Terms beginning with I
1,424 headwords
- IABAInter-American Bar Association.
- ibid.In the same place: a citation signal pointing to the source cited immediately before, at the same page.
- ICCInternational Criminal Court: the permanent court created by treaty in 1998, sitting at The Hague, which tries indivi…
- ICJInternational Court of Justice: the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, which decides disputes between st…
- id.The same: a citation signal pointing to the source cited immediately before, though possibly at a different page.
- idem per idemThe same for the same. The phrase describes an illustration that adds nothing to the point being discussed.
- idem sonansOf words or names, sounding alike however they are spelled.
- identification of goodsThe step by which particular goods become the ones a contract covers, giving the buyer an identifiable and therefore…
- identification paradeA police procedure in which a suspect stands with others of similar appearance so that a victim or witness can say wh…
- identifyTo prove who a person is or what a thing is; also to treat as associated with something, or to fix on particular good…
- identitate nominisA writ for someone arrested by mistake because they bear the same name as the person actually wanted.
- identitySameness. In patent law it means two devices performing the same function in the same way to the same result; under t…
- identity of interestsIn civil procedure, a link between two parties so close that suing one gives notice to the other, allowing the other…
- identity of partiesIn civil procedure, a link between two parties so close that a judgment against one bars a later suit against the oth…
- ideoTherefore; for that reason.
- ideo consideratum estTherefore it is considered. These words often opened a judgment at common law, and in time came to mean the judgment…
- idiochiraA document signed privately rather than before a public officer, above all a deed written in one's own hand.
- idiocyIn older usage, the condition of a person who from birth has never shown any glimmer of reason or understanding.
- idiotAn old term, now offensive and long out of use in law and medicine, for a person with a profound intellectual disabil…
- idiotaAn unlearned or simple person; the word also meant a private person, one holding no public office.
- idiota inquirendoAn old writ directing an inquiry into whether a person lacked the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, so tha…
- idoneare seTo clear oneself by oath of a crime one stands accused of.
- idoneitasA person's ability or fitness for something.
- idoneusIn Roman law, fitting or suitable. A reliable or solvent man was called an idoneus homo, and security good enough for…
- IFP affidavitAn affidavit by someone too poor to pay, seeking public assistance, an appointed lawyer, a waiver of court fees, or o…
- ignominyPublic disgrace or dishonor.
- ignoramusWe do not know. Written on a bill of indictment, the word marked the grand jury's refusal to return it.
- ignorantiaIgnorance, above all ignorance of the law.
- ignorantia factiIgnorance of fact.
- ignorantia facti excusatIgnorance of fact is an excuse. Something done under a mistaken impression about a material fact is excused or gives…
- ignorantia juris non excusatNot knowing that the law required or forbade something is never a defense to a criminal charge. In plain English: ign…
- ignoreTo refuse to notice or consider something; also, of a grand jury, to reject an indictment as groundless.
- illOf a pleading, defective or void.
- illationDrawing an inference; also the inference itself.
- illegalForbidden by law; unlawful.
- illegal alienSomeone who enters a country at the wrong time or place, avoids inspection by officials, gains entry by fraud, or goe…
- illegal considerationConsideration that breaks the law, offends public policy, or harms the public interest. It will not support a contract.
- illegal contractA promise the law refuses to enforce because making it, performing it, or its whole object is against the law. Strict…
- illegal entryIn criminal law, going into a building unlawfully meaning to commit a crime there. Some states treat it as a lesser i…
- illegal immigrationEntering the United States without authorization, whether by arriving at the wrong time or place, slipping past inspe…
- illegal per seUnlawful in itself, without any need to show harmful effects.
- illegal rateA rate of interest higher than the law allows.
- illegal searchA search made without probable cause or any of the other grounds that would make it lawful.
- illegal strikeA strike carried on by unlawful means, or one aimed at an unlawful end, such as forcing an employer to stop dealing w…
- illegal subdivisionThe dividing of a tract into smaller parcels in breach of local subdivision rules, as where a developer lays out stre…
- illegal taxA tax laid without statutory authority, a tax on property that is not taxable, or a tax laid by an officer with no po…
- illegalityAn act the law does not authorize; also the state of lacking legal authority.
- illegally obtained evidenceEvidence obtained in breach of a statute, of the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches, or of the…
- illegitimacyThe condition of a child born outside a lawful marriage.
- illegitimateOf a child, born outside marriage. Of an act, against the law or improper; of an inference, wrongly drawn.
- illegitimate childA child neither conceived nor born in marriage and not later legitimated. At common law such a child was treated as n…
- illicenciatusWithout a licence.
- illicitIllegal or improper.
- illicit cohabitationAt common law, a man and a woman openly living together without being married to each other.
- illicitum collegiumIn Roman law, an unlawful association, or one carrying on unlawful activity. Its members could be prosecuted.
- Illinois land trustA way of holding land in which the trustee takes both the legal and the equitable title, while the beneficiary keeps…
- illiquid assetAn asset that cannot readily be turned into cash, whether because there is no demand for it, no established market, o…
- illusory appointmentA transfer under a power of appointment that is merely nominal, unduly restricted, or hedged with conditions.
- Illusory Appointment ActAn English statute of 1839 providing that no appointment of property should be struck down merely for being illusory.…
- illusory contractAn agreement in which one side gives a promise so insubstantial that it imposes no real obligation, which leaves the…
- illusory promiseA promise so insubstantial on its face that it binds the promisor to nothing: words dressed as a promise but carrying…
- illusory tenantA sham tenant who acts as the landlord's alter ego and sublets an apartment so that the landlord can get around the r…
- illusory trustAn arrangement that looks like a trust but, because of the powers the settlor keeps back, has no real substance and n…
- illustrative evidencePhysical evidence that can be seen and examined, such as a model or photograph, offered to make testimony clearer rat…
- imaginary damagesDamages awarded on top of compensation where the defendant acted recklessly, maliciously, or deceitfully, meant to pu…
- imaginingContriving or plotting something, usually something underhanded. The Treason Act of 1351 made it a crime to plot the…
- imbargoA government's detention, in war or peace, of an offending nation's private ships found in its own ports.
- imbecileAn old term, now offensive and long abandoned in law and medicine, for a person with a severe intellectual disability.
- imbezzleTo take for oneself money or property entrusted to one's care.
- imbraceryTrying to corrupt or steer a jury toward a particular verdict by means other than evidence and argument in court, as…
- IMFInternational Monetary Fund: the United Nations agency set up to steady exchange rates between currencies and to keep…
- imitationThe copying of another's work or design, which may infringe a copyright, patent, or trademark if it takes what the la…
- immaterialOf evidence, tending to prove something that is not actually in issue; having no logical bearing on the facts that ma…
- immaterial avermentAn allegation setting out needless detail, going well beyond what is actually in dispute. The court may order it stru…
- immaterial breachA breach of contract less serious than a material breach, which entitles the injured party to damages but does not no…
- immaterial evidenceEvidence with no probative value; also, evidence offered to prove something that is not in issue.
- immaterial factA fact that does not matter to the question at issue.
- immaterial issueAn issue that need not be decided to resolve the point of law.
- immaterial varianceA difference between what was pleaded and what was proved that is too slight to mislead or prejudice the defendant, a…
- immaterialityThe quality of having no bearing on the issues. What counts as immaterial is settled by the rules of substantive law…
- immediateHappening at once, with no delay; also with nothing and no one in between, so that the effect is direct.
- immediate annuityAn annuity bought with a single premium, which starts paying within the first payment period.
- immediate breachA breach entitling the injured party to sue for damages straight away.
- immediate causeThe last event in a chain, which is not necessarily the proximate cause of what follows.
- immediate controlIn criminal procedure, the area within an arrested person's reach. An officer may search it without a warrant to stay…
- immediate deathA death following soon after an injury or seizure, though not instantly.
- immediate descentDescent passing straight to an heir, as from grandmother to granddaughter where the mother has already died; also, di…
- immediate familyA person's parents, spouse, children, and brothers and sisters.
- immediate intentThe state of mind that goes with an act, above all a forbidden one. Motive is what tempts a person to act; intent is…
- immediate noticeNotice given as soon as possible, though on an insurance claim the phrase is usually read to mean notice that is reas…
- immediate possessionPossession taken or kept directly and in person.
- immediate-notice clauseA term in many insurance policies requiring the insured to tell the insurer of a claim as soon as possible. Wording s…
- immediately-apparent requirementIn criminal procedure, the rule that an officer must already have probable cause to believe an object is contraband b…
- immemorialOlder than memory or record; very old.
- immemorial usageA practice followed so long that no one remembers its beginning; longstanding custom.
- immigrantA person who comes to a country to settle there for good.
- Immigration and Nationality ActThe comprehensive federal statute governing immigration, naturalization, and the exclusion of foreign nationals.
- Immigration and Naturalization ServiceThe Justice Department agency that once administered the Immigration and Nationality Act and ran the Border Patrol. I…
- Immigration Appeals BoardThe highest administrative tribunal in United States immigration law, which reviews decisions of the immigration judg…
- imminent dangerAn immediate and real threat to one's safety that justifies using force in self-defense. In criminal law it means a t…
- imminent hazardA situation likely to cause serious harm before an ordinary proceeding could be brought to stop it, which is why stat…
- imminent-peril doctrineThe rule excusing a person from the ordinary standard of care where they acted on instinct to meet a sudden and urgen…
- imminently dangerousReasonably certain to put life or limb at risk. Someone whose mental condition makes them imminently dangerous to the…
- immiscereTo mix or mingle with; also to meddle. The word took on the sense of meddling in another's affairs, such as behaving…
- immobiliaImmovable things: land and whatever is fixed to it.
- immobilia situm sequunturImmovable things follow their place: land and what is fixed to it are governed by the law of the place where they lie.
- immobilizeTo make something immovable, above all to turn movable property into immovable property, or circulating capital into…
- immoral considerationConsideration so offensive to accepted standards that the law will not recognize it. A contract resting on it is usua…
- immoral contractA contract so plainly at odds with accepted standards that the courts will not enforce it.
- immovableProperty that cannot be moved: something fixed to land so firmly that the law treats it as part of the land.
- immuneProtected by an immunity; free of a duty or liability.
- immunityFreedom from a duty, a liability, or service of process, above all such a freedom granted to a public official.
- immunizeTo grant immunity to someone.
- impact ruleIn tort law, the old rule that there had to be physical contact before damages could be recovered for negligently inf…
- impacted areaA district affected by some event, in particular one where a federal project swells the school population while the g…
- impairTo reduce the value of property or of a property right, above all to weaken a contractual obligation so far that the…
- impaired capitalA company's funds where its assets are worth less than its legal capital and liabilities added together.
- impairing the morals of a minorThe offense of an adult engaging in sexual conduct short of intercourse with a minor, such as fondling, taking indece…
- impairmentThe state of being damaged, weakened, or lessened.
- impalementAn ancient punishment carried out by driving a sharpened stake through the body.
- impanelTo swear in a jury to try a case.
- imparcareTo impound, or to shut up in prison.
- imparlTo ask for or obtain an imparlance; also to talk with the other side in an effort to settle the dispute.
- imparlanceA continuance giving the party who asked for it, usually the defendant, more time to answer the other side's last ple…
- impartial chairA neutral person who settles disputes between parties, above all through formal arbitration.
- impartial expertAn expert the court appoints to give an unbiased opinion.
- impartial juryA jury that starts the trial with no opinion about the case and decides on the admissible evidence alone.
- impartibleNot capable of being divided.
- impartible feudA feud that cannot be divided up among heirs.
- impasseThe point in labor negotiations where the parties can get no further. A neutral third party such as a mediator is oft…
- impeachTo charge someone with a crime or misconduct, above all to charge a public official formally with betraying the publi…
- impeachable offenseAn offense for which a public official may lawfully be impeached, the first step of a two-stage process that may end…
- impeachmentA legislature's move to remove a public official from office by presenting a written charge of misconduct, above all…
- impeachment courtThe Senate sitting as the court that tries an impeachment brought by the House of Representatives.
- impeachment evidenceEvidence used to undermine a witness's credibility.
- impeachment of a witnessDiscrediting a witness, as by catching them in a lie or showing they have a criminal conviction; also, challenging th…
- impeachment of verdictAn attack on a verdict claiming that a juror behaved improperly.
- impeachment of wasteA claim brought against a tenant for damaging the property held.
- impediensA person who hinders. The defendant in a fine levied to convey land was sometimes so called.
- impedimentAn obstacle, above all a fact such as being under age that bars a marriage if known beforehand but does not undo the…
- impeditorA person who interferes with a patron's right of advowson, the right to appoint a clergyman to a living.
- impensaeMoney spent on a thing.
- impensae necessariaeSpending necessary to keep a thing from decaying, being destroyed, or being lost, such as money laid out on repairs o…
- impensae utilesUseful spending that improves a thing and raises what it will fetch.
- impensae voluptariaeMoney spent on a thing purely for ornament.
- imperative authorityAuthority a court is absolutely bound to follow.
- imperative lawA rule cast as a command: a rule of conduct laid on people by an authority that compels obedience.
- imperative theory of lawThe theory that law consists of the general commands a state issues to its subjects, enforced by courts backed by phy…
- imperfect dutyA duty the law recognizes but will not enforce against the person who owes it, being left instead to their discretion…
- imperfect justificationA reason that falls short of justifying what the defendant did but can still reduce the punishment.
- imperfect rightA right the law recognizes but will not enforce, such as a claim barred by limitation or one beyond the local limits…
- imperfect self-defenseUsing force under an honest but unreasonable belief that it was needed to fend off an attack. In some states this red…
- imperfect statuteA law that forbids a transaction without making it void, imposing a penalty for disobedience while leaving the transa…
- imperfect titleA title that needs some further act of the granting authority before the land passes in fee, or one that does not giv…
- imperfect trustA trust whose founding document is meant to be provisional only, and which contemplates further conveyances before it…
- imperfect usufructA right to use up things that would be useless otherwise, such as money or food. Unlike a true usufruct, it consumes…
- imperfect warA war limited in the places, people, and things it touches, rather than fought at large between nations.
- imperial stateA composite state in which the central government holds the whole of the sovereignty, so that the member states hold…
- imperitiaLack of skill or experience. The Romans treated it as a kind of fault giving rise to liability in tort, or under a co…
- imperiumPower or dominion, above all the legal authority wielded by the senior magistrates under the Republic and later by th…
- impersonalAimed at a thing rather than at a person: describing a proceeding brought against property, in which the court's powe…
- impersonationPretending to be someone else.
- impertinent matterIn pleading, material that has nothing to do with the claim or the defense. A federal court may order it struck from…
- impetitio vastiA claim brought against a tenant for damaging the property held.
- impetrareIn Roman law, to obtain something by asking for it. The word turns up in petitions asking a praetor for the formula o…
- impetrationPetitioning for a writ. In church law the word meant obtaining a papal benefice to be filled by the king or another l…
- impignorataGiven in pledge; pledged or mortgaged.
- impignorationPawning something or putting it up as a pledge.
- impingeTo encroach or trespass on something.
- impleadTo bring someone into a lawsuit, above all to bring in a new party. In older usage the word meant to sue or accuse.
- impleaderThe procedure by which a third party is brought into a lawsuit, usually by a defendant seeking to shift the liability…
- implementation planIn environmental law, a detailed programme of steps for meeting environmental-quality standards by a set date.
- implicateTo show that a person was mixed up in a crime or other wrongdoing; also, to be affected or brought into play.
- implicationShowing that someone was mixed up in something, above all a crime; also an inference drawn from what was said or seen.
- implicit costThe cost of acquiring an asset measured by the return given up on the investment not made.
- impliedNot stated outright, but treated by the law as existing by inference.
- implied acceptanceAn acceptance inferred from the drawee's behavior, where their conduct shows an intention to meet the drawer's reques…
- implied acquittalAn acquittal implied where a jury convicts on a lesser included offense and says nothing about the greater one. Doubl…
- implied actual knowledgeKnowledge of enough facts to put a reasonable person on inquiry.
- implied admissionAn admission reasonably inferred from what a party did or said, or from their failure to act or speak.
- implied agencyAn agency arising from conduct by the principal implying an intention to create the relationship.
- implied amnestyAmnesty arising indirectly from a peace treaty made between the opposing sides.
- implied assentAgreement inferred from someone's conduct rather than stated outright.
- implied assertionIn the law of evidence, non-verbal conduct meant as a statement, such as pointing at a suspect in a lineup. Such cond…
- implied assumptionPersonal liability imposed on a buyer who takes land subject to a mortgage and deducts the mortgage debt from the pri…
- implied authorityAuthority arising from the principal's conduct, such as having gone along with the agent's actions in the past.
- implied colorAn apparent ground of action arising from the nature of the defense itself, as where the defendant admits the facts b…
- implied conditionA condition not stated in words, but read in by law from the nature of the transaction or the parties' behavior as so…
- implied confessionAn admission of guilt made not by pleading guilty but by throwing oneself on the court's mercy and asking for a light…
- implied consentConsent inferred from how someone behaved rather than from anything they said.
- implied considerationConsideration the law infers from what the parties did.
- implied contractA contract the law treats as existing either because the parties' conduct shows they intended it, or because fairness…
- implied covenantA covenant the law reads into an agreement from its terms as a whole and from how the parties behaved.
- implied dedicationA dedication inferred as a reasonable conclusion from how the owner behaved.
- implied duty of cooperationA duty read into every contract requiring each party to cooperate with the other, or at least not wrongfully to hinde…
- implied easementAn easement the law creates where an owner of two parcels used one for the benefit of the other so plainly that, when…
- implied in lawImposed by operation of law, rather than inferred from anything in the facts.
- implied intentIntent inferred from what a person did, rather than from anything they said.
- implied maliceMalice inferred from a person's conduct.
- implied negative covenantA promise binding a seller not to use a right they kept back in a way that would destroy the benefits the buyer was m…
- implied noticeNotice inferred from facts a person had the means of knowing, and so attributed to them: knowing enough that followin…
- implied partnershipA partnership the law treats as existing where people hold themselves out as partners and a third party relies on it.…
- implied powerA governmental power nowhere written down, which exists because it is needed to carry out a power that is.
- implied promiseA promise the law creates to make someone liable on a contract, so as to prevent fraud or unjust enrichment.
- implied reciprocal covenantThe presumption that someone who received a promise about land has impliedly given a matching promise about other lan…
- implied reciprocal servitudeThe presumption that someone who received a promise about land has, in return, impliedly made a promise to the other…
- implied repealThe repeal of a statute not by express words but by a later act so inconsistent with it that the two cannot stand tog…
- implied reservationAn implied easement keeping back for the seller a right across land sold, such as a way over the strip lying between…
- implied termA term the parties never agreed to in words, which a court reads into the contract as implicit. In theory it should n…
- implied trustA trust the law imposes where property changes hands in circumstances showing that the transferor did not mean the re…
- implied waiverA waiver shown by conduct so clear and unequivocal that an intention to give up the right can fairly be inferred.
- implied warrantyA warranty the law reads into a sale without the seller saying anything, above all that the goods are of merchantable…
- implied warranty of fitness for a particular purposeA warranty the law implies where the seller knows the buyer’s special purpose for the goods and the buyer relies on t…
- implied warranty of habitabilityIn a residential lease, the landlord's promise, implied by law, that the place is fit to live in and will stay fit th…
- implied warranty of merchantabilityA warranty that goods are fit for the ordinary purposes such goods are used for.
- implied-in-fact conditionA condition the parties agreed to without saying so, shown by their conduct or by the nature of the transaction.
- implied-in-fact contractA contract the parties are taken to have intended, whether by tacit understanding or because both proceeded on the fo…
- implied-in-law conditionA condition the parties left out of their contract but that a court reads in as reasonable in the circumstances, or i…
- implied-in-law contractAn obligation the law imposes because of how the parties behaved, because of a special relationship between them, or…
- implied-reservation-of-water doctrineThe rule allowing the federal government to use and control, for public purposes, the water attached to federal land.
- implyTo express or involve something indirectly; of a court, to read something into a document or to impose it on legal or…
- importA product brought into a country from abroad; also the act of bringing foreign goods in. The word separately means th…
- import dutyA duty charged on bringing a product into the country; also, the duty charged on the imported product itself.
- import letter of creditA commercial letter of credit that a domestic bank issues at an importer's request in favor of a foreign seller.
- import quotaA cap on how much of a product may be brought in from abroad. In the United States the President may impose one where…
- importationBringing goods into a country from abroad.
- imported litigationLawsuits filed in a state that has no connection with the dispute.
- importerA person or business that brings goods in from abroad and pays the customs duties.
- importuneTo press someone insistently, asking again and again to the point of annoyance.
- imposeTo levy or exact a tax or duty.
- impositive factA fact that puts duties on someone.
- impossibilityThe state of something's not being able to happen or be done, and also the fact or circumstance that makes it so. In…
- impossibility-of-performance doctrineThe rule that a party may be released from a contract because circumstances beyond anyone's control have made perform…
- impossible considerationConsideration resting on a promise or performance that cannot possibly be carried out.
- impossible contractA contract the law will not enforce because there is no workable way for one of the parties to perform.
- impostA tax or duty, above all a customs duty.
- impostorSomeone who pretends to be another person in order to deceive, above all to collect on a negotiable instrument.
- impostor ruleIn commercial law, the rule that when the drawer or maker of an instrument hands it to an impostor, the impostor's in…
- impotenceA man's inability to achieve an erection and so to have sexual intercourse. Because it prevents a marriage from being…
- impoundTo place something, such as a car or other property, in the custody of the police or the court, usually on the footin…
- impound accountAn account of money a lender holds and builds up to pay taxes, insurance, or other recurring charges on a property.
- impoundmentTaking something into custody, or the state of being held that way. In constitutional law the word means the Presiden…
- impracticabilityA circumstance excusing a party from performing, above all a contractual duty, because performing would be possible b…
- imprescriptibleNot subject to prescription; incapable of being acquired by long use.
- imprescriptible rightA right that cannot be lost by the passage of time.
- impressmentTaking something by force for public use; also a court's imposition of a constructive trust on equitable grounds. In…
- imprest fundA fixed sum of cash a business keeps on hand for small routine expenses, topped back up to the same amount as it is s…
- imprest moneyA payment made to a soldier or sailor on enlistment or on being pressed into service.
- imprimaturA licence required before a book may be published. Once required in England, it now appears only in countries that ce…
- imprimisIn the first place.
- imprisonmentShutting a person up, above all in a prison.
- improperIncorrect, unsuitable, or irregular; also fraudulent or otherwise wrongful.
- improper cumulation of actionsUnder the old common-law pleading rules, joining inconsistent causes of action in a single proceeding. Most modern sy…
- improper feudA feud held on non-military terms, on services counted as base or servile.
- improper influenceMisuse of power or of a position of trust that overbears a person's free will and puts someone else's purpose in its…
- impropriate rectorA lay rector, as opposed to a clergyman holding the office.
- impropriationThe annexing of a church benefice to the use of a lay person or body, so that the tithes and profits go to them rathe…
- improveTo raise the value or better the appearance of something; also to develop land, whether or not the development raises…
- improved landLand that has been developed, whether or not the development has raised its value.
- improved valueIn appraisal, the value of the land plus the value of whatever has been built on it.
- improvementSomething added to real property, permanent or not, above all something that raises its value or usefulness or improv…
- improvement bondA government bond repayable out of public funds, issued to pay for public improvements.
- improvidenceA want of foresight and care in managing property, which can be a ground for removing the administrator of an estate.
- improvidentLacking foresight and care in managing property; also, of a judgment, reached on misleading information or a mistaken…
- improvident transferThe transfer of an estate asset by the administrator for little or nothing in return, which creditors and those holdi…
- impubesA child below the age of puberty, which Roman law fixed at 14 for boys and 12 for girls.
- impugnTo challenge or cast doubt on something, such as a person's character or the truth of a statement.
- impulseA sudden urge that prompts an unplanned act.
- impunityFreedom from punishment.
- imputableCapable of being attributed to a person: describing conduct or a state of mind that the law will lay at someone's doo…
- imputationAttributing something, above all fault or crime, to a person; an accusation or charge.
- imputation of paymentApplying a payment to principal or to interest, or directing which it shall go to.
- imputeTo attribute something, usually something unwelcome, to a person as having been done, caused, or possessed by them.
- imputed disqualificationDisqualification of every lawyer in a firm or office because one of them is ethically barred from acting for the clie…
- imputed incomeThe value of a benefit a taxpayer enjoys without any cash changing hands, such as living in a house one owns or recei…
- imputed interestInterest the tax law treats as having been charged on a loan made interest-free or below market rate, so that the len…
- imputed knowledgeKnowledge attributed to a person, above all because the law makes them answerable for someone else's conduct.
- imputed negligenceOne person's negligence charged to another because of a special relationship between them, as where a parent is held…
- imputed noticeInformation attributed to a person because their agent, having actually learned it, had a duty to pass it on. Notice…
- inUnder, or based on, the law of.
- in aequali jureIn equal right.
- in aequali manuIn equal hand: property held evenly between two parties, as where the parties to a document leave it with a neutral t…
- in alieno soloIn another's land.
- in arrearsBehind in paying a debt or meeting an obligation; also, payable at the end of a period rather than the beginning.
- in articulo mortisAt the point of death.
- in autre droitIn another's right: describing property a person holds not for themselves but for someone else, as an executor holds…
- in bancWith every judge of the court sitting and taking part: in full court.
- in bancoWith every judge of the court sitting and taking part: in full court.
- in bankWith every judge of the court sitting and taking part: in full court.
- in beingAlive. In property law the phrase takes in a child already conceived but not yet born.
- in bonis esseTo be among the goods: to belong to a person's property.
- in cahootsInformally, in league with someone, above all in something unlawful.
- in cameraIn the judge's private chambers, or in a courtroom cleared of spectators; also describing a judicial act done while t…
- in camera inspectionA judge's examination of evidence in private, away from the jury and often away from the parties, to decide whether i…
- in camera proceedingA proceeding held in the judge's chambers or another private place.
- in camera sittingA sitting the judge holds in chambers or elsewhere outside the courtroom.
- in capitaBy heads: individually, each person taking a share in their own right.
- in casu provisoIn the case provided for: covering the very situation the statute or rule had in mind.
- in chambersIn the judge's private chambers.
- in chiefPrincipal rather than incidental; used of the part of a trial in which a party puts in the main body of its evidence.
- in commonHeld jointly with others, with no division into separate shares of ownership.
- in conspectu ejusIn his sight or view.
- in contemplation of deathDone in the expectation of one's own death before long, as with a gift made in a final illness, which the tax law may…
- in cujus rei testimoniumIn witness whereof. The words closed old deeds, and the modern testimonium clause beginning in witness whereof is a d…
- in Dei nomineIn the name of God: the opening words of certain old writs.
- in dubioIn doubt.
- in duploIn double. The phrase turns up in expressions such as damna in duplo, meaning double damages.
- in eadem causaIn the same cause; in the same state or condition.
- in emulationem viciniOf a claim, brought over an act done for no purpose but to harm or annoy a neighbor, such as putting up a spite fence.
- in equityIn a court of equity rather than a court of law.
- in evidenceAdmitted as evidence in the case.
- in exituIn issue. The words sometimes appeared in phrases such as de materia in exitu, of the matter in issue.
- in facie curiaeIn the presence of the court.
- in facie ecclesiaeIn the presence of the church. A marriage celebrated in a parish church or public chapel was said to be in facie eccl…
- in faciendoIn the doing of an act.
- in factActual or real: arising from what the parties did rather than from operation of law.
- in favorem vitaeIn favor of life.
- in feodo simpliciterIn fee simple.
- in forma pauperisAs a pauper: allowed to sue without paying filing fees or court costs because of poverty.
- in forma pauperis affidavitAn affidavit by someone too poor to pay court fees, asking to be allowed to proceed without paying them.
- in foro humanoIn a human forum rather than a spiritual one: before a secular court rather than a church court.
- in fullCovering the whole amount.
- in full lifeAlive both in fact and in law: neither dead nor stripped of legal personality.
- in futuroIn the future.
- in generali passagioOn the general passage: travelling to the Holy Land with a company of Crusaders. Such a pilgrimage excused a person's…
- in genereOf the same class, though not the identical thing.
- in gremio jurisIn the bosom of the right. The phrase describes a clause once put into an instrument to bind whoever held it to its t…
- in gremio legisIn the bosom of the law: a figurative way of describing something under the law's protection, such as a title to land…
- in grossUndivided; still in one mass.
- in hocIn this; as regards this.
- in iisdem terminisIn the same terms.
- in itinereOn a journey; on the way. The phrase described the justices in eyre, who rode circuit, and goods travelling to a buyer.
- in judicioBefore the judge. The phrase describes the second stage of a Roman trial, held before a private judge called a judex.
- in jureAccording to law. In Roman law the phrase also named the first stage of a trial, held before the praetor to settle wh…
- in jure cessioA staged lawsuit used to transfer ownership. The transferee appeared before a praetor and claimed the property, and t…
- in kindIn goods or services rather than money; also, in the same way, returning an equivalent of what was given.
- in lawExisting in law or by force of law.
- in lecto mortaliOn the deathbed.
- in liberam elemosinamLand given away for a charitable purpose, to be held in frankalmoin.
- in lieu ofInstead of; in place of, or in exchange for.
- in loco parentisIn the place of a parent: describing someone who takes on a parent's responsibilities for a child without being the p…
- in manu mortuaIn a dead hand. Land held by a religious body was described this way, because the church could hold property forever…
- in mercyAt the judge's discretion as to punishment. Old judgments recorded who had lost by saying that the losing party was i…
- in misericordiaAt the judge's discretion as to punishment. Old judgments recorded who had lost by saying that the losing party was i…
- in mitiori sensuIn the milder sense. Under the old rule in slander cases, a word capable of two meanings was given the one more favor…
- in moraIn Roman law, in delay or in default, said of a debtor who was late in performing or failed to perform.
- in mortua manuIn a dead hand. Land held by a religious body was described this way, because the church could hold property forever…
- in nomine Dei, AmenIn the name of God, Amen: words that once opened a will or other solemn instrument.
- in nubibusIn the clouds: a phrase for something held in suspense but under the law's protection.
- in nullius bonisAmong nobody's goods: belonging to no one, and so open to being claimed.
- in pacato soloIn a country that is at peace.
- in pace Dei et regisIn the peace of God and the king. The phrase was used in an appeal from a murder conviction, to describe the victim a…
- in paisOutside court, in the country: describing something done without any legal proceeding.
- in paperOf a proceeding still within the trial court's hands, before the record is made up for appeal.
- in pari delicto doctrineThe rule that a plaintiff who took part in the wrongdoing cannot recover damages arising from it.
- in pari materiaOn the same subject. By a canon of construction, statutes on the same subject may be read together, so that a gap or…
- in patiendoIn suffering or permitting something.
- in pectore judicisIn the breast of the court: known to the judge but not yet declared.
- in pejorem partemIn the worse sense; taken at its worst.
- in perpetuam rei memoriamIn perpetual memory of a matter: said of a deposition taken to preserve a witness's testimony for the future.
- in perpetuityForever.
- in perpetuumForever.
- in perpetuum rei testimoniumIn perpetual testimony of a matter: said of a statute that confirms the existing common law.
- in personamAgainst a person: describing a proceeding aimed at a particular person, which binds that person personally.
- in personam judgmentA judgment imposing personal liability on the defendant, which may therefore be enforced against any of the defendant…
- in personam jurisdictionA court's power over the parties themselves, which lets it impose personal liability on a defendant. It rests on the…
- in pios ususFor pious uses: for religious purposes. The phrase covered property used or claimed by the church, such as the estate…
- in plena vitaIn full life: alive both in fact and in law.
- in pleno comitatuIn full county court.
- in pleno lumineIn broad daylight: openly, and in everyone's knowledge.
- in pointDealing with the very question now at hand.
- in potestate parentisIn the power of a parent.
- in praemissorum fidemIn confirmation of what has gone before. The phrase commonly appeared in notarized documents.
- in praesentiAt present; right now.
- in prenderOf a right, one that has to be taken to be enjoyed, as with an incorporeal hereditament such as a heriot, which the l…
- in primisIn the first place.
- in reIn the matter of: the phrase that heads a case with no opposing parties, such as a probate or bankruptcy proceeding.
- in rebusIn things, cases, or matters.
- in remAgainst a thing: describing a proceeding aimed at property or status rather than at a person, whose result binds ever…
- in rem judgmentA judgment settling the title to, or status of, a thing, which binds not just the parties but everyone.
- in rem jurisdictionA court's power over property lying within its territory, which lets it decide who owns the property or how it is to…
- in renderOf property, such that it must be handed over or rendered.
- in rerum naturaIn the nature of things: in existence. The phrase was used in a plea alleging that the plaintiff was a fictitious per…
- in separaliIn severalty: held by one person alone rather than jointly.
- in simili materiaOn the same or a similar subject.
- in solidumFor the whole: describing an obligation for which each debtor is liable in full, not merely for a share.
- in solo alienoIn another's ground.
- in stirpesBy stocks: divided among beneficiaries according to the share their deceased ancestor would have taken.
- in tailLimited so that only the owner's issue, or a defined class of issue, can inherit.
- in terminis terminantibusIn express and determinate terms.
- in terroremBy way of threat, or as a warning.
- in terrorem clauseA provision meant to frighten someone into acting or holding back, above all a clause in a will threatening to cut of…
- in testimoniumIn witness of which. The phrase sometimes opens an attestation clause.
- in the course of employmentIn workers' compensation, said of an accident that befalls an employee on the job and within the scope of the work.
- in transituIn transit; on the journey.
- in utroque jureIn both laws, meaning the civil law and the canon law.
- in ventre sa mereIn the mother's womb: describing an unborn child, usually where the child's rights are in question.
- in viridi observantiaFresh in people's minds, and still in full force.
- in witness whereofThe traditional opening of the closing clause, called the testimonium clause, of a will or deed.
- in-house counselA lawyer or lawyers employed by a company to handle its legal work from inside.
- in-limineOf a motion or order, made at the threshold of trial, usually to keep out evidence the moving party believes would be…
- in-presence ruleThe rule that an officer may arrest without a warrant for a misdemeanor committed not literally in the officer's sigh…
- inactive caseA case still open but going nowhere, whether because process was never served, because no one is pressing it, or, in…
- inactive stockA stock that changes hands rarely and in small volume, so that a buyer or seller may be hard to find.
- inadequate considerationConsideration that does not amount to an exchange of equal values.
- inadequate damagesDamages too small to compensate the party fully and fairly; an award bearing no reasonable relation to the injuries,…
- inadequate remedy at lawA remedy at law, usually money damages, that will not properly put the wrong right, which is why the injured party ma…
- inadmissibleNot allowable; of evidence, kept out by a rule of evidence.
- inadvertenceAn accidental oversight; the product of carelessness.
- inadvertent discoveryIn criminal procedure, an officer's unexpected sighting of incriminating evidence in plain view. Though found without…
- inadvertent negligenceNegligence in which the actor never notices the unreasonable risk being created, though a reasonable person would hav…
- inaedificatioBuilding on another's land with one's own materials, or on one's own land with another's. Whichever way round, the bu…
- inalienableIncapable of being transferred or assigned.
- inalienable interestAn interest that cannot be sold, given away, or otherwise passed to anyone else.
- inalienable rightA right that cannot be given up or transferred, such as a natural right.
- inarbitrableOf a dispute, not capable of being arbitrated or not subject to arbitration; more generally, not capable of being set…
- inaugurationA formal ceremony putting someone into office; also a ceremony launching something into public use, or the formal sta…
- inauguratorA person who inaugurates: one who formally installs another in office or launches something.
- inboardOf cargo, stowed between the sides of the vessel, above all near its centerline.
- incapacitated personA person so impaired by intoxicants, mental illness or deficiency, or physical illness or disability that they cannot…
- incapacitationDisabling someone or stripping them of legal capacity; also the state of being disabled or without capacity.
- incapacityA want of physical or mental ability; also the want of power to give one's acts their usual legal effect, as a five-y…
- incapax doliIncapable of criminal intent: said of a child too young for the law to treat as able to form a guilty mind.
- incarcerationShutting a person up in prison.
- incendiaryA person who deliberately and unlawfully sets fire to property; also a device such as a bomb, or a chemical agent, ma…
- incentive pay planA pay scheme that rewards greater output with higher pay.
- incentive stock optionAn option letting an employee buy shares in the company at a fixed price or within a fixed period. It is usually gran…
- incentive zoningZoning that offers developers a bonus, such as extra height or density, in return for providing something the public…
- incestSexual relations between family members or close relatives, adopted children included. English common law left it to…
- incestuousInvolving sexual relations between people too closely related to marry.
- incestuous adulteryAdultery between people who are closely related.
- inchartareTo grant something by written instrument.
- Inchmaree clauseIn marine insurance, a clause covering losses that nature did not cause, such as a crew member's carelessness or a hi…
- inchoateOnly begun; partly done or imperfectly formed.
- inchoate crimeA step toward committing another crime that is serious enough to be punished in itself. The three are attempt, conspi…
- inchoate dowerA wife's interest in her husband's land while both are still alive, which becomes a full right of dower only on his d…
- inchoate instrumentAn instrument still missing something it needs to be complete, such as a signature, a date, or the amount, so that it…
- inchoate interestAn interest that has not yet vested, so that the holder's enjoyment of it still depends on something happening.
- inchoate lienA judgment lien that can be defeated if the judgment behind it is vacated.
- inchoate offenseA step toward committing another crime that is serious enough to be punished in itself. The three are attempt, conspi…
- inchoate rightA right not yet fully developed, matured, or vested. In patent law it means an inventor's right while the application…
- inchoatenessThe state of being unfinished or unripened: not yet complete, matured, or vested.
- incidentDepending on, subordinate to, or arising out of something else of greater importance.
- incident of ownershipAny power of control kept over a life-insurance policy that has been transferred, such as the right to change the ben…
- incident powerA power nowhere expressly granted that must exist because it is needed to accomplish a purpose that is.
- incident to employmentIn workers' compensation, a risk connected with the duties of the job.
- incidentalSubordinate to something more important; playing a minor part.
- incidental admissionAn admission made incidentally, in the course of some other matter or wrapped up in the admission of another fact.
- incidental authorityAuthority needed to carry out authority already given. Actual authority to borrow money, for instance, carries with i…
- incidental beneficiaryA third party who is not meant to benefit from a contract and so gains no rights under it.
- incidental damagesLosses reasonably connected with the main loss; in sales, a seller's reasonable costs of stopping delivery or of tran…
- incidental demandIn civil law, a demand raised inside a suit already under way, such as a counterclaim, a cross-claim, or an intervent…
- incidental powerA power nowhere expressly granted that must exist because it is needed to accomplish a purpose that is.
- incidental useA use of property that is subordinate to, and naturally goes with, its main use.
- incidereTo come within the reach of a law or fall into a legal category, above all to get entangled in something that exposes…
- incipiturIt is begun. The word refers to the practice of entering the opening of a pleading on the court roll.
- inciteTo provoke or stir someone up to commit a crime, or to stir up the criminal act itself.
- inciteeA person who has been incited, above all to commit a crime.
- incitefulTending to incite.
- incitementProvoking, urging on, or stirring up. In criminal law it means persuading another person to commit a crime.
- incivileIrregular; outside the due course of law.
- inclausaAn enclosure near a house; a home close.
- incloseTo surround or hem in on all sides, as by fencing; also to put something inside a parcel or envelope.
- inclosureSomething enclosed in a parcel or envelope; also land shut in by some visible boundary, or the fence itself.
- includeTo contain as part of something. The word including usually signals a partial list, which is why drafters sometimes w…
- included offenseA crime made up of some but not all of the elements of a more serious crime, and necessarily committed in the course…
- inclusio unius est exclusio alteriusThe canon of construction that expressing one thing implies the exclusion of the others. A statute listing the people…
- inclusionary-approach ruleThe rule that evidence of a prior crime, wrong, or act may be admitted for any purpose except showing the defendant's…
- incognitoWithout making one's name or identity known.
- incolaA foreign resident who does not hold full civil rights.
- incomeMoney or other value a person receives, usually at intervals, from employment, business, investments, royalties, gift…
- income approachA way of valuing property by capitalizing the income it is expected to produce.
- income averagingIn tax law, working out tax by averaging a person's income for the current year with the years before it.
- income beneficiarySomeone entitled to the income from property, especially the income of a trust.
- income bondA corporate bond secured by the company's net income after interest on senior debt has been paid. Where it is cumulat…
- income exclusionAn item of income that the tax law leaves out of gross income altogether, such as a gift or certain life-insurance pr…
- income fundA mutual fund that invests in securities producing a steady return, such as bonds or dividend-paying stocks.
- income in respect of a decedentIncome a person had earned but not collected before dying. It counts in the estate for estate-tax purposes, and for i…
- income propertyProperty that produces income, such as a building let to tenants.
- income statementA statement of all the revenues, expenses, gains, and losses of a business over a given period.
- income stockA stock with a record of high yields or steady dividends, such as those of utilities and long-established companies.
- income taxA tax on a person's or company's net income. The federal income tax, governed by the Internal Revenue Code, is the fe…
- income yieldThe return an investment produces, stated as a percentage of what was paid for it.
- income-based planA repayment plan under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code, by which a debtor's future earnings go to a trustee and are…
- income-basis methodA way of working out the return on a security from the interest and the price actually paid, rather than from the fac…
- income-shiftingMoving income to a taxpayer in a lower tax bracket, so that less tax is paid on it.
- income-tax deficiencyThe amount by which the tax properly owed exceeds the tax shown on the taxpayer's return.
- income-tax returnThe form on which a person or company reports income, deductions, and exemptions, and on which the tax owed is worked…
- income-tax withholdingTaking a set portion out of salary, wages, dividends, winnings, or other income and paying it to the government, abov…
- income-withholding orderA court order directing that money be taken out of a person's income, usually to enforce a child-support order.
- incommunicadoCut off from all communication; of a prisoner, allowed to communicate only with a few named people.
- incommutableOf an offense, one whose punishment cannot be commuted.
- incompatibilityThe state of being unable to live together in harmony. Many states recognize it as a no-fault ground for divorce.
- incompetenceBeing unable or unqualified to do something; also lacking legal capacity in some respect, above all to stand trial or…
- incompetencyLack of legal capacity in some respect, above all to stand trial or to give evidence.
- incompetency hearingA hearing at which the trial court decides whether a criminal defendant is fit to stand trial.
- incompetentLacking the capacity the law requires, whether to make a contract, stand trial, or manage one's own affairs; of evide…
- incompetent evidenceEvidence that is inadmissible for any reason.
- incomplete instrumentAn instrument still missing something it needs to be complete, such as a signature, a date, or the amount, so that it…
- incomplete transferIn tax law, a transfer made during life that the estate-tax rules treat as unfinished because the giver kept signific…
- inconclusiveOf evidence, not leading to any definite conclusion.
- inconsistentNot squaring with some other fact or claim.
- inconsistent defenseA defense so at odds with another that accepting one means giving up the other. Someone accused of murder cannot both…
- inconsistent presumptionOne of two or more presumptions that would point to opposite results.
- inconsistent statementA witness's earlier statement that clashes with their testimony at trial. In federal practice, outside evidence of an…
- incontestability clauseA term in an insurance policy, common in life insurance, barring the insurer after a set period, usually one or two y…
- incontestable policyA policy the insurer can no longer challenge, because the period allowed for contesting it has run out.
- incontinentiImmediately, without any interval.
- inconvenient forumThe rule that a court which has jurisdiction may nonetheless decline it where the convenience of the parties and witn…
- incorporamusWe incorporate. The word signaled an intention to create a corporation.
- incorporateTo form a company; also, to take something into a larger body, as where a contract takes in another document by refer…
- incorporationForming a corporation. In constitutional law, the process of applying the Bill of Rights to the states by reading its…
- incorporation by referenceMaking one document part of another by saying in the second that the first is to be treated as though written out ins…
- incorporatorA person who takes part in forming a corporation, usually by signing the articles of incorporation.
- incorporealExisting as an idea or a right but with no physical body; intangible.
- incorporeal chattelProperty that consists of rights rather than physical things. It falls into two classes: rights over what belongs to…
- incorporeal hereditamentAn intangible right in land that can be inherited, such as an easement, a rent charge, a right of common, or an advow…
- incorporeal ownershipOwnership of rights over land or goods, as opposed to ownership of the things themselves.
- incorporeal possessionPossession of something other than a physical object, such as an easement over a neighbor's land or the passage of li…
- incorporeal propertyProperty that consists of rights rather than physical things. It falls into two classes: rights over what belongs to…
- incorporeal rightA right in intangible rather than tangible property. A right to bring a legal action, called a chose in action, is one.
- incorporeal thingWhat incorporeal ownership is ownership of: any property right short of full dominion over a physical object.
- incorporealityThe quality of having no physical body: existing as a right or idea rather than as a thing.
- incorrigibilitySerious or persistent misbehavior by a child that makes reform through the parents' control unlikely.
- incorrigibleBeyond reform.
- incorrigible childA child who refuses to obey their parents or guardians, or who has been found delinquent under the laws dealing with…
- increaseGrowth or enlargement, and how much of it there is. In older usage the word meant the produce of land or the offsprin…
- increase, costs ofCosts allowed over and above the fixed or nominal costs, to cover what a party actually spent in bringing or defendin…
- increased-risk-of-harm doctrineThe rule that a defendant whose negligence increased the risk of harm, or cut down the plaintiff's chance of a better…
- incrementA unit by which something grows in quantity or value.
- incremental cash flowThe extra cash flow a particular capital investment brings in, over and above what would have come in without it.
- incrementumIncrease. The word turns up in phrases such as costs de incremento, the costs of increase.
- incresciturA trial court's order, usually made with the defendant's consent, raising the damages the jury awarded so as to avoid…
- incriminateTo charge someone with a crime; also to show that oneself or another was mixed up in a crime or other wrongdoing.
- incriminatingShowing or suggesting involvement in a crime.
- incriminating admissionAn admission of facts tending to establish guilt.
- incriminating circumstanceA fact showing either that a crime was committed or that a particular person committed it.
- incriminating evidenceEvidence tending to establish guilt, or from which a fact-finder may infer it.
- incriminating statementA statement that tends to establish the guilt of the person accused.
- incriminationCharging someone with a crime, or involving someone in one.
- incriminatoryTending to show that someone committed a crime.
- incroachTo move by degrees or by stealth into another's possessions or rights; to trespass or intrude, or to take unlawfully…
- incroachmentAn intrusion on another's rights or property.
- inculpatae tutelae moderatioThe moderation of blameless self-defense: the rule that a person defending themselves may use no more force than the…
- inculpateTo accuse; also to implicate oneself or another in a crime or other wrongdoing.
- inculpatory evidenceEvidence showing, or tending to show, a person's involvement in a crime.
- incumbentA person who currently holds an office, above all a political one.
- incumbranceA claim or liability attached to property, such as a mortgage, lien, or easement, which lessens its value though it d…
- incurTo bring a liability or expense on oneself.
- incurramentumA penalty or forfeiture a person has run into by breaking a rule.
- indeThence, or thereof. The word appears in several Latin phrases, such as quod eat inde sine die, that he go thence with…
- indebitatusIndebted; being in debt.
- indebiti solutioIn Roman and Scots law, payment of something not owed. Money paid in the mistaken belief that it was due could be rec…
- indebitumA debt that is not in fact owed. Money paid on one could be recovered by the action called condictio indebiti.
- indebtednessThe state of owing money; also the thing owed.
- indecencyThe quality of being grossly offensive, above all in a vulgar or sexual way. Unlike obscenity, indecent speech keeps…
- indecentGrossly offensive to accepted standards of propriety, above all in referring to or depicting sexual or excretory matt…
- indecent assaultAn offensive sexual touching of another person, short of rape.
- indecent exhibitionPublicly displaying or offering for sale something, such as a photograph or a book, that is grossly offensive in a vu…
- indecent exposureAn offensive display of one's body in public, above all of the genitals.
- indecent libertiesImproper behavior toward a child, above all of a sexual kind.
- indefeasibleOf a claim or right, incapable of being defeated, revoked, or lost.
- indefeasible remainderA vested remainder that no condition subsequent can take away.
- indefeasibly vested remainderA vested remainder that no condition subsequent can take away.
- indefensusA person who puts up no defense or plea to an action.
- indefinite detaineeA foreign national who could otherwise be deported but cannot be, because the United States has no diplomatic relatio…
- indefinite failure of issueA failure of issue whenever it may happen, with no fixed period inside which it has to happen.
- indefinite sentenceA sentence stated as a range rather than a fixed term, such as 10 to 20 years; also a maximum term that the parole bo…
- indefinite sentencingSentencing that fixes no definite term, setting a minimum and a maximum instead and leaving the actual release date t…
- indemnificationMaking good another's loss or damage; also the compensation itself.
- indemnifierA person who indemnifies another.
- indemnifyTo reimburse someone for a loss caused by a third party's act or default; also to promise such reimbursement, or to g…
- indemniteeA person who receives indemnity from another.
- indemnitorA person who indemnifies another.
- indemnityA duty to make good another's loss, damage, or liability, and the matching right of the injured party to claim reimbu…
- indemnity against liabilityA right to indemnity that arises the moment the indemnitor defaults, whether or not the indemnitee has yet lost anyth…
- indemnity bondA bond reimbursing the holder for any actual or claimed loss caused by the issuer's conduct or someone else's.
- indemnity clauseA term by which one party agrees to answer for liability or harm, whether specified or not, that the other party migh…
- indemnity insuranceInsurance that reimburses the insured for a loss actually suffered, rather than paying a fixed sum on the happening o…
- indemnity landPublic land granted to a railroad to help meet the cost of building a right of way, making up for land in an earlier…
- indemnity principleIn insurance law, the rule that a policy should never leave the insured better off than before: the payout should not…
- indentAn indented certificate of debt issued by the federal government or a state in the late 18th or early 19th century.
- indentureA formal written instrument made between two or more parties with differing interests. Its edges were traditionally c…
- indenture of a fineA document the chirographer of fines drew up to record the penalties a court had assessed. Two copies were written on…
- indenture of trustThe document setting out the terms governing a trustee's conduct and the beneficiaries' rights.
- indenture trusteeA trustee named in an indenture, who holds legal title to the trust property.
- independenceBeing independent, above all a country's freedom to manage all its own affairs, at home and abroad, without another c…
- independentNot under another's control or influence; not tied to some other, often larger, body; not contingent on anything else.
- independent adjusterAn adjuster who takes work from more than one insurance company, rather than being employed by or working exclusively…
- independent adviceAdvice given impartially, not to serve the interests of the person giving it. Whether a testator or donor had it befo…
- independent agencyA federal agency, commission, or board outside the direction of the executive, such as the Federal Trade Commission o…
- independent agentAn agent who uses their own judgment and answers to the principal only for the results achieved.
- independent auditAn audit carried out by an outside person or firm with no connection to the person or organization being audited.
- independent contractA contract in which the acts or promises of each side stand apart from the other's, neither matching it in value nor…
- independent contractorSomeone hired to carry out a particular project but left free to do the work and choose the method. Unlike an employe…
- independent counselA lawyer engaged to give an unbiased opinion on a case or to carry out an impartial investigation, especially one app…
- independent covenantA covenant that makes each party answerable for its own promises whatever the other party does.
- independent executorAn executor who, unlike an ordinary one, may administer the estate with very little supervision from the probate cour…
- independent intervening causeAn event that comes between the first event in a chain and the final harm, turning the course of events aside. If it…
- independent investigation committeeA committee of independent directors set up to examine the merits of a shareholder's derivative suit and to recommend…
- independent personal representativeA person who manages another's legal affairs because of that person's incapacity or death, such as the executor of an…
- independent probateProbate designed to run with as little involvement from the probate court as possible. Most modern probate codes enco…
- independent promiseA promise that is either unconditional or needs nothing but the passage of time to become enforceable. Someone who ma…
- independent regulatory agencyA federal agency, commission, or board that does not answer to the executive, such as the Federal Trade Commission or…
- independent regulatory commissionA federal agency, commission, or board that does not answer to the executive, such as the Federal Trade Commission or…
- independent stateA state that stands on its own and is complete in itself, rather than forming part of a larger whole whose government…
- independent unionA union not affiliated with any national or international union.
- independent-significance doctrineThe rule that a will may dispose of property by reference to acts or events that carry their own significance apart f…
- independent-source ruleIn criminal procedure, an exception to the fruit-of-the-poisonous-tree doctrine: evidence first obtained unlawfully m…
- indestructible trustA trust that, because of the settlor's wishes, the beneficiary cannot bring to an early end.
- indeterminate bondA callable bond with no fixed maturity date.
- indeterminate conditional releaseA release from prison granted on conditions being met, which can still be revoked if further conditions are broken.
- indeterminate sentenceA sentence stated as a range rather than a fixed term, such as 10 to 20 years; also a maximum term that the parole bo…
- indeterminate sentencingSentencing that fixes no definite term, setting a minimum and a maximum instead and leaving the actual release date t…
- indexAn alphabetical list of the topics or items in a book, document, or series, usually printed at the end.
- index crimeOne of the eight classes of crime the FBI reports each year in the Uniform Crime Report: murder and non-negligent hom…
- index fundA mutual fund that holds the stocks making up a particular market index, such as the S&P 500, and so tracks that index.
- index leaseA lease under which the rent rises in step with the consumer price index.
- index of authoritiesAn alphabetical list of the authorities cited in a brief, usually broken into cases, statutes, and secondary sources.
- index offenseOne of the eight classes of crime the FBI reports each year in its Uniform Crime Report: murder and non-negligent hom…
- indexationAdjusting wages, pensions, insurance, or other payments to keep pace with inflation; also investing so as to track an…
- indexingAdjusting wages, pensions, insurance, or other payments to keep pace with inflation; also investing so as to track an…
- Indian Claims CommissionA federal agency, dissolved in 1978, that heard and decided tribes' claims against the United States over lands taken…
- Indian countryAll land within the boundaries of an Indian reservation, land occupied by an Indian community whether or not inside a…
- Indian landLand owned by the United States but held in trust for American Indians and used by them.
- Indian reservationAn area the federal government has set aside for an Indian tribe, where the tribe settles and runs its own government.
- Indian TerritoryA former United States territory, now part of Oklahoma, to which the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminol…
- Indian titleA right of occupancy the federal government recognizes in a tribe because the tribe has held the land since before me…
- Indian tribal propertyLand owned by the United States but held in trust for American Indians and used by them.
- Indian tribeA group, band, or nation of indigenous American people, an Alaskan native village included, recognized as eligible fo…
- indicareIn Roman law, to accuse someone of a crime. In civil law the word means to point out or reveal, and also to fix or st…
- indicatorIn securities law, an average or index tracking market trends or economic conditions closely enough to be useful in j…
- indicavitA writ of prohibition by which a church patron moved a dispute between two clergymen over the right to a benefice out…
- indiciaIn Roman law, evidence; more generally, signs or indications.
- indicia of titleA document showing that a person owns particular property, whether goods or land.
- indiciumAccusing someone of a crime; also promising a reward for a service. The word further means a sign or mark, above all…
- indictTo charge a person with a crime by formal process, above all by a grand jury's presentment.
- indictable offenseA crime that can be prosecuted only on an indictment. In federal court that means an offense punishable by death, by…
- indicteeA person who has been indicted: someone formally charged with a crime.
- indictioIn Roman law, an imperial proclamation setting a fifteen-year period for reassessing property values for tax, and als…
- indictmentA grand jury's formal written accusation of a crime, presented to a court so that the accused may be prosecuted; also…
- indictorA person who causes someone else to be indicted.
- indigenaA subject born within the English realm, or naturalized by act of Parliament.
- indigentA poor person, above all one too poor to meet the costs of litigation.
- indigent defendantA defendant too poor to hire a lawyer, who on being charged becomes entitled to a court-appointed attorney and a waiv…
- indignityIn family law, a ground for divorce consisting in a settled pattern of behavior by which one spouse humiliates the ot…
- indirect attackAn attack on a judgment brought in some other proceeding rather than by appeal. A petition for habeas corpus is one k…
- indirect confessionA confession inferred from how the defendant behaved rather than from anything they said.
- indirect contemptContempt committed outside the court's presence, such as disobeying an order made elsewhere.
- indirect costA cost that cannot be traced to any particular product or service but arises from production generally, such as a sha…
- indirect evidenceEvidence resting on inference rather than on someone's own knowledge or observation; broadly, all evidence that is no…
- indirect lossA loss flowing from the consequences of damage rather than from the damage itself. Such a loss is proximate where the…
- indirect noticeNotice inferred from facts a person had the means of knowing, and so attributed to them: knowing enough that followin…
- indirect possessionPossession of a thing held through someone else, such as an agent. In every such case there is a direct possessor, th…
- indirect taxA tax on a right or a privilege, such as an occupation tax or a franchise tax.
- indirect-purchaser doctrineIn antitrust law, the rule that in a price-discrimination case the court will look past sham middlemen in deciding wh…
- indiscriminate attackIn international law, an attack that is not aimed at a specific military objective, or that uses a means of combat wh…
- indispensable evidenceEvidence without which a particular fact cannot be proved at all.
- indispensable partyA party whose interests the judgment would inevitably affect, and who must therefore be joined in the case. If such a…
- indispensable-element testA common-law test for attempt, asking whether the defendant has got hold of the thing essential to the crime. On this…
- individualExisting as a single indivisible entity; also having to do with one person or thing rather than a group.
- individual account planUnder ERISA, a retirement plan giving each employee a separate account funded by the employee's own contributions and…
- individual assetProperty belonging to a partner personally, as opposed to property of the partnership.
- individual debtA debt owed by a partner personally, as opposed to a debt of the partnership.
- individual libertyA person's freedom to do as they please, limited only by the government's power to protect the public health, safety,…
- individual propertyProperty that belongs to one spouse alone, whether owned before the marriage or received during it by gift or inherit…
- individual proprietorshipA business one person owns outright, holding all the assets, owing all the liabilities, and trading in their own name…
- individual retirement accountA savings or brokerage account into which a person may pay up to a yearly limit set by Congress out of earned income.…
- indivisibleIncapable of being split into parts.
- indivisionUndivided ownership: the state of property held by co-owners each of whom has an undivided share in the whole.
- indivisumOf property, held in common and not divided up.
- indorseeThe person to whom a negotiable instrument is transferred by indorsement.
- indorsee in due courseAn indorsee who takes a negotiable instrument in the ordinary course of business, in good faith, for value, before it…
- indorsementSigning the back of a negotiable instrument, sometimes with a further note, so as to transfer it, guarantee it, or ac…
- indorsement in blankAn indorsement naming no particular payee, which makes the instrument payable to whoever holds it and transferable by…
- indorsement in fullAn indorsement naming the person who is to be paid, or to whom the goods covered by the document must be delivered.
- indorsement without recourseAn indorsement that passes title but shuts off the indorser's liability to later holders if the instrument is dishono…
- indorserA person who transfers a negotiable instrument by indorsing it.
- inducementEnticing or persuading someone into a particular course of action.
- inducement of breach of contractDeliberately getting one party to break a contract with another, for which the person who induced the breach can be s…
- induciae legalesIn civil and Scots law, the days a defendant is allowed after being summoned before having to appear in court.
- inducing infringementIn patent law, knowingly and actively encouraging or helping someone else to infringe a patent directly. The phrase i…
- inductTo put someone into possession of an office or benefice; also to admit as a member, or to enroll for military service.
- inductioErasing a piece of writing, as where a testator struck a legacy out of a will.
- inductionFormally starting someone in an office or role; also reasoning from particular instances to a general proposition.
- indultA dispensation the Pope grants allowing something the canon law would otherwise forbid.
- indultoA pardon or amnesty; in older usage, a duty paid on imported goods to the Spanish or Portuguese Crown.
- industrial diseaseA disease contracted through exposure to harmful conditions or substances at work. Employees who suffer one qualify f…
- industrial espionageOne company's spying on another to steal its trade secrets or other confidential information.
- industrial goodsGoods that businesses buy to use in making other goods or in running their operations, as opposed to goods sold to co…
- industrial life insuranceLife insurance written for a small face amount, with premiums collected weekly or monthly, often by an agent calling…
- industrial relationsAll dealings between an employer and its workforce, including collective bargaining over matters such as safety and b…
- industrial unionA union of all the workers in one industry, such as shipbuilding or car manufacturing, whatever trade or craft each o…
- industrial-development bondA revenue bond whose interest and principal are backed by a company rather than by the municipality that issues it.
- industrial-revenue bondA revenue bond whose interest and principal are backed by a company rather than by the municipality that issued it. T…
- industryDiligence in doing a task; also systematic work for some useful end, above all in manufacturing. The word further mea…
- industry-wide liabilityLiability spread across every member of an industry that made a harmful or defective product, apportioned according t…
- indutiaeA truce or halt in hostilities. In Roman and civil law the word also meant a delay allowed for performing an obligati…
- inebriateAn intoxicated person, above all a habitual drunkard.
- ineffective assistance of counselRepresentation falling below the standard of a reasonably competent lawyer, to the point that the outcome of the case…
- ineligibilityThe state of being legally disqualified, as from holding an office or receiving a benefit.
- ineligibleLegally disqualified, as from serving in office.
- inequitableUnfair; against the principles of equity.
- inequityUnfairness or want of equity; also a particular instance of injustice.
- inescapable perilA danger a person cannot get out of without someone else's help.
- inessential mistakeIn contract law, a mistake about some external circumstance rather than about what the agreement itself contains, whi…
- inevitable accidentAn accident nobody could avoid, produced by an irresistible physical cause that no skill or reasonable foresight coul…
- inevitable-accident doctrineIn tort law, the rule that no one is liable for an accident that could not have been foreseen or prevented by reasona…
- inevitable-discovery ruleIn criminal procedure, an exception to the fruit-of-the-poisonous-tree doctrine: evidence obtained unlawfully may sti…
- inexcusable neglectNeglect that cannot be excused, going beyond mere oversight. A finding of it, as where a party simply never answered…
- infamiaA bad reputation; also the loss of a citizen's good standing.
- infamia factiInfamy in fact, not yet established by any court.
- infamia jurisInfamy established by a court's verdict.
- infamisOf ill repute. A person became infamis automatically on being held liable for certain wrongs or breaches of trust, wh…
- infamousOf a person, having a thoroughly bad reputation; of conduct, serious enough to be punished with imprisonment.
- infamous crimeAt common law, a crime carrying infamy as part of the punishment, so that whoever committed it could not serve on a j…
- infamous punishmentPunishment by imprisonment, usually in a penitentiary.
- infamyDisgraceful reputation; also the loss of standing that follows conviction of an infamous crime.
- infangthiefA manor lord's privilege of trying a thief caught on the manor.
- infansA child under seven. At seven the child became an impubes. An infans could do nothing that the law would recognize.
- infantiaThe stretch of life from birth to seven years: early childhood.
- infanticideKilling a newborn child, above all by the parents or with their consent; in archaic usage it also covered killing an…
- infectTo contaminate; also to taint with crime, or to make a ship or cargo liable to seizure because contraband forms part…
- infection, doctrine ofIn international law, the rule that goods belonging to the owner of contraband and carried on the same ship may be se…
- infeftIn Scots law, put into possession of land: enfeoffed.
- infeoffTo put a person into legal possession of a freehold; to hand over a fief.
- infeoffmentAt common law, transferring possession and ownership of an estate in land; also the property so transferred, and the…
- inferTo draw a conclusion from facts or from reasoning about them.
- inferenceA conclusion reached by weighing other facts and drawing the logical consequence from them; also the reasoning proces…
- inference-on-inference ruleThe rule that one presumption cannot be built on another and then used to establish an ultimate fact.
- inferential factA fact worked out by reasoning from other evidence rather than proved by direct testimony; a fact that follows logica…
- inferior courtAny court below the highest appeal court in a judicial system; also, a court of special or limited statutory jurisdic…
- inferred authorityThe authority needed to carry out authority a person actually or apparently has. Actual authority to borrow money, fo…
- infeudateTo put a person into legal possession of a freehold; to hand over a fief.
- infeudationUnder the feudal system, the act of putting a person into legal possession of land.
- inficiariTo deny the plaintiff's allegation, above all to deny owing a debt.
- inficiatioDenial of a debt or liability; denial of the plaintiff's allegation.
- infidelA person who does not hold a particular belief, above all a particular religion. In older usage the word meant someon…
- infidelitasFaithlessness to one's feudal oath.
- infidelityUnfaithfulness to an obligation, above all to a marriage.
- infiduciareTo pledge property.
- infirmativeOf evidence, tending to weaken a criminal accusation.
- infirmative hypothesisAn approach to a criminal case that starts by assuming the defendant is innocent and then explains the incriminating…
- infirmityBodily weakness from age or disease; in insurance law, ill health poor enough to make an insurer decline to cover the…
- infitiariTo deny the plaintiff's allegation, above all to deny owing a debt.
- infitiatioDenial of a debt or liability; denial of the plaintiff's allegation.
- inflammatoryTending to rouse anger or indignation. Evidence may be excluded where its power to inflame outweighs its value in pro…
- inflationA general rise in prices, matched by a fall in what money will buy.
- inflation rateHow fast prices for goods and services are changing over a period. The main measures are the Consumer Price Index and…
- inflationaryTending to cause inflation, or having to do with it.
- infliction of emotional distressThe tort of deliberately or recklessly causing someone severe emotional distress by outrageous conduct.
- influence districtA voting district where a racial or ethnic minority is not a majority but makes up enough of the electorate to sway t…
- informalNot done according to the usual forms or procedures.
- informal agency actionAnything an administrative agency does apart from adjudication and rulemaking, such as investigating, publicizing, or…
- informal contractAt common law, a contract not under seal, though it could still be in writing.
- informal dividendA payment of salary, rent, interest, or the like made to or for a shareholder in place of a dividend.
- informal immunityImmunity that comes about because the prosecutor decides not to prosecute, rather than from any formal grant.
- informal marriageA marriage that takes legal effect without licence or ceremony, where a couple live together as spouses, intend to be…
- informal probateProbate designed to run with as little involvement from the probate court as possible. Most modern probate codes enco…
- informal proceedingA hearing conducted more loosely than an ordinary trial, such as an administrative hearing or a small-claims case.
- informal proof of claimA document in which a creditor states a demand for payment and an intention to look to the bankruptcy estate, but whi…
- informal rulemakingRulemaking in which an agency publishes a proposed regulation, takes public comments on it, and then puts it into eff…
- informantA person who informs against another, above all one who secretly gives police information about a crime, sometimes fo…
- informant's privilegeThe qualified privilege a government may claim to keep secret the identity of an informant and what the informant sai…
- informationA formal criminal charge brought by a prosecutor without a grand jury. Most states use it for misdemeanors, and about…
- information letterA written statement from the Department of Labor drawing attention to a settled interpretation or principle of ERISA,…
- information returnA return, such as a W-2, filed to report economic information rather than to report tax owed.
- informational picketingPicketing meant to tell the public something, such as that an employer is non-union, rather than to force the employe…
- informative advertisingAdvertising that tells buyers about a product's quality and what it is suitable for.
- informed consentAgreement to something given with full knowledge of the risks and the alternatives; in medicine, a patient's choice a…
- informed intermediaryA professional standing between a manufacturer and the end user, such as a prescribing doctor, whom the manufacturer…
- informerA person who informs against another, above all one who secretly gives police information about a crime, sometimes fo…
- infraLater in this text. The word is a citation signal pointing to an authority cited further on. In medieval Latin it als…
- infra civitatemWithin the state.
- infra corpus comitatusWithin the body of a county. In English law the phrase described water entirely enclosed by land, which was therefore…
- infra dignitatem curiaeOf a case, too small in amount or too trivial in nature for a court to bother with.
- infra jurisdictionemWithin the jurisdiction.
- infra praesidiaWithin the defenses: describing captured property brought inside the captor's own lines or ports, which completes the…
- infractionA violation, usually of a rule or local ordinance, and usually not punishable by imprisonment.
- infrastructureThe underlying framework of a system, above all the public works and services, such as roads, schools, bridges, sewer…
- infringeTo violate another's right, above all one of the exclusive rights that a patent, copyright, or trademark gives its ow…
- infringementAn act that trespasses on one of the exclusive rights of the owner of a patent, copyright, or trademark.
- infringement in the inducementIn patent law, knowingly and actively encouraging or helping someone else to infringe a patent directly.
- infringerA person who trespasses on one of the exclusive rights of the owner of a patent, copyright, or trademark.
- ing a defense to an infringement claimThe requirement that an invention be new in its form and in what it does. If it has already been patented, described…
- ing business interestsAn organization that runs a commodities exchange. In English history the name belonged to the committee of the Privy…
- ingenuitasIn Roman law, the status of a person born free.
- ingenuitas regniThe freemen or commonalty of the kingdom, a phrase occasionally stretched to take in the nobility.
- ingenuusA person born free. There were no ranks among the freeborn, unlike among the libertini, who were born into slavery an…
- ingratitudeFailure to appreciate a generous or kind act, above all a gift. Under Louisiana law a gift can be taken back for ingr…
- ingratusUngrateful; marked by ingratitude. Ungrateful acts or words, such as a freed person's spite toward a former master, c…
- ingressEntering; also the right or ability to enter.
- ingress, egress, and regressA tenant's right to go in, come out, and go back in again on the land in question.
- ingressusThe fee an heir paid a feudal lord to enter on a dead person's estate.
- ingrossTo write out a document, above all a deed, by hand in large formal letters. The style came from the old court hand an…
- ingrossatorA clerk who writes out records or instruments on parchment. The Engrosser of the Great Roll, for instance, was called…
- inhabitTo live in a place; to occupy it permanently or habitually as a home.
- inhereTo exist as a permanent or essential quality of something.
- inherent authorityAuthority an agent has simply by virtue of the agency relationship itself.
- inherent conditionA condition that is part of the agreement's own nature rather than something newly added to it.
- inherent covenantA covenant bearing directly on the land itself, such as a covenant for quiet enjoyment.
- inherent defectA flaw built into a product itself, which reasonable inspection would not reveal, and for which the seller or lessor…
- inherent powerA power that comes with an office, position, or status as a necessary part of it.
- inherent rightA right that cannot be given up or transferred, such as a natural right.
- inherently dangerousRequiring constant precautions to avoid injury: dangerous by its very nature.
- inheritTo take property from an ancestor under the rules of intestate succession on the ancestor's death; also, more loosely…
- inheritableOf property, capable of being inherited; of a person, capable of inheriting.
- inheritable bloodA relationship between an ancestor and an heir that the law recognizes as capable of passing good title to property.
- inheritable obligationAn obligation that the creditor's successor may enforce, or that may be enforced against the debtor's successor.
- inheritanceProperty received from an ancestor under the rules of intestacy; also property received under a will.
- inheritance taxA tax on the person who inherits property, as opposed to an estate tax, which falls on the dead person's estate. Ther…
- inhibitionIn church law, a writ from a superior ecclesiastical court forbidding a judge to go on with a pending case, much as t…
- inhonestusOf a person, of ill repute; of conduct, morally shameful.
- inhuman treatmentIn family law, physical or mental cruelty severe enough to endanger life or health. It is a recognized ground for div…
- initial appearanceA criminal defendant's first appearance in court, at which the charges are read, the defendant is told of their right…
- initial determinationThe Social Security Administration's first ruling on whether a person qualifies for benefits.
- initial disclosureIn federal practice, the requirement that each party hand over certain information without waiting for a discovery re…
- initial margin requirementThe smallest share of the purchase price a buyer must put up with a broker. The Federal Reserve Board sets the minimu…
- initial protestA notary public's written statement that a negotiable instrument was presented and neither paid nor accepted.
- initial public offeringA company's first sale of stock to the public, made through a registration statement.
- initial surplusThe surplus shown on the financial statement at the start of an accounting period, before any of that period's operat…
- initiation of chargesIn military law, the first report to the proper military authority that someone subject to the Uniform Code of Milita…
- initiativeA process by which a set percentage of voters can propose a law and force a vote on it, either in the legislature or…
- injoinTo forbid or restrain by injunction; also to direct or urge strongly.
- injunctionA court order commanding someone to do something or to stop doing it. To get one, the applicant must show that no ade…
- injunction bondA bond required from someone seeking an injunction, to cover the costs of a party who turns out to have been wrongly…
- injunctiveHaving the quality of directing or ordering; having to do with an injunction.
- injuriaA legal wrong: the violation of a right the law protects, whether or not any actual loss follows.
- injurious exposureIn workers' compensation, contact with a substance that would cause harm if the contact were repeated over time. An e…
- injurious falsehoodA false statement that damages the reputation of another's property, product, or business. To recover, the plaintiff…
- injuryThe violation of another's legal right, for which the law gives a remedy; also harm or damage generally.
- injury in factAn actual or imminent invasion of a legally protected interest, as opposed to one that is merely hypothetical. It is…
- injury-in-fact triggerIn insurance law, the moment when the insured actually suffers damage or injury, such as the moment of a car crash, w…
- injusticeAn unjust state of affairs; also an unjust act.
- inlagareTo restore an outlaw to the protection of the law.
- inlagationRestoring an outlaw to the protection of the law.
- inlaghA person within the protection of the law, as opposed to an outlaw.
- inlandThe interior of a country, away from the coast or border. In feudal usage the word meant the part of an estate neares…
- inland bill of exchangeA bill of exchange payable in the state or country where it was drawn; also, one where the drawer and the drawee both…
- inland draftA draft drawn and payable in the same state or country.
- inland marine insuranceInsurance on goods while they travel overland, and on movable property generally, such as goods in transit, on bridge…
- inland revenueGovernment revenue from taxes raised at home, as opposed to customs or import duties.
- inland tradeTrade carried on wholly within a country, as opposed to foreign commerce.
- inland watersAny body or stream of water inside a country's borders, natural or artificial, such as a bay, gulf, river mouth, cree…
- inlantalDemesne land: the part of an estate the lord kept in hand rather than letting to tenants.
- inlawTo bring an offender back within the protection of the law.
- inmateA person confined in a prison, hospital, or other institution. In older usage the word meant simply someone living in…
- Inn of ChanceryAny of nine collegiate houses where students prepared for entry to an Inn of Court or learned to frame the writs used…
- Inn of CourtAny of the four self-governing societies that an English barrister must join for training and remains a member of for…
- innavigableOf water, not fit or usable for navigation; in marine insurance, of a vessel, unfit for service.
- inner barThe senior barristers, known as King's or Queen's Counsel, who are allowed to plead inside the bar of the court.
- inner barristerA student member of an Inn of Court, so called because such members sat within the bar rather than at it.
- inner cabinetThe heads of the State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice departments. They are so called because in most administration…
- inningLand reclaimed from the sea.
- innkeeperA person who keeps a public house open, for payment, to lodge and feed travelers. Someone who runs a boarding house i…
- innocenceFreedom from guilt, above all freedom from guilt for a particular offense.
- innocentFree from guilt or from legal fault.
- innocent agentA person who does something unlawful on a principal's behalf but is not prosecuted, because they had no idea of the p…
- innocent conveyanceA leaseholder's conveyance of their own interest in the property, which is something less than a fee simple.
- innocent homicideA killing that carries no criminal guilt, whether because it was justified or because the law excuses it.
- innocent infringementInfringing an intellectual-property right without knowing or realizing that the act infringes. Such an infringer can…
- innocent junior userIn trademark law, someone who, knowing nothing of an earlier user in a distant market, adopts the same mark, and who…
- innocent misrepresentationA false statement the speaker did not know to be false: untrue, but not made fraudulently.
- innocent partyA party who took no knowing or deliberate part in the event or transaction.
- innocent passageIn international law, a foreign ship's right to pass through another country's territorial waters, above all waters l…
- innocent purchaserSomeone who buys something for value without notice of anyone else's claim to it or of any flaw in the seller's title.
- innocent purchaser for valueSomeone who buys legal title to land for value without actual or constructive notice of any defect, claim, or equity…
- innocent spouseIn tax law, a spouse who may be released from liability for tax on income the other spouse left off a joint return. T…
- innocent trespassA trespass committed unintentionally or in good faith.
- innocent trespasserSomeone who enters another's land unlawfully but does so by accident or in the honest belief that they had a right to.
- innocent-construction ruleThe rule that an allegedly libelous statement will be read harmlessly if it is ambiguous or capable of an innocent me…
- innominateUnclassified; bearing no particular name or category.
- innominate contractIn civil law, a contract that fits no recognized category and to which the law adds nothing beyond what the parties e…
- innominate obligationsObligations with no settled classification, being neither strictly contractual, nor delictual, nor quasi-contractual.…
- innominate real contractIn civil law, a contract outside the named categories that takes effect only once one side has actually performed, th…
- innotescimusA certification, in the form of letters patent, of a charter of feoffment or other instrument that was never entered…
- innuendoAn indirect or oblique suggestion, usually an unflattering one. In legal drafting the word also means an explanatory…
- inofficiosusContrary to a natural duty of affection, said above all of a will that unjustly cuts off a child or close relative.
- inofficious testamentA will that unjustly disinherits a child or other close relative, which the civil law allows the court to set aside i…
- inofficious willA will that unjustly disinherits a child or other close relative, which the civil law allows the court to set aside i…
- inoperativeHaving no force or effect.
- inordinatusHaving to do with a person who died without a valid will, or with such a person's property, or with intestacy general…
- inpenny and outpennyA customary payment of a penny on taking up a tenancy and another on giving it up.
- inquestAn inquiry by a coroner or medical examiner, sometimes with a jury, into how a person died where the death was suspic…
- inquest juryA jury called from a particular district to appear before a sheriff, coroner, or other officer and inquire into the f…
- inquest of officeAn inquiry by a coroner, sheriff, or other royal officer into the Crown's claim to property by escheat, treason, or s…
- inquilinusA person who rents or lives in another's house, above all a tenant in a town.
- inquirendoAn inquiry or investigation, above all into something touching the Crown's interests, such as land forfeited to it.
- inquiryIn international law, fact-finding by a neutral body. In older English usage the word meant a writ directing the sher…
- inquiry noticeNotice attributed to a person because they knew enough to put a reasonably careful person on inquiry, above all the p…
- inquisitioAn inquiry or inquest.
- inquisitio post mortemAn inquiry held after a tenant's death to determine what land was held, of whom, and by what service, so that the Cro…
- inquisitionThe record of the finding of a coroner's jury into a death. The word also means a judicial inquiry, usually with a di…
- inquisition after deathAn inquiry by a coroner or medical examiner, sometimes with a jury, into how a person died where the death was suspic…
- inquisitorAn officer who examines and inquires, such as a coroner or sheriff; also anyone who questions another harshly or with…
- inquisitorial courtA court that follows the inquisitorial system.
- inquisitorial systemA way of taking proof used in civil-law countries, in which the judge runs the trial, decides what questions to ask,…
- inrollTo register or copy a legal document, such as a deed, into an official record once it has been signed.
- inrollmentEntering a document on an official record.
- INSThe Justice Department agency that once administered the Immigration and Nationality Act and ran the Border Patrol. I…
- insaneMentally deranged: holding one or more delusions that have no basis in reason or reality, that no reasonable person o…
- insane asylumAn older and now offensive name for a hospital or institution caring for people with mental illness.
- insane delusionA fixed and irrational belief in a state of facts that does not exist, which robs a person of the capacity to do thin…
- insanityA mental disorder severe enough to deprive a person of legal capacity and to excuse them from criminal or civil respo…
- insanity defenseA defense claiming that a mental disorder caused the accused to commit the crime. Unlike other defenses, success brin…
- Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 testThe federal test for the insanity defense, requiring clear and convincing proof that at the time of the crime the def…
- insanity pleaA defense claiming that a mental disorder caused the accused to commit the crime. Unlike other defenses, success brin…
- inscribereIn civil law, an undertaking by an accuser to suffer the same punishment the accused would have faced, if the accusat…
- inscriptioIn Roman law, a written accusation entered in an official register. The accuser was liable to punishment if the accus…
- inscriptionEntering a fact or a name on a list, register, or record, and the entry itself. In civil law the word also means an a…
- inscriptionesTitle deeds: written instruments granting rights or interests.
- insecureHolding a good-faith belief that payment or performance from the other party to a contract is unlikely to come.
- insecurity clauseA term in a loan agreement letting the lender call in the whole balance at once on reasonable grounds for believing t…
- inside directorA director who is also an employee, officer, or major shareholder of the company.
- inside informationInformation about a company's finances or market position that comes not from public disclosure but from inside the c…
- insiderIn securities law, a person who knows facts about a company that the public does not.
- insider dealingTrading a company's shares on the strength of important information not yet public, by a company insider or by someon…
- insider informationInformation about a company's finances or market position that comes not from public disclosure but from inside the c…
- insider preferenceA transfer of property by a bankrupt debtor to an insider within the year before the bankruptcy petition, which the t…
- insider reportA report that officers, directors, and holders of more than 10% of a company's stock must file with the SEC disclosin…
- insider tradingTrading a company's shares on the strength of important information not yet public, by a company insider or by someon…
- insiliumHarmful advice.
- insimulTogether; jointly.
- insimul computassentA count in an action of assumpsit alleging that the parties went over their accounts together and that the defendant…
- insinuareIn Roman and civil law, to register something: to lodge an instrument with a public registry.
- insinuatioInformation or suggestion. The word appeared in the phrase ex insinuatione, meaning on the information of someone.
- insinuationLodging an instrument with a public registry so that it may be recorded; also a document evidencing a gift of property.
- insinuation of a willThe first production of a will for probate.
- insolvencyBeing unable to pay one's debts as they fall due or in the ordinary course of business.
- insolvency proceedingA bankruptcy proceeding to wind up an estate or to put it back on its feet.
- insolventOf a debtor, owing more than they own, or having stopped paying debts in the ordinary course, or being unable to pay…
- inspectionA careful examination of something, such as goods to see whether they are fit to buy, or documents produced in discov…
- inspection rightThe right, in certain situations, to examine goods or documents, such as a buyer's right to look over goods before pa…
- inspection searchA search of business or public premises by a regulator to check compliance with health, safety, or security rules. It…
- inspectorA person authorized to inspect something; also a police officer ranking below a superintendent and commanding several…
- inspeximusA charter by which a grantor confirms an earlier one. The word inspeximus, we have inspected, opened such a charter.
- installTo put a person formally into an office or rank.
- installment accounting methodA method letting a taxpayer spread the gain on a sale of property across the payment period, by working out the gross…
- installment contractA contract that requires or permits goods to be delivered in separate lots, or payments to be made in separate instal…
- installment creditConsumer credit to be repaid in two or more payments, usually at regular intervals, with finance charges added by the…
- installment debtA debt to be repaid in a series of payments at set intervals over a fixed period.
- installment land contractA contract to sell land in which the buyer takes possession and pays by installments, with the deed handed over only…
- installment loanA loan repaid in portions, usually equal, over a set period.
- installment noteA note payable in installments at set intervals.
- installment planA conditional sale in which the buyer pays a deposit and then periodic installments, the seller keeping title or a se…
- installment saleA conditional sale in which the buyer pays a deposit and then periodic installments, the seller keeping title or a se…
- instanceAn example or occurrence; also the bringing of legal proceedings, and, in older usage, urgent insistence.
- instance courtFormerly, the English admiralty court hearing all cases at first instance except those about prizes taken at sea.
- instantThis one; the present case, judgment, or order.
- instant caseThe case the court is dealing with at the moment.
- instantaneous crimeA crime completed by a single act, such as arson or murder, rather than by a course of conduct. The limitation period…
- instantaneous deathDeath occurring instantly or within an extremely short time of an injury. It matters in deciding what damages to awar…
- instanterAt once; immediately.
- instarLikeness, or the equivalent of a thing. The word appeared in phrases such as instar omnium, tantamount to all of them.
- instigateTo goad or urge someone into taking a course of action.
- instinctFilled or charged with something, as in the phrase instinct with obligation, said of words that carry a binding promi…
- institorA person put in charge of a particular business, above all a shopkeeper or the manager of a commercial concern.
- institorial powerIn civil law, the authority a business owner gives an agent to act on the owner's behalf in running the business.
- instituteA legal treatise or commentary, such as Coke's Institutes, published in four volumes from 1628. In civil law the word…
- Institutes of GaiusAn elementary treatise on Roman law written by the jurist Gaius in the second century AD. It served as the model and…
- Institutes of JustinianThe elementary four-book textbook of Roman law issued under Justinian in 533 AD, one of the four parts of the Corpus…
- Institutes of TheophilusA Greek paraphrase of Justinian's Institutes written in the sixth century by Theophilus, a law professor at Constanti…
- institutionThe starting of something, such as a civil or criminal case; also a basic rule or practice, and an established organi…
- institutional brokerA broker who trades securities for institutional clients such as banks, mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance co…
- institutional investorSomeone who trades securities in large volume, usually investing other people's money through a managed fund. Pension…
- institutional lenderA business, above all a bank, that lends to the public as a matter of course.
- institutional litigantAn organized group that brings lawsuits not merely to win them but to change the law or to defend a law already on th…
- institutional marketThe demand among large investors and companies for short-term funds and commercial paper.
- institutionalizeTo place a person in an institution; also to give a rule or practice official standing.
- institutionesElementary works of law: institutes.
- instructTo direct a jury on the law it must apply; also, of a client, to give a lawyer directions on how to conduct the case.
- instructed verdictA verdict the judge orders the jury to return, taking the fact-finding out of its hands because the evidence points o…
- instructionA direction the judge gives the jury on the law that governs the case and how to apply it to the facts.
- instrumentA written legal document setting out rights, duties, or liabilities, such as a contract, will, promissory note, or sh…
- instrument of appealIn English law, the document by which a divorce judgment of a trial judge in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Divis…
- instrumentalityA thing used to achieve an end; also the means or body through which another entity carries out a function, such as a…
- instrumentality ruleThe rule that a company counts as a subsidiary where another company controls it to a great extent, so that the paren…
- instrumentumA document, deed, or instrument, above all one not under seal, such as a court roll.
- insubordinationDeliberately disregarding an employer's instructions, above all in a way that gives the employer cause to dismiss; al…
- insufficient evidenceEvidence too weak to prove the point, so that not even a conditional presumption arises from it.
- insufficient fundsThe bank's note on a dishonored check showing that the drawer's account did not hold enough money to cover it.
- insulaAn island; also a detached house or block of apartments let to tenants.
- insular courtA federal court with jurisdiction over U.S. island territories, such as the Virgin Islands.
- insular possessionAn island territory of the United States, such as Puerto Rico.
- insurableCapable of being insured.
- insurable interestA stake in the person or property insured, such that the policyholder stands to lose something if the insured event h…
- insurable valueWhat the subject of an insurance contract is worth, usually stated as a sum of money.
- InsuranceA chart insurers developed in the 1860s to predict death rates and so set premiums more accurately. It was widely use…
- insurance adjusterA person who works out what the insured's loss is worth and settles the claim against the insurer.
- insurance agentA person authorized by an insurance company to sell its policies.
- insurance brokerSomeone who, for payment, arranges or negotiates contracts of insurance as another's agent, without being an officer,…
- insurance certificateA document an insurer issues as proof of insurance or of membership in an insurance or pension plan; also one issued…
- insurance commissionerThe public official who supervises the insurance business carried on in a state.
- insurance companyA company or association that issues insurance policies.
- insurance fraudFraud aimed at an insurer, as when someone lies on an application or invents a claim.
- insurance of the personInsurance meant to protect the person rather than property, such as life, accident, and disability cover.
- insurance policyA contract of insurance; also the document setting it out.
- insurance poolA group of insurers who pool their premiums and share their losses so as to spread the risk.
- insurance premiumThe regular payment that keeps an insurance policy in force.
- insurance ratingThe process by which an insurer works out the premium to charge for a particular risk.
- insurance trustA trust whose property consists of insurance policies or the money they pay out.
- insurance underwriterA person who contracts to take on the risk of another's loss and to make it good; also the insurance-company employee…
- insuredThe person covered by an insurance policy.
- insurerA person who contracts to take on the risk of another's loss and to make it good.
- insurgentA person who takes up arms against an established government for political ends.
- insuring agreementA clause in an insurance policy or bond setting out the risk the insurer takes on and how far the cover extends.
- insuring clauseA clause in an insurance policy or bond setting out the risk the insurer takes on and how far the cover extends.
- insurrectionA violent rising against an oppressive authority, usually a government.
- intakeIn English law, a piece of land a tenant took temporarily out of common or moorland to raise a crop on.
- intake dayThe day on which new cases are handed out to the courts.
- intangibleIncapable of being touched; having no physical substance.
- intangible assetAn asset with no physical existence, such as a patent, a trademark, or goodwill.
- intangible drilling costsIn oil-and-gas law, the costs of drilling, testing, and completing a well that leave nothing of salvage value behind.…
- intangible movableA movable thing with no solid physical form, such as electricity, or a movable right such as a debt or a share.
- intangible propertyProperty with no physical existence, such as bank accounts, stock options, and business goodwill.
- intangible taxA state tax on the privilege of owning, transferring, leaving by will, or otherwise dealing in intangible property.
- integerWhole; untouched.
- integrated agreementOne or more documents setting out the parties' final expression of one or more terms of their agreement.
- integrated barA bar association that a lawyer must belong to by statute in order to practice law.
- integrated contractOne or more documents that the parties intend as the final statement of some or all of the terms they agreed.
- integrated property settlementA contract, folded into the divorce decree, that divides the assets of a divorcing couple.
- integrated writingOne or more writings that the parties adopted as the final statement of one or more terms of their agreement.
- integrationMaking whole, or combining into one. In contract law it means putting the parties' whole agreement into a final docum…
- integration clauseA clause stating that the contract is the parties' complete and final agreement and replaces every earlier understand…
- integration ruleThe rule that once the parties have put their agreement into a final document, nothing said or done outside it counts…
- integrity rightAn author's moral right to object to any distortion, mutilation, or other alteration of the work that would injure th…
- intellectual propertyThe intangible rights that protect commercially valuable products of the mind. The main ones are trademark, copyright…
- intemperanceWant of moderation, above all habitual or excessive drinking.
- intendTo have a fixed purpose to bring something about; also to foresee that the usual consequences of one's act will proba…
- intendantThe head of a government department, above all, in 17th- and 18th-century France, a royal official in charge of justi…
- intended beneficiaryA third party intended to benefit from a contract, who acquires rights under it and can enforce it once those rights…
- intended to be recordedOf a deed or other instrument, not yet lodged with a public registry but still forming a link in the chain of title.
- intended-use doctrineIn products-liability law, the rule that a manufacturer must design a product to be reasonably safe for the users and…
- intendmentThe sense the law takes something to have; also a decision-maker's inference about what a legal document really means.
- intentThe state of mind that goes with an act, above all a forbidden one. Motive is what tempts a person to act; intent is…
- intent of the legislatureWhat the legislature meant to achieve by a statute, which courts try to give effect to when the words leave room for…
- intent to killAn intention to cause another's death, above all a state of mind that, if present during an assault, turns it into ag…
- intent-to-use applicationIn trademark law, an application to register a mark on the federal principal register based on a genuine intention to…
- intentionThe state of being set on bringing about something planned or foreseen.
- intentional actAn act done deliberately, where the doer foresaw and wanted the result and their will brought it about.
- intentional manslaughterA killing that would be murder but is reduced to manslaughter because of extenuating circumstances, above all provoca…
- intentional tortA tort committed deliberately, whether the actor intended the precise harm or simply the act that caused it. Battery,…
- intentional wrongA wrong in which the state of mind amounts to intention, purpose, or design.
- intentional-injury exclusionA clause in a liability policy that excludes cover for injury or damage the insured expected or intended to cause.
- inter apices jurisAmong the fine points of the law.
- inter conjugesBetween husband and wife.
- inter paresBetween peers; between people standing on an equal footing.
- inter partesBetween two or more parties; with two or more parties taking part.
- inter regaliaAmong the royal prerogatives: belonging to the sovereign as part of the Crown's rights.
- inter seOf a right or duty, owed between the parties themselves rather than to anyone outside.
- inter se doctrineThe now-defunct doctrine that dealings between members of the British Commonwealth were governed by their own interna…
- inter seseOf a right or duty, owed between the parties themselves rather than to anyone outside.
- inter virum et uxoremBetween husband and wife.
- inter vivosMade during the giver's lifetime, rather than by will or in the shadow of imminent death.
- inter vivos giftA gift made during the giver's lifetime and handed over with the intention of giving up control of the property for g…
- inter vivos transferA transfer of property made while the transferor is still alive.
- inter vivos trustA trust created and taking effect during the settlor's lifetime.
- Inter-American Bar AssociationAn organization of lawyers from North, Central, and South America that promotes legal education, cooperation, and pro…
- intercalareIn civil law, to insert something among others, above all to put an extra day or month into the calendar. The rare En…
- intercedereTo take on another's debt, above all by standing as surety for them.
- interceptTo listen in on or capture a communication secretly, usually said of a law-enforcement agency.
- interchangeable bondA bond exchangeable for a different type, such as a coupon bond that may be swapped for a registered one.
- intercourseDealings or communication, above all between businesses or governments; also sexual intercourse.
- interdependenceIn international law, the reliance countries place on one another to keep themselves going and to get ahead.
- interdiction of commercial intercourseA government's ban on trading with another country.
- interdictoryHaving to do with an interdiction, or having the power to impose one.
- interdictum quod vi aut clamIn Roman law, an interdict against someone who altered the claimant's property by force or in secret, ordering them t…
- interesseInterest in the sense of money paid for the use of a loan; also a legal interest in property.
- interesse terminiA tenant's right to enter the leased premises, held between the signing of the lease and the taking of possession. It…
- interesseeA person who has an interest in the matter at hand.
- interestA share or stake in something: all or part of a legal or equitable claim to property. The word separately means the m…
- interest arbitrationArbitration that settles the terms of a contract still being negotiated, especially in labor law the terms to go into…
- interest as damagesInterest the law allows, though nobody promised to pay it, to compensate for delay in paying a fixed sum or in assess…
- interest bondA bond issued in place of interest due on other bonds.
- interest factorIn life-insurance pricing, the insurer's estimate of what it will earn on the premiums over the life of the policy. I…
- interest policyA policy whose terms show that the insured has a real interest in the thing insured, as opposed to a mere wager.
- interest rateThe percentage a borrower pays a lender for the use of money, usually stated as a percentage of the principal for a y…
- interest unityThe requirement that joint tenants' interests be identical in kind, extent, and duration.
- interest warrantAn order a company draws on its bank directing it to pay interest to a bondholder.
- interest-coverage ratioThe ratio between a company's pre-tax earnings and the yearly interest it owes on bonds and loans.
- interest-equalization taxA tax once charged on a U.S. citizen's purchase of foreign stock or of a foreign debt obligation maturing in more tha…
- interest-free loanMoney lent at no charge or, under the tax code, at a rate below the market.
- interest-only mortgageA mortgage on which the borrower pays only interest at first and must then repay the whole principal in one lump at t…
- interest-rate swapAn agreement to swap interest receipts or interest obligations, usually to change one's exposure to risk, to bet on r…
- interested partyA party with a recognized stake in the matter, and so with standing in it.
- interested personA person with a property right in something, or a claim against it, such as a trust or a dead person's estate.
- interested witnessA witness with a direct personal stake in the matter being tried.
- interferenceMeddling in another's affairs; also an obstruction or hindrance. In patent law it is a proceeding in the Patent and T…
- interference with a business relationshipDeliberately disrupting another's business dealings without justification, even where no contract yet exists, so as t…
- intergovernmental immunityThe immunity the federal government and the states hold against each other, arising from each being sovereign in its…
- intergovernmental-immunity doctrineThe principle that the federal government and the states are separate sovereigns, neither of which may intrude on the…
- interimDone or occurring for the time being: temporary or provisional.
- interim bondA bond a police officer sets where someone is arrested without warrant for a minor offense. It allows release but req…
- interim curatorSomeone a justice of the peace appointed to hold a convicted felon's property until a royal administrator could be as…
- interim financingA short-term loan taken out to cover major costs, such as building work, until long-term financing comes through.
- interim measure of protectionIn international law, a step an international tribunal takes to stop one side from prejudicing the outcome by acting…
- interim orderA temporary court order that holds good until something else happens.
- interim receiptA written acknowledgment that a premium has been paid on a policy still awaiting final approval.
- interim reliefRelief granted for the time being, before the case is finally decided, so as to hold the position steady meanwhile.
- interim statementA financial report issued for part of a fiscal year rather than for the whole of it.
- interim trusteeA trustee appointed to do a bankruptcy trustee's whole job until the regular trustee is chosen and qualified. Before…
- interim zoningTemporary zoning put in place while a community works out its permanent plan, so that development cannot outrun the p…
- interim-occupancy agreementA contract governing a leaseback: an arrangement under which the seller rents the property back from the buyer.
- interinsuranceAn arrangement in which several people or businesses, acting through an agent, underwrite each other's risks, so that…
- interinsurance exchangeAn association whose members insure one another, exchanging contracts and paying premiums through an attorney-in-fact…
- Interior DepartmentThe federal department responsible for federally owned land and natural resources and for overseeing Indian reservati…
- interlineTo write words between the lines of a document, whether to change its meaning or to make it clearer.
- interlineationWriting something between the lines of an earlier writing, and the words so written.
- interliningA carrier's practice of handing a shipment to another carrier so that it can reach a destination the first carrier do…
- interlocking confessionsConfessions by two or more suspects that say substantially the same thing about the elements of the crime. Such confe…
- interlocking directorA director who sits at the same time on the boards of two or more companies that deal with each other or have allied…
- interlocutorIn Scots law, a non-final order disposing of some part of a case.
- interlocutoryOf an order, judgment, or appeal, temporary: not settling the whole dispute.
- interlocutory appealAn appeal brought before the trial court has finally decided the whole case. Some concern points of law needed to dec…
- Interlocutory Appeals ActA federal statute of 1958 letting a court of appeals decide, at its discretion, to review an interlocutory order in a…
- interlocutory decisionAn order dealing with some intermediate matter rather than finally disposing of the case. Most cannot be appealed unt…
- interlocutory decreeAn intermediate judgment deciding a preliminary or subordinate point without finally disposing of the case.
- interlocutory injunctionA temporary injunction granted before or during trial to prevent irreparable harm before the court can decide the cas…
- interlocutory judgmentAn intermediate judgment deciding a preliminary or subordinate point without finally disposing of the case.
- interlocutory orderAn order dealing with some intermediate matter: any order short of a final one. Most cannot be appealed until the cas…
- interloperA person who interferes without any right to; also someone who trades unlawfully.
- intermeddlerSomeone who confers a benefit on another without being asked and without any duty to do so, and who therefore cannot…
- intermediaryA mediator or go-between: a third party who carries dealings between two others.
- intermediary bankA bank to which an item passes during collection, other than the bank of first deposit and the paying bank.
- intermediateTo act as an intermediary: to stand between two parties and carry dealings between them.
- intermediate accountAn account an executor, administrator, or guardian files after the first account and before the final one.
- intermediate courtAn appeal court sitting below the court of last resort.
- intermediate orderAn order dealing with some intermediate matter: any order short of a final one. Most cannot be appealed until the cas…
- intermediate scrutinyA standard of review sitting between rational-basis review and strict scrutiny. Where a statute draws a quasi-suspect…
- intermediationAny process working through an intermediary, above all the placing of money with a financial middleman who reinvests…
- intermittent easementAn easement used only from time to time rather than regularly or continuously.
- intermittent sentenceA sentence served in stretches, with periods of confinement broken by periods of freedom, as where an offender spends…
- intermixture of goodsThe mixing of one person's goods with another's so that they can no longer be told apart, which may cost the person r…
- internAn advanced student or recent graduate serving an apprenticeship to gain practical experience before entering a profe…
- internal actAn act of the mind, such as forming an intention or making a decision, as opposed to an outward physical act.
- internal affairsThe internal workings of a company, such as declaring dividends and choosing officers. In the conflict of laws, such…
- internal auditAn audit by an organization's own staff, to check that its internal procedures, operations, and accounting are in order.
- internal financingPaying for a company's needs out of money its own operations throw off, rather than by issuing stock or borrowing fro…
- internal lawThe law governing a country's domestic affairs; also, in the conflict of laws, the law of a place apart from its choi…
- internal rate of returnIn accounting, the discount rate at which a long-term project's expected cash flows come out even, used to measure th…
- internal revenueGovernment revenue from taxes raised at home, as opposed to customs or import duties.
- Internal Revenue CodeTitle 26 of the United States Code, which holds the whole of current federal tax law.
- Internal Revenue ServiceThe branch of the Treasury Department that administers the Internal Revenue Code and helps taxpayers understand it.
- internal securityThe field of law dealing with measures taken to protect a country against subversion.
- internal sovereigntyThe power rulers hold over their own people.
- internal watersAny body or stream of water inside a country's borders, natural or artificial, such as a bay, gulf, river mouth, cree…
- internal-affairs doctrineIn the conflict of laws, the rule that disputes between a company and its shareholders, directors, officers, or agent…
- internal-security actA statute outlawing and controlling the activities of organizations thought to aim at overthrowing or disrupting the…
- international administrative lawThe internal law and rules of international organizations. It also covers rules of international law bearing directly…
- international agreementA treaty or other agreement between countries, such as GATT or NAFTA.
- international bill of exchangeA draft drawn in one country or state but payable in another.
- international controlIn international law, supervision of countries and their subdivisions to ensure that what they do squares with intern…
- International Court of JusticeThe fifteen-judge court of the United Nations, sitting at The Hague, which decides disputes between states that agree…
- international crimeIn international law, a crime against international law itself, which requires three things: that the rule comes from…
- International Criminal CourtThe permanent court created by treaty in 1998 and sitting at The Hague, which tries individuals for genocide, crimes…
- International Criminal Police OrganizationAn international police body founded in 1923 and headquartered in Lyon, France, which gathers and shares information…
- international economic lawThe part of international law dealing with investment, economic relations, development, economic institutions, and re…
- international enclaveIn international law, a piece of one country's territory entirely surrounded by another country, so that reaching the…
- international extraditionExtradition on a demand made by the government of one country to the government of another, governed by treaty.
- international jurisdictionA court's power to hear and decide matters between different countries, or between people of different countries.
- international lawThe body of rules and principles that govern relations between states, and increasingly between states and individual…
- International Law CommissionA body the United Nations created in 1948 to codify international law. Made up of experts in the field, it sits at th…
- international legal communityThe body of countries whose legal relations rest on sovereign equality; more broadly, every organized entity able to…
- international legislationLawmaking among countries or intergovernmental organizations that works structurally like national legislation. The p…
- International Monetary FundThe United Nations agency set up to steady exchange rates between currencies and to keep trade in balance.
- international organizationIn international law, an association of countries set up by multilateral treaty and run under it, to pursue aims they…
- international personIn international law, an actor with legal personality on the international plane: one that holds rights, duties, and…
- international private lawThe body of rules that decides which country's law governs a private dispute touching more than one country, and whic…
- international regimeA set of norms, rules, and policies covering an international issue, which makes arrangements between countries easie…
- international relationsThe dealings between sovereign states, and the study of how those dealings are conducted.
- international riverIn international law, a river flowing through or between two or more countries. Such a river raises the question whet…
- international seabedThe seabed, ocean floor, and subsoil lying beyond the limits of any nation's territory.
- International Trade CourtThe federal court with jurisdiction over civil actions against the United States arising out of the laws on imports,…
- international unionA parent union with affiliates in other countries.
- international willA will made in the form an international treaty or convention lays down, which is valid even though written in a fore…
- internationalizationPlacing a territory under the protection or control of several countries or of an international body, rather than lea…
- internecineDeadly, or marked by mass slaughter; also mutually destructive. Loosely, the word describes conflict inside a group.
- internmentThe government's ordered detention of people suspected of disloyalty, as with the confinement of Japanese Americans d…
- internshipThe position of an intern, or the period spent serving in one.
- internuncioA messenger between two parties; also a broker acting for both sides of a transaction, and a papal representative at…
- interpellateOf a judge, to break into a lawyer's argument with a question; of a legislator, to interrupt the legislature's busine…
- interpleaA pleading by which a stakeholder pays the disputed property into the court's registry and asks the court to decide w…
- interpleadOf a claimant, to put forward one's own claim to property already before the court; of a stakeholder, to start an int…
- interpleaderA suit to decide who owns property held by a third party, usually a stakeholder with no interest of their own, who is…
- InterpolAn international police body founded in 1923 and headquartered in Lyon, France, which gathers and shares information…
- interpolationInserting words into a document to change or clarify its meaning; used unfavorably, slipping in extra or false words…
- interpolatorA person who inserts words into a document, above all one who slips in words that do not belong there.
- interpositionPutting something forward, such as a pleading or motion, as an answer to an opponent's claim. In older usage it meant…
- interpretatioThe opinion of a Roman jurist, a scholar of the law rather than an advocate, who normally never appeared in court. Su…
- interpretationWorking out what something means, above all a law or a legal document.
- interpretation clauseA clause in a statute or contract that defines the words it uses often, or explains how the whole document is to be r…
- interpretative ruleAn agency rule that states how the agency reads a statute it administers. Such a rule guides but does not itself carr…
- interpreted testimonyTestimony given through an interpreter because the witness cannot speak the language of the court.
- interpreterA person who translates from one language into another, usually aloud, above all one sworn at trial to render faithfu…
- interpretive ruleAn agency rule that states how the agency reads a statute it administers. Such a rule guides but does not itself carr…
- interpretivismThe view that in reading the Constitution judges must keep to the values stated in its language or fairly implied by it.
- interregnumThe gap between reigns, when a throne stands empty between one sovereign and the next; in older usage, the authority…
- interrogateeA person who is questioned.
- interrogationFormal or systematic questioning of a person, above all sustained questioning by police of someone arrested for or su…
- interrogative questionA question put to a witness with the object of getting inadmissible matter about the crime in front of the jury, whic…
- interrogatorA person who puts questions to another.
- interrogatoryA written question, usually one of a set, served on the opposing party in a lawsuit as part of discovery.
- interrogeeA person who is questioned.
- interruptioInterruption: a break in possession of land that puts an end to a claim by prescription.
- intersectionA place where two roads meet or cross.
- interspousal immunityThe rule that one spouse cannot be sued in tort by the other for personal injury. Most states have now abolished it.
- interstateBetween two or more states, or between residents of different states.
- interstate agreementAn agreement between states.
- interstate commerceTrade and other business carried on between people in different states, especially the movement of goods and travel o…
- Interstate Commerce CommissionThe now-defunct federal agency set up by the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 to regulate surface transport between st…
- interstate compactAn agreement between states, given the force of law in each of them once Congress approves it.
- interstate extraditionExtradition on a demand made by the governor of one state to the governor of another, provided for by the U.S. Consti…
- interstate income-withholding orderA court order enforcing another state's support order by taking the money out of the defaulting person's income.
- interstate lawThe rules and principles used to decide disputes between residents of different states.
- interstate renditionThe return of a fugitive from the state where they were caught to the state where they stand accused or convicted.
- intersubjective zapIn critical legal studies, a supposed moment of spontaneous shared insight among a group.
- intervening actAn event that comes between the first event in a chain and the final harm, turning the course of events aside. If it…
- intervening agencyAn event that comes between the first event in a chain and the final harm, turning the course of events aside. If it…
- intervening causeAn event that comes between the first event in a sequence and the final result, changing the course that might otherw…
- intervening forceAn event that comes between the first event in a chain and the final harm, turning the course of events aside. If it…
- intervenorA person who comes into a pending lawsuit of their own motion because they have a personal stake in it.
- interventionThe entry of a third party into a lawsuit because the outcome affects them, whether they line up with the plaintiff,…
- intervention dutyA shipowner's duty to put right a dangerous working condition for longshore workers, even one the owner did not creat…
- intestacyThe state of having died without a valid will.
- intestateHaving to do with a person who died without a valid will, with such a person's property, or with intestacy generally.
- intestate lawThe statute that governs who succeeds to the estate of a person who dies without a valid will.
- intestate successionThe rules by which the property of someone who dies without a valid will is shared out.
- intestatoOf a succession, taking place without a will.
- intestatusA person who dies without a will.
- intimidationUnlawful coercion: forcing someone to act, or not to act, by threats. English law recognized it as a tort in 1964 in…
- intimidatoryTending to intimidate; carrying a threat.
- intitleTo give someone a legal right or qualification; in church law, to ordain as a minister.
- intoxicantA substance, above all alcohol, that robs a person of the ordinary use of the senses or of reason.
- intoxicationA reduced ability to act with full mental and physical command because of drink or drugs.
- intoximeterA device measuring the alcohol in a person's breath, used above all where police suspect drink-driving. The results a…
- intraWithin.
- intra luctus tempusWithin the time of mourning.
- intra maeniaWithin the walls of a house: a phrase used above all of domestic servants.
- intra trajectumOn the voyage over; during the crossing.
- intra-enterprise conspiracyIn antitrust law, a conspiracy said to exist between two subsidiaries, divisions, or other parts of the same firm.
- intragovernmentalWithin a single government: between its own departments or officials.
- intraliminal rightIn mining law, the right to work ore lying inside the boundaries of a mineral claim. Unlike an extralateral right, it…
- intransitive covenantA covenant whose burden does not pass from the original covenantor to their personal representatives.
- intrastate commerceCommerce that begins and ends entirely within one state.
- intrinsec serviceThe feudal services a tenant owed the immediate lord, arising from the agreement between them.
- intrinsicBelonging to a thing by its very nature, rather than depending on anything outside it.
- intrinsic ambiguityAn ambiguity plain on the face of a document, arising from the words themselves.
- intrinsic evidenceEvidence drawn out by questioning the witness who is testifying; also, evidence found within a document itself.
- intrinsic fraudDeception about a matter actually in issue in the original case, such as planted evidence, a false return of service,…
- intrinsic valueWhat a thing is worth in itself, apart from any special feature that might change its market price. The intrinsic val…
- introduce into evidenceTo get a fact or object admitted into the trial record, so that the judge or jury may take it into account.
- introductaBelongings a tenant brings into rented rooms. The landlord held a tacit mortgage over them as security for the rent.
- introductory clauseThe opening paragraph of a contract, which names the parties and the date and typically begins with words such as thi…
- intromissionAn employee's or agent's dealings with money supplied by the employer or principal; loosely, handling another's funds…
- intrusionEntering somewhere without permission; in an action for invasion of privacy, a highly offensive intrusion into anothe…
- intrustTo place responsibility for something in a person's hands, usually on the strength of a relationship of confidence.
- inundateTo flood or overwhelm.
- inureTo take effect or come into operation; also to accustom someone to something unpleasant.
- inurementA benefit: something useful that comes to a person.
- invadiareTo pledge or mortgage land.
- invadiatioA pledge or mortgage.
- invalidNot legally binding; also without foundation in fact.
- invalid agreementA contract that is either void or capable of being avoided.
- invalid contractA contract that is either void or voidable.
- invalid willA will that fails to dispose of the property effectively.
- invasionA hostile encroachment on another's rights; also an army's incursion for conquest or plunder. In the law of trusts th…
- invasion of privacyUnjustified exploitation of a person's personality or intrusion into their private life, actionable in tort and somet…
- inveigleTo lure or entice someone by deceit.
- inventTo create something for the first time.
- invented considerationConsideration a court treats as present, though it is really a fiction, so that a contract otherwise lacking consider…
- inventioA thing found, or the finding of it. Under Roman law the finder of treasure either took title to it or shared it with…
- inventionA device or process that is new, useful, and not obvious, produced by independent effort, and so eligible for a paten…
- inventoryA detailed list of assets. In accounting it means the part of a financial statement showing what a business's raw mat…
- inventory feeThe fee a probate court charges for its services to a dead person's estate.
- inventory searchA full search of an arrested person before booking into jail, everything found being logged and held in police custody.
- inventory-turnover ratioIn accounting, the cost of goods sold divided by the average inventory, used to judge how well a company manages its…
- inventusFound. The word turns up in phrases such as thesaurus inventus, treasure trove, and non est inventus, he is not found.
- inverse condemnationA claim a property owner brings for compensation where the government has effectively taken their property without br…
- inverse floaterA note whose interest rate moves opposite to the benchmark index it is tied to. Such notes are risky, since a rise in…
- inverse zoningZoning worked backwards from what is already on the ground, with district lines drawn to match existing uses rather t…
- inverse-floating-rate noteA note whose interest rate moves opposite to the benchmark index it is tied to. Such notes are risky, since a rise in…
- inverse-order-of-alienation doctrineThe rule that where mortgaged land has been sold off in successive parcels, the mortgagee must look first to the part…
- inverted marketA futures market in which contracts for early delivery cost more than those for delivery further off, the reverse of…
- investTo clothe someone with authority or power; also to lay out money in the hope of profit.
- investigateTo inquire into a matter systematically, or to make a suspect the subject of a criminal inquiry.
- investigating bureauAn organization that prepares reports to order, covering not just creditworthiness but personal information gathered…
- investigating magistrateA quasi-judicial officer who examines, and sometimes rules on, parts of a criminal case before it reaches a judge.
- investigative consumer reportA report prepared on request covering not just someone's creditworthiness but personal information gathered from inte…
- investigative detentionThe holding of a suspect, without a formal arrest, while their part in a crime is investigated. It is constitutional…
- investigative grand juryA grand jury empaneled chiefly to investigate: to look into a course of conduct and gather evidence, rather than simp…
- investigatory interrogationRoutine, non-accusatory questioning by police of a person who is not in custody.
- investigatory powerThe power given to a government agency to inspect records and compel disclosure of facts bearing on an investigation.
- investigatory stopA brief detention, questioning, and pat-down of a person for a hidden weapon where an officer reasonably suspects a c…
- investitive factA fact that gives someone rights.
- investitureFormally installing someone in office in a ceremony where they are clothed in the insignia of the post, above all the…
- investmentLaying out money to acquire property or assets that will produce a return.
- investment adviserSomeone who is paid to advise others, whether directly or through publications, about the value of securities or the…
- Investment Advisors ActThe 1940 federal statute, administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, requiring investment advisers to re…
- investment bankA bank whose main business is raising finance for companies, especially by selling securities. It takes no deposits a…
- investment bankerA person or firm that underwrites or sells securities, or otherwise helps businesses raise capital, above all through…
- investment bankingThe business of underwriting and selling securities, above all bringing new stocks or bonds to market.
- investment billA bill of exchange bought at a discount and meant to be held to maturity as an investment.
- investment companyA company formed to acquire and manage a spread of assets with money collected from many sources. The Investment Comp…
- Investment Company ActThe 1940 federal statute passed to stop abuses by investment companies. It requires them to register and bars unregis…
- investment contractA contract under which money goes into a common venture with the profits to come from other people's efforts. The inv…
- investment discretionA person's power to decide what an account will buy or sell, to make that decision even where someone else formally h…
- investment incomeMoney earned from investments rather than from work.
- investment indebtednessIn tax law, debt a taxpayer takes on to buy or carry assets that may produce income. The tax code caps how much of th…
- investment propertyAny asset bought to make a profit, whether from the income it yields or from reselling it.
- investment securityAn instrument issued in bearer or registered form, of a kind commonly dealt in as an investment, which evidences a sh…
- investment tax creditAn amount taken straight off a taxpayer's tax bill, dollar for dollar, for money spent on qualifying investment, as o…
- investment trustA company formed to gather money from many sources and invest it in a spread of assets, managing the portfolio for it…
- investment-grade bondA bond rated BBB or better by the leading rating agencies.
- investment-grade ratingAny of the top four grades a rating agency gives a bond after assessing its quality, which show how much risk an inve…
- invidious discriminationDiscrimination that is offensive or objectionable, especially because it rests on prejudice or stereotyping.
- inviolabilityThe state of being safe from violation or attack.
- inviolableSafe from violation; incapable of being violated.
- inviolateUnbroken and unimpaired; not violated.
- invisibleIn accounting, not shown on a financial statement.
- invitationIn the law of negligence, drawing others in to enter, stay on, or use property or the buildings on it.
- invitation to negotiateA request for offers, usually a preliminary step on the way to a contract rather than an offer itself.
- invited errorAn error a party cannot complain of on appeal, because their own conduct encouraged or prompted the trial court to ma…
- inviteeA person with express or implied permission to enter or use another's premises, such as a customer or a member of the…
- inviterA person who invites another onto premises for business purposes, expressly or by implication.
- invitorA person who invites another onto premises for business purposes, expressly or by implication.
- invocationCalling on something as authority or justification; also putting a legal right into use.
- invoiceAn itemized list of goods or services a seller supplies to a buyer, usually stating the price and the terms of sale.
- invoice bookA book into which invoices are copied.
- involuntaryNot the product of free and unrestrained choice; not within the control of the will.
- involuntary alienationA transfer of property against the owner's wishes, as by attachment.
- involuntary bailmentA bailment arising where someone accidentally, and without any carelessness, leaves personal property in another's ha…
- involuntary bankruptcyA bankruptcy begun by creditors, usually three or more, to force the debtor either to declare bankruptcy or be declar…
- involuntary confessionA confession drawn out of a suspect by police promises, coercion, or deception.
- involuntary conversionThe loss or destruction of property through theft, casualty, or condemnation.
- involuntary conveyanceA transfer of property against the owner's wishes, as where it is seized under an attachment.
- involuntary depositA deposit arising where personal property is accidentally left or placed in another's hands.
- involuntary dismissalA court's dismissal of a case because the claimant failed to press on with it or to comply with a procedural rule or…
- involuntary dissolutionThe ending of a company's existence by administrative action for failing to file reports or pay taxes, by court order…
- involuntary euthanasiaEuthanasia carried out on a person who is capable of deciding and has not consented.
- involuntary gap claimIn bankruptcy law, a claim arising in the ordinary course of business after an involuntary petition has been filed bu…
- involuntary intoxicationTaking alcohol or drugs against one's will or without knowing it. It is a defense to a criminal charge or a claim of…
- involuntary lienA lien arising without the debtor's agreement, such as a tax lien or a judgment lien.
- involuntary manslaughterA killing done without any intent to kill or cause serious harm, but through criminal negligence or in the course of…
- involuntary paymentA payment made under compulsion or under protest, which the payer may sometimes recover.
- involuntary petitionA petition filed in a bankruptcy court by a creditor asking that the debtor be put into bankruptcy. It can be filed o…
- involuntary servitudeThe condition of a person forced to work for another by coercion or imprisonment, whether or not they are paid.
- involuntary strandingA stranding caused by natural forces such as wind and waves. How the stranding came about decides how any resulting l…
- involuntary suretyshipA suretyship that arises incidentally, where the contract was made chiefly for some other purpose.
- involuntary trustA trust a court imposes on equitable grounds against someone who got property by wrongdoing, so that they cannot keep…
- IOLTAInterest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts: a program under which the interest earned on pooled client funds held briefly by…
- IOUA note acknowledging a debt; also the debt itself.
- IPIntellectual property: the intangible rights protecting commercially valuable products of the mind, chiefly trademark…
- IPOInitial public offering: a company's first sale of stock to the public, made through a registration statement.
- ipso facto clauseA contract clause fixing what happens if a party goes bankrupt, typically letting the other side terminate. Bankruptc…
- ira motusMoved by anger or passion. The phrase was once used in the plea of son assault demesne.
- IRACA mnemonic used mostly by law students and their writing teachers as a method of answering exam questions: issue, rul…
- IRCInternal Revenue Code: Title 26 of the United States Code, which holds the whole of current federal tax law.
- iron-safe clauseA clause in a fire policy requiring the insured to keep the business's books and stock records in a fireproof safe, s…
- IRRInternal rate of return: the discount rate at which a project's expected cash flows come out even, used to measure th…
- irrationalNot guided by reason or by a fair look at the facts.
- irrebuttable presumptionA presumption that no evidence or argument is allowed to displace.
- irreconcilable differencesPersistent disagreements between spouses that cannot be resolved. They may be cited, without going into detail, as gr…
- irrecusableOf an obligation, one a person cannot escape even though they never agreed to it, such as the duty not to strike anot…
- irredeemable bondA bond with no maturity date, which goes on paying interest indefinitely.
- irrefragableImpossible to answer or refute.
- irregularNot according to law, method, or usual practice.
- irregular indorsementAn indorsement by someone outside the chain of title, who is therefore neither a holder nor a transferor of the instr…
- irregular judgmentA judgment open to being set aside because of some irregularity in how it was given, such as a clerk's failure to not…
- irregular processProcess issued between the start of a suit and the final judgment; also the procedure for compelling a defiant defend…
- irregular successionSuccession under special rules favoring particular people or the state, rather than the heirs who would take under th…
- irregularitySomething out of the ordinary course of a proceeding; in church law, an impediment to holding clerical office.
- irrelevanceThe quality of having no bearing on the matter in hand.
- irrelevancySomething that has no bearing on the matter in hand, and the quality of being so.
- irrelevantOf evidence, having no probative value: not tending to prove or disprove anything in issue.
- irremediable breakdown of the marriageA ground for divorce resting on incompatibility between the spouses, used in many states as the only ground for a no-…
- irreparable damagesDamages that cannot easily be worked out because there is no fixed money measure for them, as with the harm from a re…
- irreparable harmHarm that money cannot properly measure or make good, which is why courts will often grant an injunction against it.
- irreparable injuryHarm that money cannot properly measure or make good, which is why courts will often grant an injunction against it.
- irreparable-injury ruleThe rule that equitable relief such as an injunction is available only where no adequate remedy at law, above all dam…
- irrepleviableOf property, not capable of being recovered by replevin.
- irresistible forceForce that no one could foresee or control, especially force that makes performing a contract impossible.
- irresistible-impulse testA test for insanity holding that a defendant is not criminally responsible where mental illness left them unable to c…
- irretrievable breakdown of the marriageA ground for divorce resting on incompatibility between the spouses, used in many states as the only ground for a no-…
- irrevocableIncapable of being altered or recalled.
- irrevocable guarantyA guaranty the guarantor has no power to withdraw once it is given.
- irrevocable letter of creditA letter of credit the issuing bank cannot cancel or cut short before its expiry date, and which cannot be changed wi…
- irrevocable offerAn offer coupled with a promise to keep it open for a stated period, so that withdrawing it early exposes the offeror…
- irrevocable power of attorneyA power of attorney the principal has no power to revoke, usually because the agent holds an interest of their own in…
- irrevocable trustA trust the settlor cannot bring to an end once it is created. Older law presumed a trust irrevocable unless it said…
- irrogareTo impose a penalty; also to make or ordain a law.
- IRSInternal Revenue Service: the branch of the Treasury Department that administers the tax code and helps taxpayers und…
- is qui cognoscitThe person who acknowledged the other's right in levying a fine.
- is qui cognosciturThe person to whom the right was acknowledged in levying a fine.
- islandA piece of land surrounded by water but smaller than a continent, above all land that stays surrounded and goes under…
- ISOIncentive stock option: an option letting an employee buy company shares at a fixed price, which can carry favorable…
- isolated saleA one-off or infrequent sale, which carries no implied warranty of merchantability because the seller does not deal i…
- issuableCapable of being issued; also open to dispute, or possible as an outcome.
- issuable defenseIn common-law pleading, a plea on the merits setting out a legal defense.
- issuable pleaA plea on the merits that raises an issue for the court to try.
- issueA point in dispute between the parties.
- issue estoppelA defense barring a party from re-arguing an issue already decided against them in an earlier case, even where the se…
- issue into the caseThe obligation to produce enough evidence on an issue for it to be considered at all, as distinct from the obligation…
- issue of factA point that one side's evidence supports and the other's contradicts.
- issue of lawA point on which the evidence is not disputed, so that the outcome turns on how the court reads the law.
- issue pleadingThe common-law style of pleading whose chief aim was to narrow the dispute down to a single issue for trial.
- issue preclusionA defense barring a party from re-arguing an issue already decided against them in an earlier case, even where the se…
- issue rollIn English law, a court record briefly noting the issues in contested matters. The practice ended in 1834.
- issued stockCapital stock that has been authorized and sold to subscribers, though the company may buy some of it back, as with t…
- issuerA person or body, such as a company or a bank, that issues securities, negotiable instruments, or letters of credit;…
- ita lex scripta estSo the law is written: a phrase meaning that the law must be obeyed however harshly it falls in a particular case, an…
- ita te Deus adjuvetSo help you God: an old English form of words for administering an oath, often extended to God's holy gospels and all…
- itemA piece of a whole. In commercial law it means a negotiable instrument, or a promise or order to pay money, that a ba…
- item vetoAn executive's power to strike out particular provisions of a bill while letting the rest become law. The Supreme Cou…
- itemizeTo set out in detail, item by item.
- itemized deductionAn expense, such as medical costs, home-mortgage interest, or a charitable gift, that may be subtracted from adjusted…
- iterIn Roman law, a servitude allowing the holder to walk or ride on horseback across another's land, though not to drive…
- itinerant vendorA trader who moves from place to place selling goods.
- itinerateOf a judge, to travel a circuit in order to hold court.
- itinerate vendorA trader who moves from place to place selling goods rather than working from fixed premises.
- iudexIn Roman law, a private citizen appointed by a praetor or other magistrate to hear and decide a case. Such judges wer…
- iusLaw, or a right: the Latin word covering both the body of law and the particular rights it confers.
- ius praetoriumThe body of law the Roman praetors built up through their edicts, which softened and supplemented the older civil law.
- ius primae noctisThe supposed right of a feudal lord to spend the first night with a vassal's bride. No solid evidence shows that any…
- iustae nuptiaeA marriage valid under Roman law, made between two people who each had the legal capacity to marry the other.