set of books, in which a business records its transactions as debits and credits.
- general legacyA gift of personal property that the will-maker means to come out of the estate's general assets, payable in money or…
- general legal principleA principle recognized across peoples whose legal systems have reached a certain level of development. In internation…
- general legislationLegislation that applies to the community at large.
- general letter of creditA letter of credit addressed to anyone at all rather than to a named person.
- general liability policyAn insurance policy, usually bought by a business, covering the damages the insured becomes legally bound to pay some…
- general lienA possessory lien that lets the holder keep any of the debtor's goods in their hands until the debtor pays whatever i…
- general listingA listing that lets the owner give selling rights to several agents at once, obliges the owner to pay a commission if…
- general managerA manager with overall control of a business, office, or other organization, including authority over the other manag…
- general mortgageA blanket mortgage covering everything the borrower owns now and everything the borrower acquires later.
- general objectionAn objection made without stating any ground for it. It preserves only the question of relevance for appeal.
- general occupantA person who takes over land in the gap that opens when a tenant holding for another's life dies before the person wh…
- general officerA military officer whose command covers a force made up of several regiments, such as a general, lieutenant-general,…
- general ownerA person holding the primary or residual title to property, as opposed to someone with only a limited interest in it.
- general pardonA pardon a government grants to a whole group or class of people, usually for a political offense, forgiving those li…
- general partnerA partner who takes part in running the business day to day, shares in the profits and losses, and is personally liab…
- general partnershipA partnership in which every partner takes a full part in running the business and shares profits and losses equally,…
- general pleaA response that puts every material allegation of the complaint or petition in issue.
- general plea in barA criminal defendant's plea of not guilty, denying every fact and circumstance needed to convict on the charge.
- general powerA power that may be exercised in anyone's favor, the holder included, to affect another person's interest in property…
- general power of appointmentA power of appointment that lets the holder hand the donor's property to anyone at all, themselves included.
- general power of attorneyA power of attorney authorizing an agent to conduct business generally for the person who granted it.
- general prayerA request in a pleading for whatever further relief the court thinks fit, without naming it. It usually comes after t…
- general principle of lawA principle recognized across peoples whose legal systems have reached a certain level of development. In internation…
- general propertyFull ownership of a thing, as distinct from the limited interest someone such as a bailee holds in it.
- general publicationA distribution of copies not confined to a chosen group, whether or not conditions are put on how the work is used. S…
- general referenceA court's referral of a case to a referee, usually with everyone's agreement, to decide every question of fact and la…
- general replicationIn equity pleading, a reply that simply denies the defendant's plea or answer and insists that the bill is true and s…
- general reprisalA reprisal in which a nation directs all its officers and citizens to make good an injury done by another nation, as…
- general retainerA retainer that buys a set period of a lawyer's availability rather than work on one particular matter.
- general revenueThe stream of income a state or city pays its obligations out of, unless a law directs payment from a special fund.
- general revenue fundThe fund a city pays its ordinary running costs out of.
- general ruleA rule that covers a whole class of cases or situations.
- general sentenceA single combined sentence in a case with several counts, which never says what punishment goes with which count. Cou…
- General Services AdministrationThe independent federal agency that looks after the government's property and records. It oversees the building and r…
- general shipA ship set up for one particular voyage to carry goods for anyone willing to ship on her.
- general special imparlanceTime granted with every exception saved, so that the defendant could later plead in abatement and also challenge the…
- general statuteA law that applies to a whole community or to people generally.
- general strikeA strike organized to hit an entire industry.
- general synodA synod made up of bishops from every nation.
- general tailAn entail limited to the issue of one named person, but not tied to the issue of a particular couple.
- general taxA tax that gives the taxpayer no special benefit beyond funding programs everyone gains from. The phrase also covers…
- general tenancyA tenancy the parties' agreement gives no fixed length.
- general termA regular term of court: the stretch of time during which a court ordinarily sits.
- general traverseA denial of every fact in the other side's pleading.
- general usageA usage followed throughout a country, trade, or profession rather than in one locality only.
- general verdictA verdict simply finding for one side or the other, rather than answering particular questions of fact.
- general verdict subject to a special caseA general verdict returned subject to the court's later ruling on a point of law that the parties set aside for argum…
- general verdict with interrogatoriesA general verdict returned together with written answers to questions on one or more facts bearing on it.
- general warrantA warrant the English Secretary of State once issued for the arrest of the author, printer, or publisher of a seditio…
- general warrantyA warranty good against the claims of everyone.
- general warranty deedA deed containing covenants of title, especially one in which the seller expressly guarantees good, clear title and g…
- general welfareThe public's health, peace, morals, and safety.
- General Welfare ClauseThe clause of the United States Constitution, in article I, section 8, letting Congress levy taxes and pay debts to p…
- general wordsWording in a deed that carries not just the property described but every easement, privilege, and appurtenance belong…
- general-average bondA bond a carrier requires from a cargo owner to guarantee payment of their general average contribution. Where the am…
- general-average contributionThe share each interested party pays toward a general-average loss, worked out in proportion to the value of what tha…
- general-average statementA statement setting out the exact figure for the general average and each party's share of it.
- general-disability insuranceDisability insurance that pays out only if the insured cannot do any job they are qualified for, not merely their old…
- general-mortgage bondA corporate bond secured by a blanket mortgage over property. It is often worth less than it appears, because it rank…
- general-obligation bondA municipal bond payable out of general revenue rather than a special fund, backed by nothing but the issuer's power…
- general-verdict ruleThe rule that when a jury returns a general verdict covering several claims or theories, an appeal court presumes the…
- generalia specialibus non derogantThe rule that general words in a later statute do not repeal an earlier provision dealing with a special subject. It…
- generally accepted accounting principlesThe conventions, rules, and procedures that mark out approved accounting practice at a given time. The Financial Acco…
- generally accepted auditing standardsThe guidelines issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, setting the professional qualities a…
- generationOne step in the line of natural descent; also the average gap in time between the birth of parents and the birth of t…
- generation-skipping taxA tax on a transfer of property that jumps a generation, imposed to stop people from using such transfers to sidestep…
- generation-skipping transferA transfer of assets to someone more than one generation below the transferor, known as a skip person. A gift from a…
- generation-skipping transfer taxA gift or estate tax charged on a generation-skipping transfer or on a generation-skipping trust.
- generation-skipping trustA trust set up to pass assets, usually the principal, to a skip person: a beneficiary more than one generation below…
- genericCommon or merely descriptive, and so not capable of trademark protection; also, carrying no trademark or brand name.
- generic drugA drug containing the same active ingredient as a brand-name original, though not necessarily the same fillers, binde…
- generic nameIn trademark law, a word for a kind of thing rather than for its source or maker, such as car or sink.
- generic termIn trademark law, a word for a kind of thing rather than for its source or maker, such as car or sink.
- generic-drug lawA statute letting pharmacists hand out a generic drug in place of a brand-name one on stated conditions. Most states…
- genericalnessThe state of being generic.
- genericideIn trademark law, the loss of a trademark that no longer sets the owner's product apart from anyone else's. It happen…
- genericismThe state of being generic.
- genericnessThe state of being generic.
- genetic fingerprintingA method of matching a person's DNA, the patterned chemical structure carrying genetic information, against the DNA i…
- Geneva ConventionAn international agreement setting out how prisoners of war and those wounded or killed in battle must be treated. Fi…
- genocideIn international law, acts done with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in…
- Genoese lotteryA lottery in which five numbers are drawn from ninety, each player betting that one or more of the numbers they picke…
- gensIn Roman law, a clan: a group of families sharing a name and, at least by tradition, a common ancestor. Its members w…
- gentileA member of a gens.
- gentlemanA man of noble or gentle birth, ranking above a yeoman; also a man of the landed gentry. The word now carries no prec…
- Gentleman Usher of the Black RodAn officer of the House of Lords with various ceremonial duties, among them summoning the members of the House of Com…
- gentlemen's agreementAn unwritten understanding that no court will enforce, resting instead on the good faith and honor of the people who…
- gentrificationThe restoring and upgrading of a run-down or aging city neighborhood by better-off newcomers, which pushes property v…
- genuineAuthentic or real: being what it claims to be. Of a document, free of forgery or counterfeiting.
- genuine issue of material factIn the law of summary judgment, a real and substantial question of fact, backed by solid evidence, that can only be s…
- genusA broad class made up of several species or subdivisions. Patent law, for example, is a species within the genus of i…
- geodetic-survey systemA federal system for describing land, built on markers, or benches, set at points of latitude and longitude across th…
- geographic marketIn antitrust law, the part of the relevant market that marks out where a firm competes. If a firm can raise prices or…
- geographically descriptive trademarkA trademark that uses a place name to show where the goods are grown or made. The common law protects it, and it can…
- germanHaving the same parents or the same grandparents; closely related.
- germaneRelevant to the matter in hand.
- gerrymanderTo redraw the boundaries of an electoral district so as to give one party an unfair advantage.
- gerrymanderingCarving a territory into electoral districts, often oddly shaped, so as to give one party an unfair advantage by wate…
- gersumMoney paid for something, in particular the payment a tenant made to a superior on taking up a holding. The word also…
- gersumariusLiable to be fined at a feudal superior's discretion. A villein who gave his daughter in marriage was gersumarius, ow…
- gestioBehavior or conduct; also the management of something, especially a transaction.
- gestorA person who carries on a business. In Roman and civil law, someone who steps in to do a necessary service for anothe…
- gestumA deed, an act, or a thing done.
- gestureA movement of the body meant to express a thought or drive a point home.
- gibbetA post with a single arm out from the top, used to hang criminals or to display their bodies afterwards as a warning…
- gibbet lawLynch law: an irreversible punishment carried out after a summary trial, in particular the unauthorized trial and exe…
- GICGuaranteed investment contract: a contract under which an institutional investor, such as a pension fund, hands an in…
- giftHanding property over to someone else freely, with nothing given in return; also the thing handed over.
- gift causa mortisA gift made in the shadow of the giver's approaching death. Three things must be true: the giver must make it with a…
- gift deedA deed given for a nominal sum, or out of love and affection rather than for value.
- gift enterpriseA scheme handing out items by chance among people who have bought shares in it. The phrase also covers a merchant's s…
- gift in contemplation of deathA gift made in the shadow of the giver's approaching death. Three things must be true: the giver must make it with a…
- gift in trustA gift made by handing property to a trustee to hold and manage for the person meant to benefit from it.
- gift inter vivosA gift made during the giver's lifetime and handed over with the intention of giving up control of the property for g…
- gift overA gift of property, usually by will, that takes effect once an earlier interest in the same property ends, such as a…
- gift splittingA married couple's choice to treat a gift made by one spouse as though each gave half, which doubles the yearly amoun…
- gift taxA tax charged when property is given away. Federal law taxes the giver, though some states tax the recipient.
- gilda mercatoriaA merchant guild: an incorporated society of traders holding the exclusive right to trade within a town.
- gilourA cheat or deceiver, in particular someone who passed off false goods, such as pewter sold as silver.
- gilt-edgedCarrying the highest rating for safety, and so exceptionally secure as an investment.
- Ginnie MaeGovernment National Mortgage Association: the federally owned corporation that buys residential mortgages from local…
- girthA measure of length equal to a yard, used in Saxon and early English law and taken from the measure round a man's bod…
- gisementA bailment in which someone takes in another's animals for a fee and lets them graze on their pasture, charged by the…
- giserOf an action, to lie: to be capable of being brought in court. Its inflected form, gist, turns up in old phrases such…
- gisetakerA person who takes in other people's cattle to graze for a fee.
- gistThe heart of a legal action: the point on which it stands or falls. The word comes from the Law French giser, to lie.
- giveTo hand property over to someone freely, with nothing in return; also, to confer something by a formal act, to put so…
- give bailTo post security for one's own appearance in court.
- give colorTo acknowledge, either openly or by staying silent, that the other side's allegations show an apparent right. In comm…
- give wayOf a vessel, to change course or slow down as the navigation rules require, so that another vessel can pass without a…
- give, devise, and bequeathTo hand property on by will.
- giving in paymentPaying off a debt by giving the creditor, with the creditor's agreement, something other than what was originally owe…
- gladiusIn Roman law, the sword as the emblem of the emperor's power, above all the power to punish serious crime.
- glamour stockA stock that draws heavy public interest because of its real or imagined promise of fast growth or big earnings.
- glass ceilingA real or supposed ceiling on how far someone can rise in a profession, especially a woman, imposed by discrimination…
- Glass-Steagall ActThe federal statute that protected bank depositors by limiting what commercial banks could do in the securities busin…
- glebae ascriptitiiEnslaved farm workers tied to the land they worked, who passed with the land when it changed hands.
- glebeIn Roman law, the soil of an estate, or a farming estate itself. Enslaved workers bound to such land were called serv…
- Globe electionThe vote by which a group of employees decides whether to be represented as a unit of its own or as part of a larger…
- glossA note written between the lines or in the margin of a text to explain a hard or obscure word. The word also means a…
- glossatorsThe Italian jurists who, from the 11th to the 13th centuries, revived the study of Roman law. They began by glossing…
- glove silverMoney given to a court officer as a reward or inducement, above all the money a sheriff gave an assize official when…
- GMIGuilty but mentally ill: a verdict in which the jury rejects the defendant's insanity defense but, finding the defend…
- GNMAA federally owned corporation that buys residential mortgages from local lenders on the secondary market and issues f…
- GNPGross national product: the market value of everything a country produces in a year, used as a measure of its wealth…
- go forwardTo begin or push on with presenting a case in court.
- go hence without dayOf a defendant, to be done with the case entirely, with no further date set on the court's calendar.
- go to protestOf commercial paper, to be dishonored because no one will pay or accept it.
- go to the countryAsking for trial by jury. A defendant was said to go to the country, putting himself upon the country, and the plaint…
- God-boteA fine paid to the church for offenses against God.
- God-gildMoney paid or something given for the service of God, especially a payment or a gift of land to a church.
- going concernA business actively trading and expected to keep trading indefinitely.
- going priceThe current market value of something.
- going privateTurning a public company into a closely held one by ending its registration with the SEC and buying up the shares hel…
- going publicSelling a company's stock to the investing public for the first time, after filing a registration statement under the…
- going through the barA daily ritual in which the court asked every barrister present whether they had a motion to make, working down from…
- going to the countryAsking for trial by jury. A defendant was said to go to the country, putting himself upon the country, and the plaint…
- going valueWhat a business, or its assets, is worth as a living concern with earnings still to come, as opposed to what it would…
- going witnessA witness about to leave the court's territory, though not the country, as when a witness moves from one state to ano…
- going-and-coming ruleThe rule that an employee commuting to or from work is generally outside the scope of employment, so the employer is…
- going-concern valueWhat a business, or its assets, is worth as a living concern with earnings still to come, as opposed to what it would…
- gold bondFormerly, a bond payable in gold coin or in currency at the holder's choice. Such bonds existed until 1933, when the…
- gold clauseA term calling for payment in gold. Such clauses once appeared in contracts, bonds, and mortgages, but they are now v…
- gold standardA monetary system in which currency can be exchanged for its legal equivalent in gold. The United States adopted it i…
- golden handcuffsPay set so high that the employee could not match it anywhere else and so cannot afford to leave, which often keeps p…
- golden handshakeA dismissal softened by generous payment on the way out.
- golden parachuteA term in an executive's contract promising rich severance benefits, such as long-term salary guarantees or bonuses,…
- golden ruleThe rule that a court reading a written instrument should stick to the plain grammatical sense of the words unless do…
- golden-rule argumentA jury argument in which the lawyer invites the jurors to decide the case by picturing themselves, or someone they lo…
- goldsmiths' notesBankers' cash notes: promissory notes a banker gave a customer acknowledging money received. The name comes from the…
- goodSound or reliable; also valid, effective, enforceable, or sufficient in law.
- good and lawful fenceA barrier strong and solid enough to keep animals from getting out and to keep trespassers off.
- good and merchantable abstract of titleAn abstract showing that the title is clear and marketable, rather than merely setting out the property's history.
- good and valuable considerationConsideration that is both real in value and proper in motive, so that it will support a contract.
- good and workmanlikeOf a product or service, made or done with proper skill and craftsmanship.
- good behaviorThe standard by which judges keep their posts. The phrase also means orderly conduct by a prisoner, which under penal…
- good causeA legally sufficient reason. Showing good cause is often what a litigant must do, under a court rule or order, to hav…
- good cause shownA reason the law accepts as sufficient. Courts often put the burden on a party to show good cause for why a request s…
- good considerationConsideration resting on natural love and affection or on a moral duty. It will not usually support the enforcement o…
- good deliveryIn securities law, the basic requirements for handing over a security: the certificate must be in good condition, bel…
- good faithA state of mind marked by honesty of belief and purpose, faithfulness to one's duties, observance of the fair-dealing…
- good healthIn insurance law, a reasonable state of health, free of serious disease. The phrase, common in life policies, does no…
- good juryA jury drawn from a panel summoned for that case alone, usually at a party's request in an unusually important or com…
- good moral characterConduct that squares with the community's current ethical standards and shows no deceit or morally disgraceful behavi…
- good officesIn international law, the involvement of one or more countries, or an international body, in a dispute between other…
- good timeCredit a prisoner earns for good conduct, which shortens the sentence.
- good titleA title that is legally valid and effective.
- good-faith bargainingNegotiation between an employer and the employees' representative, usually a union, in which both sides meet at reaso…
- good-faith exceptionIn criminal procedure, the exception that lets the prosecution use evidence gathered under a warrant later found to l…
- good-faith marginThe margin a careful creditor would ordinarily require for a given security position, worked out without regard to th…
- good-faith purchaserSomeone who buys something for value without notice of anyone else's claim to it or of any flaw in the seller's title.
- good-samaritan lawA statute shielding from liability a person, such as an off-duty doctor, who steps in to help someone in immediate da…
- GoodrightA name once used for a fictitious plaintiff in an ejectment action.
- goodsTangible, movable personal property other than money, especially articles of trade or items of merchandise. The word…
- goods and chattelsLoosely, personal property of any kind, though sometimes only tangible personal property.
- goodwillA business's reputation, its custom, and its other intangible assets, all of which count when the business is valued,…
- goose caseInformally, a reported case whose facts are so nearly identical to the case at hand that it ought to settle the outcome.
- goreA narrow strip of land; also a small, often triangular, piece left over where surveys fail to meet. In some New Engla…
- Gothland sea lawsAn early code of maritime law from the island of Gotland in the Baltic, widely followed by traders in northern Europe.
- governOf a precedent, to settle the point in issue.
- governing bodyThe sovereign power in a nation or state; also the group of officers or others, especially in a company, holding ulti…
- governmentThe set of principles and rules by which a state or organization is run; also the sovereign power in a nation or stat…
- government agencyA department, board, commission, or other body of the government set up to carry out a governmental job.
- government agentAn employee or representative of a government body; also, a law-enforcement officer such as a police officer or FBI a…
- government bondA non-transferable bond issued by the federal government.
- government contractA contract under which a government buys goods or services. Such contracts, including the bidding for them, are gover…
- government corporationA corporation the state creates as an agency for carrying on the work of government. Some are government-owned bodies…
- government enterpriseA business venture carried on by a government body.
- government immunityA government's protection from being sued in its own courts without its consent. Congress has given up most of the fe…
- government insuranceLife insurance the federal government writes for service members, veterans, and government employees.
- Government National Mortgage AssociationA federally owned corporation that buys residential mortgages from local lenders on the secondary market and issues f…
- government of lawsThe principle that government must act by settled, consistent legal rules rather than by the interests of whoever hol…
- government planAn employee benefit plan a government sets up and runs for its own employees at any level, including plans created un…
- Government Printing OfficeThe federal office that prints and publishes federal laws, regulations, forms, and other government documents. It has…
- government secretMilitary or diplomatic information belonging to the government that it would harm the public interest to reveal. Such…
- government securityA security issued by a government, a government agency, or a government corporation, especially one such as a Treasur…
- government surveyA survey of parcels of land, such as townships, sections, and quarter-sections, carried out by a government body.
- government tortA tort committed by the government through an employee, agent, or body under its control. Whether anyone can sue for…
- government-agency securityA security issued by a government, a government agency, or a government corporation, especially one such as a Treasur…
- government-annuity societyOne of several bodies set up in England to let working people provide for themselves by buying, on favorable terms, a…
- government-contract defenseThe rule that a company supplying goods to the federal government escapes liability under state law if it built them…
- government-controlled corporationA corporation created to serve a public purpose that stays under government control even though private investors may…
- government-in-exileA person or group living abroad who claims to be the rightful government of another country, is recognized as such by…
- government-securities interdealer brokerA broker dealing exclusively in government securities, and only for parties who are themselves government brokers or…
- government-survey systemA way of describing land that carves the country into large squares, called checks, and then cuts those into progress…
- governmental actIn tort law, conduct by a government agency that the constitution, a statute, or other law requires or allows, carrie…
- governmental activityIn tort law, conduct by a government agency that the constitution, a statute, or other law requires or allows, carrie…
- governmental employee benefit planAn employee benefit plan a government sets up and runs for its own employees at any level, including plans created un…
- governmental enterpriseAn undertaking carried on by a government body, such as a parks department creating a public park.
- governmental functionIn tort law, conduct by a government agency that the constitution, a statute, or other law requires or allows, carrie…
- governmental immunityA government's protection from being sued in its own courts without its consent. Congress has given up most of the fe…
- governmental instrumentalityAn agency created by a constitution or a statute that is shielded from certain liabilities, such as taxes or punitive…
- governmental planAn employee benefit plan a government sets up and maintains for its own employees at any level, including plans made…
- governmental secretMilitary or diplomatic information belonging to the government that it would harm the public interest to reveal. Such…
- governmental trustA charitable trust set up to give a community facilities the government, usually a city, would ordinarily provide, an…
- governmental unitA subdivision, agency, department, county, parish, city, or other unit of a national or state government. A body with…
- governmental-function theoryThe principle that treats private conduct as state action, especially for due-process and equal-protection purposes,…
- governorThe chief executive of a U.S. state, elected by the voters and usually serving a two- or four-year term.
- governor of the commonwealthThe title given to the chief executive of a state that styles itself a commonwealth, such as Kentucky, Massachusetts,…
- GPARMGraduated-payment adjustable-rate mortgage: a mortgage on which payments start low and climb on a set schedule, while…
- GPOGovernment Printing Office, renamed the Government Publishing Office in 2014: the federal office that prints and publ…
- grab lawThe rough-and-ready ways of collecting a debt outside federal bankruptcy law, such as attachment and garnishment, and…
- grace periodExtra time allowed for doing something required, such as making a payment, without the usual penalty for being late.…
- gradatimIn Roman law, step by step. The word describes admitting successors one degree at a time when no heir stands next in…
- gradeA step on the scale of punishments, set by how serious the offense is.
- graded offenseA crime split into degrees of seriousness with a matching scale of punishment, as murder divides into first and secon…
- graduated leaseA lease whose rent changes at set intervals, either on a fixed schedule or according to periodic reappraisals of the…
- graduated taxA tax whose rate climbs as the amount taxed climbs. Most income taxes work this way, taxing higher income at higher r…
- graduated-payment adjustable-rate mortgageA mortgage that blends the two: payments start low and rise on a set schedule, as with a graduated-payment mortgage,…
- graduated-payment mortgageA mortgage whose early payments are smaller than its later ones, stepping up over time on the assumption that the bor…
- gradusIn Roman law, a step or degree of family relationship, marking a person's place in the order of succession under a wi…
- grafferA notary or scrivener.
- graffiumA register of deeds and other documents proving title to property, above all to land.
- grafioA baron or viscount, ranking below a count; also a fiscal judge responsible for collecting taxes and fines. The word…
- graftUsing a position of trust to get money or property dishonestly, above all a public official's siphoning off of public…
- grainageA duty of one-twentieth of the salt a foreign merchant imported into London.
- grammatical interpretationReading a text by its words alone.
- granatariusThe officer in charge of a granary, especially the granary of a religious house.
- grandDescribing a theft crime where the money or property taken is worth more than the amount the statute sets, which make…
- grand assizeAn old alternative to trial by battle in disputes over land, in which four knights chose twelve more to decide which…
- grand bill of saleFormerly, a document transferring title to a ship at sea; also, one transferring title from the builder to the first…
- grand capeA writ in a real action that seized the land in dispute when the tenant failed to appear, forcing the tenant to come…
- Grand Coutumier de NormandieA collection of the customary laws of the Duchy of Normandy, probably put together in the 13th century. It still supp…
- Grand DayOne of four holy days on which the courts did not sit, one falling in each term: Candlemas on 2 February, the Annunci…
- grand distressIn an action of quare impedit where the defendant has not appeared, a distress of the defendant's goods and lands to…
- grand inquestAn impeachment proceeding. The phrase also once meant the survey of English lands that William the Conqueror ordered…
- grand jurorA person serving on a grand jury.
- grand juryA body of people, often twenty-three, chosen to sit for at least a month and sometimes a year, who hear the prosecuti…
- Grand Jury ClauseThe clause of the Fifth Amendment requiring a grand jury's indictment before anyone can be tried for a serious offense.
- grand larcenyTheft of property worth more than the amount a statute sets, which turns the theft into the more serious grade of the…
- Grand RemonstranceThe protest the House of Commons issued in 1641, listing its political grievances against Charles I. It demanded thre…
- grand serjeantyA serjeanty requiring the tenant to serve the king in person, as by carrying the king's banner or sword or taking a p…
- Grand SurveyThe survey of English lands that William the Conqueror ordered in 1085 and 1086, which produced the Domesday Book.
- grand-jury witnessA witness called to give evidence in a matter a grand jury is investigating.
- grandfatherTo bring a person within the protection of a grandfather clause.
- grandfather clauseA clause once found in the constitutions of some Southern states that exempted the descendants of men who had voted b…
- grangeA farm equipped with everything needed to work it, such as a barn, granary, and stables, in particular an outlying fa…
- Granger CasesSix Supreme Court decisions of 1876 upholding the government's power to regulate what common carriers, warehouses, an…
- grantAn agreement creating a right of some kind other than the one the grantor holds, such as a lease, easement, charge, p…
- grant deedA deed containing, or implying, some but not all of the usual covenants of title, especially one in which the seller…
- grant to usesA transfer of the legal title to land to one person for another's benefit. If A conveyed land to B and his heirs to t…
- grant-in-aidMoney a government body gives a person or institution for a stated purpose, above all federal money for a state program.
- grantbackA term in a licence requiring the licensee to assign or licence back to the licensor any improvements the licensee ma…
- granteeThe person to whom property is conveyed.
- grantee-grantor indexAn index, usually kept by the county recorder, listing recorded property transactions alphabetically by the name of t…
- granting clauseThe words in a deed or other instrument that actually transfer an interest, above all in an oil-and-gas lease, where…
- grantorA person who conveys property to someone else; also a person who settles property, in particular someone who sets up…
- grantor trustA trust in which the settlor keeps so much control over the property or its income that the tax law treats the income…
- grantor-grantee indexAn index, usually kept by the county recorder, listing recorded property transactions alphabetically by the name of t…
- grantor's lienA lien a seller keeps over land sold on credit, as security for the part of the price still unpaid.
- grass hearthA tenant's customary service of bringing a plow to the lord's land and plowing it for one day.
- gratia curiaeBy the court's favor.
- gratificationA reward or payment given freely for a service or benefit; a gratuity.
- gratis dictumA statement made voluntarily, without any obligation to make it.
- gratuitousDone without any obligation to do it, or given without anything in return; also, done unnecessarily.
- gratuitous allowanceA pension a public body grants voluntarily. Because it rests on grace rather than contract, the pensioner acquires no…
- gratuitous assignmentAn assignment given or taken either in exchange for a performance or return promise that would count as consideration…
- gratuitous bailmentA bailment for which the bailee gets nothing, as where someone borrows a friend's car. Such a bailee is liable for lo…
- gratuitous considerationConsideration in name only: an act, forbearance, or promise given freely rather than in exchange. The law does not tr…
- gratuitous contractA contract made for the benefit of a promisee who gives the promisor nothing in return.
- gratuitous deedA deed signed and delivered with nothing given in return.
- gratuitous depositA deposit of goods for safekeeping for which the person holding them gets nothing. Such a keeper is liable for losing…
- gratuitous giftA gift made with nothing given in return, as most gifts are. The phrase looks redundant, but it answers the Roman don…
- gratuitous promiseA promise given for nothing in return and so unsupported by consideration. Courts will not normally enforce it.
- gratuitous suretyA surety who gets nothing for taking on the obligation to the creditor. The commonest example is a parent who signs a…
- gravamenThe heart of a claim, grievance, or complaint.
- gray marketA market in which sellers use lawful but questionable methods to bypass a manufacturer's own distribution chain and s…
- gray mule caseInformally, a reported case whose facts are so nearly identical to the case at hand that it ought to settle the outcome.
- gray-market goodsGoods bearing genuine trademarks that are made abroad and imported into the United States to compete with home-made g…
- graymailA criminal defendant's threat to bring out classified information at trial, made in the hope that the government will…
- great bodily injuryBodily injury that is substantial rather than slight: significant harm to the body, well beyond minor cuts and bruises.
- great careThe degree of care a prudent person takes over their own most important affairs; also, the care that the person best…
- great diligenceThe care a very prudent person takes in handling their own property of the kind in question.
- great feeIn feudal law, a fee held directly from the Crown.
- Great InquestThe survey of English lands that William the Conqueror ordered in 1085 and 1086, which produced the Domesday Book.
- Great Lakes ruleThe rule that a party in an admiralty case may have a jury trial in a contract or tort action if the case arises on w…
- Great Law, TheThe first code of laws in Pennsylvania, passed by an assembly in 1682.
- great pondIn Maine and Massachusetts, a body of water bigger than ten acres, which for that reason belongs to the public.
- Great Rolls of the ExchequerThe Exchequer's records of royal revenue, covering feudal dues, court fees, and the taxes the sheriffs collected. The…
- great sealThe official seal of the United States, which the Secretary of State keeps and affixes.
- Great SurveyThe survey of English lands that William the Conqueror ordered in 1085 and 1086, which produced the Domesday Book.
- great titheA tithe paid in goods rather than money, and so counted as worth more than other tithes. Corn, peas, beans, hay, and…
- Great Waters ProgramA program Congress created in 1990 giving the Environmental Protection Agency direct responsibility for protecting la…
- Great WritThe writ of habeas corpus, by which a court orders whoever holds a prisoner to bring the prisoner before it and justi…
- greeSatisfaction a party received for an offense or injury done to them.
- green cardThe registration card showing that a foreign national holds permanent resident status in the United States.
- Green ClothThe board that ran the royal household's staff, above all its money: accounting for expenses and paying the servants.…
- Green River ordinanceA local licensing law that shields residents from unwanted peddlers and salespeople, usually by banning door-to-door…
- green waxAn Exchequer order, called an estreat, directing a sheriff to collect the fines and penalties it listed. The name com…
- green-card marriageA marriage in which an American citizen weds a foreign citizen solely so that the foreigner can become a permanent U.…
- greenmailBuying enough stock in a company to threaten a hostile takeover and then selling it back to the company at an inflate…
- greffierA registrar, especially of a court; the keeper of the court's records.
- Gregorian calendarThe modern system of reckoning time, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and adopted in England and the American…
- Gregorian CodeA collection of Roman imperial constitutions gathered late in the third century, the earliest such compilation and a…
- gremio juris, inIn the bosom of the right. The phrase describes a clause once put into an instrument to bind whoever held it to its t…
- gremio legis, inIn the bosom of the law: a figurative way of describing something under the law's protection, such as a title to land…
- Grenville ActThe statute that moved the hearing of parliamentary election petitions from the whole House of Commons to select comm…
- gressumeA fine a copyhold tenant paid when the copyhold estate changed hands, above all on the lord's death.
- Gretna-Green marriageA marriage made somewhere other than where the couple live, to escape a legal obstacle at home; a runaway marriage. G…
- grievanceAn injury, injustice, or wrong that gives someone ground to complain, and also the complaint itself. In labor law it…
- grievance arbitrationArbitration about whether an existing contract has been broken or what it means, ending in a final ruling on the cont…
- grievance procedureA step-by-step process for settling an employee's complaint. The first step usually happens at shop level with a supe…
- grievantAn employee who files a grievance and takes it through the procedure set out in a collective-bargaining agreement.
- grieveTo take a dispute through a grievance procedure.
- grievous bodily harmReally serious injury to the body: harm well beyond the trifling or short-lived.
- GRMGross rent multiplier: the ratio between the market value of rent-producing property and the annual gross rent it bri…
- grog-shopA place where alcoholic drink is sold; a bar or saloon.
- gross adventureA loan on bottomry, so called because the lender bears the general average.
- gross averageThe loss that follows when part of a ship or its cargo is deliberately sacrificed to save the rest from total loss. E…
- gross charterA charter under which the shipowner supplies all the crew and pays all the expenses.
- gross earningsTotal income from all sources before deductions, exemptions, or other reductions for tax.
- gross estateThe total value of a dead person's property before any deductions.
- gross incomeTotal income from every source, before deductions, exemptions, or other reductions.
- gross interestA borrower's interest payment with administrative, service, and insurance charges folded into it.
- gross leaseA lease under which the tenant pays one flat rent and the landlord pays all the running costs out of it, such as gas,…
- gross misdemeanorA serious misdemeanor, though still short of a felony.
- gross national productThe market value of everything a country produces in a year, used as a measure of its wealth and economic development.
- gross neglect of dutyDeliberately walking away from one's duties without justification, whether military duties or duties to a spouse or f…
- gross negligenceAlmost complete want of care. The phrase also covers a deliberate act or omission showing reckless disregard for a le…
- gross premiumThe net premium plus the insurer's expenses, known as the loading, less the interest allowance; also the premium char…
- gross profitTotal sales revenue minus the cost of the goods sold, with no allowance made for other expenses or for tax.
- gross receiptsIn tax law, everything of value a business takes in during the year for goods sold or services done, before any deduc…
- gross salesTotal sales, especially in retail, before subtracting returns and allowances.
- gross spreadIn investment banking, the gap between what the underwriter pays the issuer for a security and what the public pays f…
- gross upIn tax practice, to add back into a dead person's gross estate the gift taxes that the person or the estate paid on g…
- gross weightThe whole weight of a thing, including its contents and packaging.
- gross-income multiplierThe ratio between the market value of rent-producing property and the annual gross rent it brings in, used as a quick…
- gross-income taxA tax on everything a business takes in rather than on its profit: an income tax that allows no deduction for expenses.
- gross-receipts taxA tax on everything a business takes in rather than on its profit: an income tax that allows no deduction for expenses.
- gross-rent multiplierThe ratio between the market value of rent-producing property and the annual gross rent it brings in, used as a quick…
- gross, easement inAn easement that benefits a particular person rather than a particular piece of land. The person who holds it need no…
- grossly unsound, unreasonable, or illegalDescribing an exercise of discretion so far outside what is defensible that a court will set it aside.
- grossomeA fine a copyhold tenant paid when the copyhold estate changed hands, above all on the lord's death.
- groundThe reason a claim or argument rests on.
- ground for recusalA circumstance, such as a personal interest or a relationship with a party, that requires a judge to step aside from…
- ground landlordThe person who grants an estate out of which ground rent is kept back.
- ground leaseA long lease, usually of 99 years, of bare land. It is typically commercial, and any buildings the tenant puts up nor…
- ground of actionThe set of facts that gives someone the right to sue and to obtain a remedy in court; also the legal theory on which…
- ground rentA yearly payment made for the use of land.
- ground writA writ issued in the county where a case belonged, so that a writ of capias ad satisfaciendum or fieri facias could t…
- ground-rent leaseA long lease, usually of 99 years, of bare land. It is typically commercial, and any buildings the tenant puts up nor…
- groundageIn maritime law, a charge levied on a vessel lying in port, and the money so paid.
- groundlessOf a claim or argument, resting on no good reason and having no validity.
- grounds for divorceThe reasons the law accepts for granting a divorce. Fault grounds include adultery, cruelty, and desertion; no-fault…
- group annuityAn annuity payable to the members of a group, especially employees, under a single contract such as a group pension p…
- group boycottIn antitrust law, an agreement between two or more people or firms not to deal with a third party. Those agreeing nee…
- group insuranceInsurance offered to someone as a member of a group, such as a company's workforce, and lasting as long as they stay…
- group libelDefamation aimed at a group rather than a named person. A member of the group can generally sue only if the group is…
- group litigationA set of lawsuits brought by or against many people who are treated as a single party, such as a civil-rights organiz…
- group policyA single insurance policy covering a whole group of people, usually a company's employees, under one master contract…
- grouping-of-contacts theoryThe rule that when a case touches several states, the court applies the law of the state with the closest and most si…
- growing cropA crop still rooted in the ground and still growing, which counts as part of the land until it is harvested or sold a…
- growing cropsCrops still in the ground and growing. Courts differ on the stage at which a crop counts as growing, and on whether p…
- growing-equity mortgageA mortgage paid off over a much shorter period than the usual 25 to 30 years, with the payments rising each year.
- growthThe rise in the value of securities or of a business.
- growth companyA company whose earnings have risen quickly and which usually ploughs much of its income back into the business.
- growth fundA mutual fund that invests mainly in well-established companies whose earnings are expected to grow. Such funds pay s…
- growth industryAn industry or line of business whose sales and earnings climb steadily.
- growth managementIn land-use planning, controlling how fast a community grows, usually through ordinances limiting how many residentia…
- growth stockStock in a growth company. Because such a company reinvests much of its income, the stock pays low dividends but tend…
- gruariiThe chief officers of a forest.
- grubstake contractA contract in which one party puts up money and supplies while the other prospects for and locates mines on public la…
- grubstaking contractA contract under which one party puts up the grubstake, meaning money and supplies, and the other goes prospecting fo…
- grundnormIn Hans Kelsen's legal theory, the basic norm: the ultimate rule from which every other law in a society draws its au…
- GSAGeneral Services Administration: the independent federal agency that looks after the government's property and record…
- guaranteeAn assurance that a contract or legal act will be properly carried out. The word also means a promise to answer for a…
- guarantee clauseA term in a contract, deed, or mortgage by which one person promises to pay what another owes. In constitutional law…
- guarantee stockA fixed investment in a building-and-loan association that cannot be withdrawn. It guarantees the association's other…
- guaranteed annual wage planA pay arrangement under which the employer promises either a minimum sum each year or a minimum number of hours of wo…
- guaranteed bondA bond issued by one company and guaranteed by another, common among railroads; also, a bond issued by a subsidiary w…
- guaranteed investment contractA contract under which an institutional investor, such as a pension fund, hands an insurer a lump sum, and the insure…
- guaranteed stockPreferred stock whose dividend someone other than the issuer, usually a parent company, guarantees.
- guaranteed-purchase contractA contract between a real-estate agency and a property owner under which the agency promises to buy the property itse…
- guaranteed-sale contractA contract between a real-estate agency and an owner under which the agency will buy the property at a guaranteed pri…
- guarantorA person who gives a guaranty or puts up security for a debt. A surety is on the hook from the start, alongside the p…
- guarantor of collectibilityA person who guarantees that the debtor is solvent and who must pay only if the creditor cannot collect from the debt…
- guarantor of paymentA person who guarantees that a negotiable instrument will be paid when due, so that the holder may come straight to t…
- guarantyA promise to answer for another's debt or duty if that person, who is liable first, fails to perform. The word belong…
- guaranty bondA bond combining the features of a fidelity bond and a surety bond, securing both payment and performance.
- guaranty companyA company licensed to make guaranty and suretyship contracts and to stand as surety on bonds, especially bail, fideli…
- guaranty fundA private deposit-insurance fund, built mainly from levies on banks, used to repay depositors when a bank fails. Such…
- guaranty insuranceAn agreement to cover a loss caused by someone else's default, insolvency, or specified misconduct.
- guaranty letter of creditA letter of credit backing an obligation, whether to pay money or to do something else such as finish construction wo…
- guaranty of collectionA guaranty under which the creditor must first exhaust its legal remedies against the principal debtor before it can…
- guaranty of paymentA guaranty under which the guarantor must pay as soon as the debt falls due, without the creditor having to try to co…
- guaranty stockStock in a savings-and-loan association that pays its holders a dividend only after the depositors have been paid the…
- guaranty treatyAn agreement between countries that sets up a guarantee, either one-way or mutual.
- guardhouse lawyerA prison inmate who works at winning release through legal procedures, or who dispenses legal advice to other inmates.
- guardianA person with the legal authority and the duty to look after another person or that person's property, usually becaus…
- guardian ad litemA guardian, usually a lawyer, whom the court appoints to act in a lawsuit for a party who is a child or lacks capacity.
- guardian by electionA guardian a child chooses when the child would otherwise have none.
- guardian by estoppelSomeone who takes charge of a child's person or property without any legal authority to do so, and whom the law then…
- guardian by natureThe parent who acts as guardian of an heir apparent under the age of 21. The common law made the father guardian by n…
- guardian by nurtureThe parent who acts as guardian of a child who is not the heir apparent, until the child turns 14.
- guardian by statuteA guardian whose authority comes from a statute rather than the common law, such as one a parent appoints by will und…
- guardian de son tortSomeone who takes charge of a child's person or property without any legal authority to do so, and whom the law then…
- guardian in chivalryA guardian who, by right of knight's service, had custody of the body and lands of a male heir under 21 or a female h…
- guardian in socageA guardian for a child under 14 who has inherited land. The guardian was usually a relative who could not possibly in…
- guardian of the poorAn officer responsible for relieving and maintaining the poor of a parish, administering the funds raised under the P…
- guardian of the spiritualitiesThe person who exercises a diocese's spiritual and church jurisdiction while the see is vacant or the bishop away.
- guardian of the temporalitiesThe person to whom the Crown entrusts the worldly possessions of a vacant see or abbey. Those possessions, called the…
- gubernator navisIn Roman law, a ship's pilot or steersman, who could be sued for the damage if a collision came of his carelessness.
- guerrilla warfareFighting carried on by individuals or small bands, usually outside any regular army, through surprise attacks, ambush…
- guestA person who is entertained or shown hospitality; also a person who pays for service at a hotel or restaurant, or som…
- guest statuteA law barring a non-paying passenger in a private vehicle from suing the driver for injuries caused by ordinary carel…
- guidageA fee paid for guiding a traveler through strange or dangerous country; also the guiding itself.
- guildA voluntary society of people in the same trade or craft, formed for their mutual benefit and protection, its running…
- guild rentRent a guild paid to the Crown.
- guildhallA guild's meeting place; also a city's chief hall, used for holding court and for meetings of the municipal corporation.
- guiltHaving committed a wrong, above all a crime.
- guiltlessFree of guilt, having done no wrong; also, having the look or air of innocence.
- guiltyHaving committed a crime, or answerable for one; also answerable for a civil wrong such as a tort or a breach of cont…
- guilty but mentally illA verdict in which the jury rejects the defendant's insanity defense but, finding the defendant mentally ill, calls f…
- guilty mindThe state of mind the prosecution must prove the defendant had when committing the crime, whether criminal intent or…
- guilty pleaAn accused person's formal admission in court of committing the charged offense, usually as part of a plea bargain. I…
- guilty verdictA jury's formal finding that the defendant committed the charged offense.
- gun-control lawA statute or ordinance regulating the sale, possession, or use of firearms. These laws vary widely from state to stat…
- gun-jumpingInformally, unlawfully drumming up public buyers for securities before the SEC has cleared the registration statement…
- gwalstowA place where criminals were put to death.
- gynecocracyGovernment by women: a state in which women may lawfully hold the highest offices.
- gyveA shackle for the leg.