Terms beginning with H
557 headwords
- HIn citations to English statutes, the letter stands for a king named Henry; in the Year Books, for the Hilary term; a…
- H.CHouse of Commons: the lower chamber of the British and Canadian parliaments.
- H.RHouse of Representatives: the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress, made up of 435 members shared out among the states…
- habeA form of the greeting ave, meaning hail.
- habeas corpora juratorumA writ ordering the sheriff to produce jurors and, if need be, to seize their lands and goods as security for their t…
- Habeas Corpus ActOne of the four great charters of English liberty, passed in 1679, giving subjects a quick remedy against unlawful im…
- habeas corpus ad respondendumA writ used in civil cases to take a person out of one court's custody and into another's, so that the person can be…
- habeas corpus ad satisfaciendumIn England, a writ bringing a prisoner against whom judgment has been entered before a higher court, so that the winn…
- habeas corpus cum causaA writ that lifts a case out of an inferior court and into a superior one, bringing the prisoner along with the cause…
- habendum clauseThe part of a deed that marks out how large an interest is being granted and any conditions attached to it. It tradit…
- habereTo have a right to something. The word was sometimes set against tenere, to hold, and possidere, to possess: habere p…
- habere facias seisinamA writ of execution ordering the sheriff to put the winning party in seisin of the land recovered. It was the proper…
- habere facias visumA writ letting a litigant inspect the land in dispute.
- habit evidenceEvidence of a person's regular response to a repeated situation.
- habitabilityThe state of a building in which people can live without serious defects that would endanger their health or safety.
- habitability, implied warranty ofIn a residential lease, the landlord's promise, implied by law, that the place is fit to live in and will stay fit th…
- habitantIn old French law, a person holding land in feudal tenure from a seignior. The word also means a French-descended nat…
- habitatioThe right to live in a place: free residence in another's house. It was usually given by will.
- habitationLiving in a place, or occupying it; also a dwelling or home. In civil law it means a right to live in property belong…
- habitual criminalA person convicted of several criminal offenses, usually of a similar kind; a repeat offender.
- habitual offenderA person convicted of several criminal offenses, usually of a similar kind; a repeat offender.
- hableA port or harbor; a station for ships.
- hacienda particularIn Spanish law, private property.
- hacienda publicaPublic revenue or public assets; also a government treasury.
- hacienda socialIn Spanish law, property belonging to a corporation or partnership.
- hadCommenced or begun, as in a statute saying that no legal proceeding may be had, usually followed by the words or main…
- had-not testIn tort and criminal law, the rule that an act causes a result only if the result would not have happened without it.
- Hadley v. Baxendale ruleThe rule that a party can recover consequential damages for breach of contract only if, when the contract was made, b…
- haec verbaIn these words: word for word, exactly as written.
- haereditasIn Roman law, an inheritance taken by universal succession to a dead person, whether or not there was a will and whet…
- haeresThe successor to a dead person's rights and liabilities: an heir. Because this successor took on the debts as well as…
- haeretico comburendoA writ ordering a heretic to be burned, issued where the bishop had already convicted the person of heresy and taken…
- hafne courtA haven court: one of several courts once held in certain English ports.
- Hague Academy of International LawA center for advanced study of international law, both public and private, meant to allow full and impartial examinat…
- Hague ConventionAny of a number of international conventions, each dealing with a different legal problem and each aiming to bring th…
- Hague TribunalThe permanent court of arbitration set up by the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 to give states quick access to arbitr…
- haircutIn securities law, the discount a brokerage firm must take on the value of stock it holds in its own account when rep…
- haircut reorganizationA restructuring of whatever debt is left after a creditor writes off part of what the debtor owes.
- halfOne of two equal parts of a thing.
- half bloodThe relationship between people who share one parent but not both.
- half brotherA brother by one parent only, sharing either the same father or the same mother but not both.
- half nephewThe son of one's half brother or half sister.
- half nieceThe daughter of one's half brother or half sister.
- half orphanA child who has lost one parent, the other still living.
- half sectionA piece of land of 320 acres, marked off either by a north-south or by an east-west line: half of a section.
- half sisterA sister by one parent only: a female sibling sharing either the same father or the same mother, but not both.
- half-pilotagePayment of half what a pilot's services would have been worth. In some places a shipowner can escape compulsory pilot…
- half-proofProof resting on a single witness or on a private document; also proof that makes out a case at first sight but still…
- half-sealA seal used in Chancery to seal commissions to the Court of Delegates on appeals in church or maritime cases. It fell…
- half-timerIn England, a child released from full-time schooling under the Factory and Workshop Act of 1908 so as to work part-t…
- half-tongueIn England, a jury summoned to try a foreigner, made up half of one nationality and half of another. The practice end…
- half-yearA period of six months, whether the calendar half beginning on 1 January or on 1 July, or any six-month stretch measu…
- halfendealHalf of a thing.
- halfway houseA supervised residence meant to help people find their feet after leaving prison or a medical facility, or others who…
- Halifax lawLynch law: an irreversible punishment carried out after a summary trial, in particular the unauthorized trial and exe…
- haligemotA court baron, above all one held to settle disputes between feudal tenants. Wealthy abbeys commonly ran such courts…
- hallA building or room of some size used for meetings of public assemblies, conventions, and courts. The word once meant…
- hallageA fee due on goods sold in a hall used as a market, payable to the lord of the fair or market.
- hallazgoFinding ownerless property and taking possession of it; also the first taker whom the law recognizes as owner.
- halle-gemotA court baron, above all one held to settle disputes between feudal tenants. Wealthy abbeys commonly ran such courts…
- hallmarkThe official stamp goldsmiths and silversmiths put on gold or silver articles to show they are genuine; more generall…
- hallmootA court baron, above all one held to settle disputes between feudal tenants. Wealthy abbeys commonly ran such courts…
- halymoteA hall court: a gathering of citizens or guild members held in their hall, and in feudal times a court held there for…
- hameletaA small village, part of a larger vill. In the countryside a hamlet might amount to no more than a store, a church, a…
- hamesuckenBreaking into a house or burgling it with violence.
- hamletA small village, part of a larger vill. In the countryside a hamlet might amount to no more than a store, a church, a…
- hamletaA small village, part of a larger vill. In the countryside a hamlet might amount to no more than a store, a church, a…
- hammerInformally, a forced sale, or a sale by public auction.
- Hammurabi, Code ofThe oldest known written code of laws, produced in Mesopotamia during the reign of Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to…
- hanaperA basket or hamper in which Chancery kept its writs and returns; also the Chancery treasury, filled from the fees cha…
- Hanaper OfficeAn office once belonging to the common-law side of the Court of Chancery. Its name comes from storing writs in a hamp…
- handA person's handwriting. The word also means a share in doing something, a person who does the work, possession, help,…
- hand downTo announce or file a court's opinion. The phrase first described an appellate opinion sent down to the court below,…
- Hand formulaJudge Learned Hand's test, set out in a 1947 shipping case, for whether conduct created an unreasonable risk. A perso…
- hand moneyMoney handed over on the spot to seal a bargain: earnest money paid in cash.
- hand noteA note backed by a separate collateral note.
- hand upOf a grand jury, to deliver an indictment to the criminal court.
- hand-fastingA betrothal made by clasping hands and agreeing to live together as husband and wife.
- handbillA written or printed notice handed out, posted, or displayed, usually to tell people about an event or something to b…
- handhabendOf a thief, caught still holding the stolen goods.
- hands-off agreementA term in an agreement between an employer and a departing employee barring the employee from using what they learned…
- handsaleA sale sealed by a handshake. In time the word also came to mean the earnest money handed over right after the shake.…
- handwritingThe particular cast and form of a person's writing: the size, shape, and style of the letters and everything else tha…
- hangOf a jury, to be unable to agree on a verdict.
- hanged, drawn, and quarteredThe old sentence for high treason: the prisoner was dragged to the place of execution on a hurdle, hanged by the neck…
- hangingExecution by suspending a person above the ground from a rope around the neck. Death comes either from asphyxiation,…
- hanging in chainsIn England, the practice in especially shocking cases of hanging an executed murderer's body in chains near the scene…
- hanging judgeA judge notoriously harsh on defendants, above all those facing capital charges, and sometimes corruptly so.
- hangmanAn executioner, above all one who puts condemned prisoners to death by hanging.
- HansardThe official published report of debates in the British Parliament, named after Thomas Hansard, whose firm printed it…
- hanseA merchant guild, above all one trading abroad; also the fee charged to join it, or the levy imposed on merchants who…
- Hanse TownsThe German cities, Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen among them, that allied in the 12th century to protect and promote the…
- Hanse Towns, laws of theThe laws of the Hanseatic towns, above all Lübeck, published in German at Lübeck in 1597 and revised and enlarged in…
- hanseaticHaving to do with the union of the Hanse Towns and the trading league they formed.
- happiness, right to pursueThe constitutional right to follow any lawful business or activity, in any way that does not trample the equal rights…
- harassmentWords, conduct, or behavior aimed at a particular person, usually repeated or persistent, that annoys, alarms, or cau…
- harbingerIn England, a royal officer sent ahead to arrange lodging for troops or for a traveling royal party. The word also me…
- harbor lineA line marking off the part of public water reserved for a harbor, in particular the line beyond which wharves and ot…
- harbor, safeA place or means of protection; also a provision in a statute or regulation that shields someone from liability or pe…
- harboringGiving lodging, shelter, or refuge to someone, above all to a criminal or a person present in the country unlawfully.
- hard caseA case whose facts pull so strongly on the conscience that a judge is tempted to stretch or ignore the legal principl…
- hard currencyCurrency backed by reserves, especially of gold and silver.
- hard dollarsCash proceeds paid to a seller; also the part of an equity investment that cannot be deducted in the first year.
- hard goodsGoods meant to last and be used over time, such as appliances, furniture, and cars, rather than consumed at once.
- hard laborWork imposed on prisoners as extra punishment, usually for misconduct inside. Several states, among them Louisiana, M…
- hard moneyCoined money, as opposed to paper currency; also cash.
- hard sellA selling technique built on slogans, aggression, intimidation, and pressure to decide on the spot.
- hard-look doctrineIn administrative law, the rule that a court should examine an agency's decision closely to be sure it did not come o…
- hardshipPrivation, suffering, or adversity.
- harmInjury, loss, or damage.
- harmful errorAn error that affects a party's substantive rights or changes the outcome, and so justifies reversal if the party obj…
- harmless errorAn error that does not affect a party's substantive rights or the outcome of the case, and so is no ground for reversal.
- harmonic planeAn arbitrary zero point chosen by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey as the base for its tide tables, charts, and maps.
- harmonyAgreement, accord, or conformity.
- harrowIn Norman and early English law, an outcry raised to pursue felons and wrongdoers.
- Harter ActAn 1893 federal statute dividing the risk of damage to cargo at sea, relieving a carrier of liability for certain eve…
- haspaThe hasp of a door. Livery of seisin was often performed in the doorway of a building on the land being handed over.
- hastaIn Roman law, a sale by auction, marked by a spear stuck in the ground; hence the phrase hastae subicere, to put up f…
- hat moneyA small gratuity traditionally paid to a ship's master, and sometimes the crew, for looking after the cargo.
- Hatch ActThe 1939 federal statute limiting political campaigning by federal employees and capping what individuals may give to…
- hate crimeA crime committed because of the victim's race, color, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Some campaigners have…
- hate speechSpeech that conveys nothing beyond hatred of a group, such as a race, above all where it is likely to provoke violence.
- hauberA high lord, or a great baron.
- haulage royaltyA royalty paid to a landowner for hauling coal along an underground passage beneath their land from a mine on neighbo…
- haustusA servitude giving the right to draw water from a well or spring on another's land, commonly called aquaehaustus. A r…
- haveA form of the greeting ave, meaning hail.
- have and holdThe traditional opening words of a deed's habendum clause, which mark out the estate the buyer takes and any conditio…
- hawkerA traveling salesperson who sells goods in the street, above all one who cries out the merits of the wares in a loud…
- hawkingOffering goods for sale by calling them out, whether door to door or in the street.
- hayboteThe right of a tenant for life or for years to take material for repairing hedges and fences or for making farm imple…
- haywardAn officer of a town or manor charged with keeping fences and hedges in repair, above all to stop cattle from breakin…
- Hazantown agreementA form of collective-bargaining agreement used in the garment trade, governing the dealings between a jobber and the…
- hazard payExtra pay for work done in unpleasant or dangerous conditions.
- hazarderA player in an unlawful dice game.
- hazardous contractA contract in which at least one side's performance turns on an uncertain event outside the parties' control. Most in…
- hazardous employmentWork carrying a high risk of injury. For workers' compensation, such work often obliges an employer to carry cover wh…
- hazardous negligenceCareless or reckless conduct that puts someone in extreme danger of injury or in immediate peril.
- hazardous substanceA toxic pollutant; a chemical or mixture dangerous enough to pose an immediate threat.
- hazardous wasteWaste that, because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious character, may cause or sign…
- HDCHolder in due course: someone who takes a negotiable instrument for value, in good faith, and without notice of any d…
- heA masculine pronoun, traditionally read in statutes as covering both sexes and corporations as well, and sometimes re…
- head moneyA tax on everyone within a stated class, a poll tax. The phrase also covers a bounty a government offered for each pr…
- head of householdThe person who brings in most of a family's income. For income-tax purposes it means an unmarried or separated person…
- head shopA shop selling items meant for use with illegal drugs.
- head taxA fixed tax charged on each person alike, whatever their means; also the duty an 1882 federal statute laid on shipown…
- head-silverMoney a tenant owed the lord to meet the cost of holding a court leet, or to let the parties try their case nearer home.
- head-start injunctionAn injunction barring the defendant from using a stolen trade secret for a period as long as the gap between the thef…
- headboroughThe head of a tithing or frankpledge; also a petty constable.
- headleaseThe main lease out of which a sublease has been carved.
- headlessorThe landlord under a lease of property that has since been sublet.
- headnoteA short summary printed above a judicial opinion in a law report, stating a point of law decided and usually the fact…
- headnote lawyerInformally, a lawyer who works from the headnotes of opinions rather than taking the time to read the opinions themse…
- headrightIn American Indian law, a tribe member's right to a proportionate share of the income from a tribal trust fund set up…
- headright certificateA certificate issued under an 1839 law of the Republic of Texas entitling a person to a grant of 640 acres if they ha…
- headwaterThe stretch of a river or stream nearest its source.
- healthSoundness of body, mind, or spirit; freedom from pain or sickness.
- health insuranceInsurance that covers the cost of medical care needed because of illness or injury.
- health lawA statute, ordinance, or code setting sanitary standards and rules to protect and improve the community's health.
- health officerA government official whose job is to carry out and enforce the health laws. The law sets the limits of such an offic…
- health-maintenance organizationA group of participating doctors, hospitals, and other providers who deliver medical care to the members of a group h…
- healthcare-insurance receivableA right to be paid under an insurance policy for healthcare goods or services already provided.
- hearingA court session, usually open to the public, held to settle questions of fact or law, sometimes with witnesses giving…
- hearing de novoA reviewing court's fresh decision of a matter, giving no weight to the lower court's findings; also, a new hearing c…
- hearing examinerAn official who presides at an administrative hearing, with power to swear witnesses, take evidence, rule on objectio…
- hearing officerAn official who presides at an administrative hearing and decides the case, also called an administrative-law judge.
- hearsayTraditionally, evidence in which a witness repeats not what they know first-hand but what someone else said, so that…
- hearsay evidenceTestimony repeating what someone else said rather than what the witness knows personally, so that its value depends o…
- hearsay ruleThe rule that a witness's earlier out-of-court statement, offered to prove what it asserts, is hearsay and generally…
- hearsay within hearsayA hearsay statement quoted inside another hearsay statement, as when a witness repeats what one person said another p…
- heartbalm statuteA state law abolishing the old claims for alienation of affections, breach of promise to marry, criminal conversation…
- hearth moneyA tax of two shillings on every fireplace in England, brought in under Charles II in 1662 and so unpopular that it wa…
- heat of passionRage, terror, or furious hatred flaring up suddenly in response to immediate provocation, usually another person's wo…
- heavy workWork involving frequent lifting and carrying of heavy items. Under the Social Security Administration's rules for des…
- heboteA proclamation calling the army into the field.
- hedagiumA toll due at a wharf for landing goods. The Crown exempted certain people and bodies from paying it.
- hedgeTo arrange matters in advance so as to protect oneself against loss on an investment or speculation, as a commodity b…
- hedge fundA specialized investment pool, usually set up as a limited partnership or an offshore company, that chases high retur…
- hedgeboteThe right of a tenant for life or for years to take material for repairing hedges and fences or for making farm imple…
- hedonic damagesDamages meant to compensate for the loss of the pleasure of being alive. Most jurisdictions do not allow them.
- hedonistic utilitarianismThe theory that a law should be judged by how far it promotes the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Jeremy B…
- heeding presumptionA presumption, open to rebuttal, that an injured user of a product would have heeded a warning label if the maker had…
- heedlessActing with no thought for the consequences: the actor does not want the harm but sees that it may happen and runs th…
- heedlessnessThoughtless and inconsiderate behavior, above all conduct that disregards the rights or safety of others. Courts ofte…
- hegemonismA position that argues for hegemony; also, any form of political expansion pursued by dominating others.
- hegemonyInfluence, authority, or supremacy over others; in particular one state's drive to lead or dominate the others in a c…
- heightened scrutinyA standard of review sitting between rational-basis review and strict scrutiny. Where a statute draws a quasi-suspect…
- heinousShockingly evil; hateful and wicked in the extreme.
- heinousnessThe quality of being shockingly evil. In capital cases, the heinousness of a murder is often one of the aggravating f…
- heir apparentAn heir bound to inherit unless they die first or a valid will shuts them out.
- heir beneficiaryAn heir who accepts an inheritance only after an inventory is taken, and who is therefore liable for the dead person'…
- heir by adoptionA person adopted by the deceased and so made an heir. By statute in most places an adopted child inherits on intestac…
- heir by customIn England, a person whose right to inherit rests on a particular local custom, such as gavelkind or borough English.
- heir expectantA person who will inherit if they outlive the present owner, but whose expectation depends on that and on not being c…
- heir generalThe heir at law: the person who takes under the ordinary rules of descent rather than under a special limitation.
- heir in tailAn heir who takes property according to the terms of an estate held in fee tail. Such heirs were said to take per for…
- heir maleThe nearest male blood relation of the dead person.
- heir of the bloodAn heir who takes an estate through blood relationship to the deceased, whether in the ascending or the descending line.
- heir of the bodyA direct descendant of the dead person, which leaves out a surviving spouse, adopted children, and relations off the…
- heir presumptiveAn heir who would inherit if the present owner died at once, but who may yet be displaced by the birth of a nearer re…
- heir specialAn heir who takes property according to the terms of an estate held in fee tail. Such heirs were said to take per for…
- heir-hunterSomeone whose business is tracing missing heirs.
- heirdomThe state of being an heir; succession by inheritance.
- heirless estateThe property of someone who dies without a will and without heirs.
- heirloomAn item of personal property that by local custom passes to the heir with the land, instead of going, as the general…
- heirs and assignsThe words once required to create a fee simple, so that a grant to a person and their heirs and assigns passed the fu…
- heirshipThe state of being an heir; also the relationship between an ancestor and an heir.
- hell-or-high-water clauseA clause in a lease of goods requiring the lessee to keep paying the full rent even if the thing leased turns out to…
- hell-or-high-water ruleThe rule that someone leasing goods must pay the full rent due whatever claims they may have against the lessor, unle…
- henceforthFrom now on.
- heordpennyA tax levied on each house in England and paid to the Pope, so called because it was collected on St Peter's Day.
- Hepburn ActA 1906 federal statute amending the Interstate Commerce Act to widen the now-defunct Interstate Commerce Commission's…
- heptarchyGovernment by seven rulers; also a country divided into seven governments, in particular the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdo…
- heraldIn England and Scotland, one of the officers who keep genealogical records, settle questions of coats of arms, and ma…
- herbageIn England, a right to pasture animals on another's land.
- herdwerchHerdsmen's work: customary labor done by shepherds and lesser tenants at the lord's pleasure.
- hereafterFrom now on; also at some future time.
- herebannumA proclamation calling the army into the field; also a fine for failing to join the army when called, and a tax raise…
- hereboteA proclamation calling the army into the field.
- herebyBy this document, or by these very words.
- heredadA piece of land under cultivation, a working farm; also an inheritance.
- heredad yacenteAn inheritance not yet accepted.
- herederoThe owner of a cultivated farm; also an heir.
- heredesSuccessors to the rights and liabilities of a dead person: heirs. Because such a successor took on the debts as well…
- heredes proximiThe nearest or next heirs.
- heredipetaA legacy-hunter: someone who goes chasing an inheritance.
- heredis institutioIn Roman law, naming someone in a will as the testator's heir. A will that appointed no heir could fail altogether.
- hereditamentAnything that can be inherited, including whatever passes on an intestacy; also real property or land.
- hereditaryPassing by inheritance from an ancestor to an heir.
- hereditary successionSuccession under the common-law rules of descent.
- hereditasIn Roman law, an inheritance taken by universal succession to a dead person, whether or not there was a will and whet…
- hereditas damnosaA burdensome inheritance: one whose debts come to more than its assets.
- hereditas legitimaAn inheritance that passes by operation of law rather than under a will.
- hereditas luctuosaA mournful inheritance: one that upsets the natural order of dying, as when a parent inherits from a child. The phras…
- hereditas testamentariaInheritance under a will: succession to an estate by the terms the dead person laid down.
- heredityIn older usage, hereditary succession or an inheritance. The word also means the passing of characteristics from pare…
- hereinIn this thing, meaning this document, section, or matter.
- hereinafterLater in this document.
- hereofOf this thing, meaning this provision or document.
- heresThe successor to a dead person's rights and liabilities: an heir. Because this successor took on the debts as well as…
- heres ex testamentoAn heir appointed by will.
- heres factusAn heir appointed by will.
- heres fideicommissariusIn Roman law, the person for whose benefit an estate was left by will to a fiduciary heir. The position matches close…
- heres fiduciariusIn Roman law, a person made heir by will but holding for someone else's benefit: an heir bound by a trust.
- heres institutusAn heir appointed by will.
- heres rectusA right or proper heir.
- heres suusA dead person's proper or natural heir: a direct descendant. In Roman law, a free person who had been under the testa…
- heres suus et necessariusA free person under the dead person's authority. Such heirs were called necessary because the law made them heirs whe…
- heresyAn opinion or teaching contrary to church doctrine, usually Catholic doctrine. In England it was once an offense agai…
- heretoTo this document.
- heretoforeUp to now; before this time.
- hereunderBelow in this document; also, under the terms of this document.
- herewithWith this document, or in it.
- heriotA customary payment of goods and chattels owed to the lord of the fee when a tenant died. It grew out of an older feu…
- heriot customA heriot owed by local custom rather than by anything written into the grant.
- heriot serviceA heriot owed because the grant or lease of the land expressly reserved it, which made it little more than a form of…
- herislitLaying down arms and surrendering; also the crime of deserting from an army.
- heritable bondIn Scots law, a bond secured over land.
- heritable obligationAn obligation that the creditor's successor may enforce, or that may be enforced against the debtor's successor.
- heritable securityIn Scots law, a debt secured by a charge over land.
- heritageIn Scots law, land together with everything attached to it, such as a house.
- Hermogenian CodeA collection of Roman imperial constitutions assembled around the end of the third century, supplementing the earlier…
- hetaerarchaThe head of a society, corporation, or college.
- hetaeriaA society, guild, college, or fraternity.
- heuristicDescribing a way of learning or solving problems by trial and error and other experimental methods.
- HEWThe Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, a former federal agency created in 1953. When the Department of Edu…
- HHSThe Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that runs health, welfare, and income-security progra…
- hidageA tax owed to the Crown on every hide of land.
- hidalgoIn Spain, a man of the lesser nobility; a gentleman of property.
- hidalguiaIn Spain, nobility by birth and lineage.
- HIDCHolder in due course: someone who has given value in good faith for a negotiable instrument that is complete and regu…
- hidden assetAn asset carried in the books at a value well below what it would fetch on the market.
- hidden defectA flaw in a product that reasonable inspection would not reveal, and for which the seller or lessor is generally liab…
- hidden taxA tax that someone other than the person taxed ends up paying, often without realizing it, as when a tax on a manufac…
- hideIn England, as much land as one plow could work, reckoned at anywhere from 30 to 120 acres depending on local practic…
- hidegildMoney a villein or servant paid to escape a whipping.
- hidelA hiding place; a place of refuge or sanctuary.
- high bailiffA bailiff attached to a county court, responsible for attending sittings, serving summonses, and executing orders, wa…
- High Commission CourtA church tribunal that investigated religious offenses such as adultery, holding heretical opinions, and staying away…
- High CourtThe senior civil court of England and Wales.
- High Court of AdmiraltyIn England, the court dealing with shipping, collision, and salvage. It dates from the 14th century, and its early hi…
- High Court of ChivalryA court of honor with jurisdiction over deeds of arms and war, coats of arms, and questions of precedence.
- High Court of DelegatesA church court that served as the last court of appeal in admiralty and ecclesiastical cases. It was created in 1534…
- High Court of Errors and AppealsFormerly the court of last resort in New Jersey and New York.
- High Court of JusticeThe senior civil court of England and Wales.
- High Court of JusticiaryThe senior criminal court of Scotland, sitting both as a trial court and as the court of criminal appeal.
- high crimeA crime that offends public morality, though it need not be a felony. Under the U.S. Constitution, a civil officer wh…
- high diligenceThe care a very careful person would take in handling property of their own like the property in question.
- high flierInformally, a security that has caught the public's imagination so strongly that investors pay an unusually high pric…
- high justiceJurisdiction over crimes of every kind, the gravest included.
- high seasThe seas and oceans lying beyond any country's jurisdiction. Under older international law they began three miles fro…
- high treasonTrying to overthrow the government of the state one owes allegiance to, whether by making war on it or by giving mate…
- high-grade securityA security issued by a financially sound company able to keep its earnings up, such as a utility.
- high-low agreementA settlement in which the defendant promises the plaintiff a guaranteed minimum recovery and the plaintiff agrees to…
- high-managerial agentAn agent of a company or other business with power to set policy or to supervise employees.
- high-probability ruleIn marine insurance, the rule that the insured may abandon a vessel to the insurer once total loss looks all but cert…
- high-test marriageA marriage entered into under a law that sets stricter conditions for marrying and divorcing, in a state that otherwi…
- high-water lineThe line on the shore that the sea reaches at high tide, normally worked out as an average high tide rather than the…
- high-water markThe line on the shore that the sea reaches at high tide, normally worked out as an average high tide rather than the…
- higher courtThe court a case is appealed to.
- higher scaleIn the old practice of the English Supreme Court of Judicature, the higher of two scales of solicitors' fees. Unless…
- highest and best useIn valuing land, the use that would bring in the most profit. The idea is used above all to fix the fair market value…
- highest courtThe court of last resort in a jurisdiction, whose decision is final because no higher court exists to take the matter…
- highest degree of careThe care that matches the danger involved; also, the care shown by people whose business or profession is dealing wit…
- highest proved valueIn an action for conversion, the highest value the converted property reached, as the plaintiff proves it, between th…
- highgradeTo steal rich ore, as a miner does from a mine; also to work only the most valuable ore, such as gold, and leave the…
- highwayBroadly, any main route by land, water, or air; also a free public road or street open to everyone, and the main publ…
- highway rateIn England, a tax raised to keep the highways in repair.
- highway robberyRobbery of a traveler on or near a public road. Figuratively, the phrase describes an outrageously high price or an e…
- highway taxA tax raised to pay for building, repairing, and maintaining highways.
- highwaymanA robber who preys on travelers on a public road.
- higuelaIn Spanish law, a receipt an heir gives, setting out what property they have taken from the estate.
- hijackTo seize control of a vehicle or aircraft, usually at gunpoint; also to steal goods from a vehicle or aircraft in tra…
- Hilary RulesA set of English pleading rules meant to soften the strict system of special pleading, chiefly by narrowing the gener…
- Hilary sittingsIn England, a court term running from 11 January to the Wednesday before Easter. It was called Hilary term until 1875.
- hilo settlementA settlement in which the defendant promises the plaintiff a guaranteed minimum recovery and the plaintiff agrees to…
- Hilton doctrineThe rule that in a dispute over an oil-and-gas lease, royalty owners who would lose their rights if the lease were en…
- Himalaya clauseA term in a bill of lading extending the carrier's limits on liability under the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act to the…
- hinefareIn England, the loss of a servant who leaves the master's service.
- hinegeldA payment made to buy off an offense committed by a servant.
- hipotecaIn Spanish law, a mortgage of land.
- hireTo engage another's labor or services for wages or other payment; also to take the temporary use of property, usually…
- hire-purchase agreementA rent-to-own arrangement under which the buyer takes the goods on making the first payment and owns them outright on…
- hired gunAn expert witness who gives evidence favoring whoever is paying the fee, often because of the money rather than the f…
- hirelingA person who works for wages, above all one who works only for the pay.
- hiringIn Roman and civil law, any contract under which the use of a thing, or of someone's labor or services, is given in r…
- hiring at willEmployment, usually without a contract, that either the employer or the employee may end at any time and for no state…
- hisStrictly a masculine possessive pronoun, but traditionally read as covering both sexes. With the move toward non-sexi…
- his testibusThese being witnesses. The closing clause of old deeds and charters began with these words and then named the witness…
- historic bayA bay that would not count as within the coastal country's jurisdiction given its shape, but which that country has l…
- historic siteA building, structure, area, or property of significance in a country's, state's, or city's history, architecture, ar…
- historic-preservation lawAn ordinance forbidding the demolition or outward alteration of particular historic buildings, or of every building i…
- historical costWhat an asset originally cost, as opposed to what it would fetch or cost to replace today.
- historical jurisprudenceThe branch of legal philosophy concerned with the history of a legal system's first principles: how law comes into be…
- hit-and-run statuteA law requiring a driver involved in an accident to stay at the scene and give certain information to the police and…
- HLLHouse of Lords: the upper chamber of the British Parliament. Its Law Lords once sat as the final court of appeal for…
- HMOA group of participating doctors, hospitals, and other providers who deliver medical care to the members of a group h…
- hoardTo buy up and keep goods far beyond one's reasonable needs, usually because a shortage or a price rise is happening o…
- hobblerIn England, a light horseman or bowman; a tenant whose tenure obliged him to keep a small light horse ready for milit…
- Hobbs ActA federal anti-racketeering statute making it a crime to obstruct interstate commerce by extortion, robbery, or viole…
- hobby lossA loss from a personal hobby, which cannot be deducted, as opposed to a loss from an activity carried on for profit.…
- hodgepodgePooling items of property so that shares come out equal, above all where advances a person made during life must be b…
- hodgepodge actA statute that throws together subjects having nothing to do with one another.
- holdIn England, tenure. The word appears mostly in compounds such as freehold and leasehold, and rarely on its own.
- hold harmlessTo free another party from any responsibility for damage or other liability arising out of the transaction; to indemn…
- hold orderA note in a prisoner's file recording that another jurisdiction has charges pending, and directing prison staff to al…
- hold outTo present oneself or another as having a particular legal standing, as by claiming to be an agent or a partner with…
- hold-harmless agreementA contract in which one party agrees to indemnify the other.
- hold-harmless clauseA term by which one party agrees to answer for liability or harm, whether specified or not, that the other party migh…
- holderA person who lawfully holds a negotiable instrument and is entitled to be paid on it; also a person lawfully holding…
- holder for valueA person who has given value for a negotiable instrument. Under the UCC, value is given by performing the agreed cons…
- holder in due courseA person who has given value in good faith for a negotiable instrument that is complete and regular on its face, is n…
- holder in good faithA person who takes property or an instrument knowing of no defect in the title to it.
- holder of recordThe person shown in the issuer's books as owning the stock on the record date.
- holdingA court's ruling on a point of law that the decision turns on, and the principle drawn from it; also a ruling on evid…
- holding cellA small cell where someone is kept for a short time, as at a police station or courthouse, while awaiting booking, a…
- holding chargeA charge for some minor offense, brought to keep the accused in custody while prosecutors put together a bigger case…
- holding companyA company formed to control other companies, usually doing nothing itself but owning their shares and overseeing thei…
- holding overA tenant's staying on in the leased premises after the lease has run out. Doing so creates a tenancy at sufferance, a…
- holding periodIn tax law, how long a capital asset must be held to decide whether the gain or loss on selling or exchanging it coun…
- holding zoneAn area zoned for very low-intensity use so as to hold off development until the community settles what the land shou…
- holding-company taxA federal tax on the undistributed income of a personal holding company, charged after deductions for such things as…
- holdover tenancyThe tenancy that arises when someone lawfully in possession stays on wrongfully after their interest has ended. Such…
- holdover tenantSomeone who stays in possession of property after an earlier tenancy, usually under a lease, has expired, and so beco…
- holdupAn armed robbery in which the robber threatens the victim with a weapon.
- holographA document, such as a will or deed, written out entirely in the author's own hand.
- holographic willA will written out entirely in the testator's own hand. Many states treat one as valid even without witnesses.
- homageIn feudal times, the ceremony by which a new tenant acknowledged holding land from the lord, the most honorable servi…
- homage juryA jury in a court baron, made up of the tenants who had done homage to the lord.
- homage liegeHomage owed to the sovereign alone as supreme lord, done without saving the rights of any other lord.
- homagiumIn feudal times, the ceremony by which a new tenant acknowledged holding land from the lord, the most honorable servi…
- homagium ligiumHomage owed to the sovereign alone as supreme lord, done without saving the rights of any other lord.
- hombre buenoA judge; also an arbitrator the parties to a dispute have chosen. The phrase separately means a man in good standing,…
- home equity loanA line of bank credit given to a homeowner, secured on the owner's equity in the home.
- home officeA company's principal office or headquarters. In England the phrase names the department of state responsible for the…
- Home Owners WarrantyA combined warranty and insurance program that, among other cover, protects a new house against major structural defe…
- home portThe port where a vessel is registered, or where its owner lives.
- home ruleA state law or action granting a local government a measure of self-rule, on condition that the locality accepts the…
- home-port doctrineThe rule that a vessel in interstate or foreign trade may be taxed only at its home port, usually the place where it…
- home-rule charterA city or town's own governing framework, much like a constitution, drawn up by the municipality itself and adopted b…
- homeowner's policyA multi-peril policy covering a range of risks to a home, including loss by fire, water, and burglary, together with…
- homeowners' associationAn organization of the owners in a subdivision, condominium, or planned community, which enforces the recorded restri…
- homesteadThe house, outbuildings, and surrounding land that a person or family owns and lives in. So long as it stays within t…
- homestead lawA statute protecting a homestead from execution or judicial sale for debt, unless all the owners, usually a married c…
- homesteaderA person who takes up or lives on a homestead.
- homicideThe killing of one person by another.
- homicide by accidentA killing that results from a lawful act done lawfully, in the reasonable belief that no harm could come of it.
- homicide by misadventureA killing that results from a lawful act done lawfully, in the reasonable belief that no harm could come of it.
- homicide per infortuniumKilling someone unintentionally while doing something lawful: accidental killing.
- homicidium ex justitiaA killing carried out in the administration of justice, as in executing a lawful sentence.
- homicidium ex necessitateA killing done out of unavoidable necessity, as in defending one's person or property.
- homicidium ex voluntateA killing done deliberately and by choice.
- hominatioHomage, or the doing of homage.
- homine capto in withernamiumA writ for the arrest of someone who had taken a bondman out of the country to stop him from being recovered by reple…
- hominesFeudal tenants entitled to have their disputes and other business tried only in their own lord's court.
- homiplagiumThe maiming of a man.
- hommes de fiefFeudal tenants; the peers who sat in the lord's court.
- homoA man; also a human being of either sex. In older usage the word covered an enslaved person, a vassal or feudal tenan…
- homo alieni jurisA person under someone else's legal authority, such as a child subject to the father's power, who therefore cannot ac…
- homo commendatusA man who put himself under another's power in exchange for protection or support.
- homo ecclesiasticusA church vassal: someone bound to serve a church, usually by working its land.
- homo feodalisA fee man: a vassal or tenant holding a fee.
- homo fiscalisA servant or vassal belonging to the treasury.
- homo francusIn England, a freeman; the phrase also meant a Frenchman.
- homo ingenuusA free and lawful man; a yeoman.
- homo liberA free man, in particular one lawfully qualified to serve as a juror; also an owner of allodial land, as opposed to a…
- homo novusA new tenant or vassal, freshly invested with a fee; also a tenant pardoned after a criminal conviction.
- homo pertinensA feudal bondman or vassal: one tied to the soil.
- homo RomanusA Roman. Germanic law codes used the phrase for the Roman inhabitants of Gaul and the other former Roman provinces.
- homo sui jurisA person who is legally independent, subject to no one else's authority and able to act for themselves in law.
- homo trium litterarumA man of three letters, meaning a thief: the three letters are those of the Latin word fur.
- homologareTo confirm or approve; to consent or assent; also to confess.
- homologateTo approve or confirm officially.
- homologationConfirmation, above all a court's approval of some act. The word also covers the consent the law infers when parties…
- HonA title of respect given to judges, members of Congress, ambassadors, and the like.
- honeste vivereIn Roman law, to live honestly. This was one of the three general precepts by which Justinian summed up what the law…
- honesty clauseAn insurance clause requiring the policyholder to state the value of the property insured, and cutting the payout if…
- honorIn the United States, a courtesy title for judges and certain other public officials. In England the word covers the…
- HonorableA title of respect given to judges, members of Congress, ambassadors, and the like.
- honorable dischargeThe formal verdict the government passes on a soldier's whole military record, declaring that they left the service w…
- honorable-engagement clauseAn arbitration clause in a reinsurance contract letting the arbitrators read the arrangement sensibly, in line with w…
- honorariumA payment of money or other value for services that by law or custom carry no fee. Federal law limits what members of…
- honorary canonA canon who serves without pay or other benefits.
- honorary feudIn England, a title of nobility that passes to the eldest son alone.
- honorary servicesSpecial services owed to the king by someone holding land in grand serjeanty, usually carrying the royal banner or sw…
- honorary trustA trust with no beneficiary who could enforce it, such as one to honor the dead, keep up a cemetery plot, or care for…
- horae juridicaeJuridical hours: the times of day when judges sat in court to do judicial business.
- horcaA gallows; also a stick used to inflict corporal punishment, or the place set aside for inflicting it.
- horderaIn England, a treasurer.
- horderiumIn England, a hoard, treasury, or store.
- horizontal agreementA restraint of trade agreed between competitors at the same level of distribution. It is called horizontal not becaus…
- horizontal competitionCompetition between a seller and its rivals at the same level of trade. The Sherman Act forbids unreasonable restrain…
- horizontal integrationA merger of businesses at the same market level, making similar products in the same region: a merger of direct compe…
- horizontal mergerA merger of businesses at the same market level, making similar products in the same region: a merger of direct compe…
- horizontal nonprivityThe gap in privity where the plaintiff never bought the goods at all but consumes, uses, or is otherwise affected by…
- horizontal price-fixingPrice-fixing among competitors at the same level, such as retailers across an industry.
- horizontal privityIn commercial law, the relationship between a party and a non-party connected to them, such as a buyer and a member o…
- horizontal restraintA restraint of trade agreed between competitors at the same level of distribution. It is called horizontal not becaus…
- horizontal unionA union of workers in one trade or craft, such as carpentry or plumbing, whatever industry they work in.
- horizontal-gaze nystagmus testA roadside test for intoxication, used above all on drivers suspected of drink-driving, in which the officer watches…
- horizontal-property actA statute governing cooperatives and condominiums.
- horn tenureA form of grand serjeanty under which the tenant had to blow a horn to raise the alarm whenever an enemy approached,…
- hornbookA book setting out the basics of a subject, in particular a textbook covering the rudiments of an area of law.
- hornbook lawA legal principle so old, basic, and settled that no one disputes it. The phrase comes from law printed in heavy blac…
- hornbook methodA style of legal teaching that lays out the doctrine plainly, with occasional questions along the way. It prevails in…
- horsOut of; outside of.
- hors de son feeA defense to a claim for rent or services, by which the defendant said the land in question lay outside the plaintiff…
- horse caseInformally, a reported case whose facts are so nearly identical to the case at hand that it ought to settle the outcome.
- horseshedTo coach a witness before a deposition or trial on how to answer the questions to come.
- horsesheddingCoaching a friendly witness, usually one's own client, on how to answer questions when testifying.
- hospitalariaA room or building in a religious house set aside for receiving guests and strangers.
- HospitallersA military and religious order founded by the Church in the 12th century, named for the hospital it built at Jerusale…
- hostageAn innocent person held captive by someone who threatens to kill or harm them unless demands are met. Taking hostages…
- hostelagiumA right that lords once reserved to be lodged and entertained in their tenants' houses.
- hostelerA person staying in a youth hostel; also a stableman. In older usage the word meant someone who received and entertai…
- hostes humani generisEnemies of the human race, a phrase used above all of pirates, whom any nation may seize and try.
- hosticideA person who kills an enemy; also the killing of an enemy.
- hostilariaA room or building in a religious house set aside for receiving guests and strangers.
- hostile amendmentA legislative amendment designed to turn potential supporters against a bill.
- hostile bidderA person or company trying to take control of a corporation against its will, by buying up the stock and replacing th…
- hostile embargoA government's detention, in war or peace, of an offending nation's private ships found in its own ports.
- hostile possessionPossession held against everyone else's claims, the record owner's included.
- hostile takeoverA takeover the target company's board of directors resists.
- hostile witnessA witness biased against the party questioning them, or unwilling to testify. Such a witness may be asked leading que…
- hostile-environment sexual harassmentSexual harassment in which the workplace itself becomes hostile because an employee faces unwelcome sexual words or c…
- hostilityA state of enmity between people or nations; also an act or series of acts showing antagonism. In the plural it means…
- hostisAn enemy, above all a public enemy: someone belonging to a nation at war with one's own.
- hostlerA stableman; the word also once meant an innkeeper, a sense it had lost by the 16th century.
- hot bloodRage, terror, or furious hatred flaring up suddenly in response to immediate provocation, usually another person's wo…
- hot cargoGoods made or handled by an employer that a union is in dispute with.
- hot checkA check that is not paid because the account holds too little money or does not exist.
- hot courtA court, especially an appeal court, that has read the briefs and knows the issues before argument begins. Such a cou…
- hot documentA document that directly supports a party's allegations.
- hot issueA security that trades in the open market well above its offering price soon after being issued.
- hot pursuitAn officer's power to chase a fleeing suspect without a warrant and to cross jurisdictional lines to make the arrest;…
- hot stockA security that trades in the open market well above its offering price soon after being issued.
- hot-cargo agreementAn agreement in which a neutral employer voluntarily promises a union to put pressure on another employer the union i…
- hot-water ordealAn early form of trial in which the accused was put to a dangerous or painful physical test, the outcome being read a…
- hotchpotPooling items of property so that shares come out equal, above all where advances a person made during life must be b…
- hotel divorceA form of collusive divorce, common before no-fault divorce laws spread, in which the spouses staged a scene of adult…
- hotelkeeper's lienA lien, given by possession or by statute, that lets an innkeeper hold a guest's belongings brought into the hotel as…
- house arrestConfining someone accused or convicted of a crime to their own home, usually monitored by an electronic ankle bracele…
- house billA bill introduced in the House of Representatives.
- house counselA lawyer or lawyers employed by a company to handle its legal work from inside.
- house lawA code laid down by the head of a royal, noble, or prominent family to govern relations within it and matters such as…
- House of CommonsThe lower chamber of the British and Canadian parliaments.
- house of correctionA reformatory; a place for holding juvenile offenders or people convicted of lesser crimes.
- House of DelegatesThe body that controls and administers the American Bar Association; also the name of the lower chamber of the legisl…
- house of ill fameA brothel: a house kept for prostitution.
- House of LordsThe upper chamber of the British Parliament. Its Law Lords once sat as the final court of appeal for most civil cases…
- house of prostitutionA brothel: a house kept for prostitution.
- house of refugeA reformatory; a place for holding juvenile offenders or people convicted of lesser crimes.
- House of RepresentativesThe lower chamber of the U.S. Congress, made up of 435 members shared out among the states by population and elected…
- house of worshipA building or place set apart for religious services or public worship: a church, chapel, or anywhere used in the sam…
- House reportA committee report of the U.S. House of Representatives, explaining a bill the committee has considered and recommend…
- house taxIn English law, a tax first imposed in 1851 on inhabited houses and repealed in 1924. It replaced the window tax, whi…
- house-boteA tenant's right to take wood from the land for repairs to the house and for fuel to burn in it.
- house-dutyIn English law, a tax first laid in 1851 on inhabited houses and repealed in 1924. It replaced the window tax, which…
- houseageA fee paid for storing goods, as by a carrier or at a wharf.
- houseboteAn allowance of wood from an estate for repairing a house or burning on its fire.
- housebreakingBreaking into a dwelling or other secured building meaning to commit a felony inside. Burglary is now the commoner wo…
- houseburningThe common-law misdemeanor of deliberately burning one's own house where it stands within city limits, or close enoug…
- householdBelonging to the house and the family; domestic.
- household goodsGoods used in and around a home. The phrase usually comes up when a warehouser claims a lien over what it says are ho…
- householderA person who keeps house with their family: the head of a household.
- housing courtA court dealing mainly with landlord-and-tenant matters, including disputes over repairs, lease terms, and building a…
- hovering actIn international law, a statute giving a coastal country criminal jurisdiction over ships, and the people aboard them…
- HOWA combined warranty and insurance program that, among other cover, protects a new house against major structural defe…
- hub-and-spoke conspiracyA conspiracy in which one central member, the hub, deals separately with a number of others, the spokes, who need not…
- HUDThe Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency responsible for programs on the country's housing…
- hudegeldIn England, a release from liability for assaulting a trespassing servant; also money a villein or servant paid to es…
- hue and cryThe public outcry a citizen was expected to raise on discovering a crime, calling on neighbors to join the chase afte…
- huiUnder Hawaiian law, a group of people who own land together, usually as tenants in common.
- huissierIn French law, an usher of a court: an officer, much like a marshal, who serves process. In England the word once mea…
- hulkIn England, a stripped-down ship moored and used as a prison. Conditions aboard were notoriously bad, and the practic…
- human rightsThe freedoms, protections, and benefits that, by modern standards and above all in international law, every human bei…
- humanitarian doctrineThe rule that a plaintiff who was careless may still recover if the defendant had the last clear chance to avoid the…
- humanitarian interventionAction by the international community to stop abuses of human rights inside a country, even though it cuts across tha…
- hundredA subdivision of a county, which once had a local court of its own.
- hundred courtIn England, a larger court baron held for everyone living in a hundred rather than a single manor, with the free suit…
- hundred mootIn England, a larger kind of court baron, held for everyone living in a hundred rather than for a single manor. The f…
- hundred pennyIn England, a tax the sheriff or the lord of the hundred collected from the hundred.
- hundred rollsRecords listing the feudal tenancies and obligations between English lords and tenants. Royal commissioners compiled…
- hundredaryThe chief or presiding officer of a hundred.
- hundredes earldorThe officer who presided over a hundred court.
- hundredorA freeholder of a hundred entitled to sue in its court or to sit as a judge there. The word also covers a person empa…
- hung juryA jury that cannot reach a verdict by the margin the law requires.
- husbandA married man; a man whose lawful wife is living. The word began as house bond, the man who by Saxon custom held the…
- husband-wife immunityThe rule that one spouse cannot be sued in tort by the other for personal injury. Most states have now abolished it.
- husband-wife privilegeThe protection covering communications between spouses. It has two branches: neither spouse may be forced to reveal w…
- husbandryFarming: working the soil to raise food. In some states the tools and equipment used in farming cannot be seized and…
- huscarleA house servant or member of the household; the word also covered a king's vassal, thane, or baron, and an earl's man.
- husfastneA person holding a house and land; a man bound into a frankpledge.
- husgablumA tax or tribute levied on a house; house rent.
- hush moneyMoney paid to buy someone's silence about a crime, a scandal, or anything else the payer wants kept quiet.
- hustingsThe raised platform from which candidates for Parliament were nominated, a practice that ended with the Ballot Act of…
- hutesium et clamorThe public outcry a citizen was expected to raise on discovering a crime, calling on neighbors to join the chase afte…
- hybrid actionA suit in which a union member sues the employer for breaking the collective-bargaining agreement and the union for f…
- hybrid class actionAn action in which the rights to be enforced are separate and varied, but the point of the case is to settle claims a…
- hybrid securityA security with features of both debt and equity, such as a convertible bond, which pays interest like a bond but can…
- hydegeldIn England, a release from liability for assaulting a trespassing servant; also money a villein or servant paid to es…
- Hydraflow testA test for deciding whether letting a privileged document slip out by accident waives the attorney-client privilege.…
- hypobolumA gift left to a wife on her husband's death, over and above her dowry.
- hypothecA charge given to a creditor over property to secure a debt, leaving the property in the debtor's hands.
- hypothecaIn Roman law, a security over property under which the debtor kept the property but could not sell or dispose of it.
- hypothecaria actioAn action to enforce a hypothec or to make the debtor hand over the property charged.
- hypothecarii creditoresIn Roman law, creditors who lent money on the security of a hypothec.
- hypothecaryHaving to do with a hypothec or with hypothecation.
- hypothecary actionA lawsuit to enforce a creditor's rights under a hypothec.
- hypothecary debtA debt secured by a lien on an estate.
- hypothecateTo pledge property as security for a debt without handing over either title or possession.
- hypothecationPledging something as security for a debt while keeping both title and possession of it.
- hypothecation bondA bond given under a contract of bottomry or respondentia.
- hypothèqueIn French law, a creditor's charge over land given as security for a debt, whether or not the creditor takes possessi…
- hypothetical creditorIn bankruptcy law, a real or statutory lien creditor or good-faith purchaser whose position fixes the trustee's stand…
- hypothetical lien creditorIn bankruptcy, the real or notional judicial-lien creditor or good-faith purchaser against whom the trustee's positio…
- hypothetical questionA device at trial that asks an expert witness for an opinion built on assumptions the evidence has established as fact.
- hypothetical tenantAn imaginary tenant used in assessing property taxes, which are worked out from the rent such a person would pay for…