Terms beginning with M
1,284 headwords
- MAn abbreviation for mortgage. Formerly, also a letter stamped on a treasury note to show it bore interest at one mill…
- M.D.Middle District, usually of a United States judicial district; also doctor of medicine.
- M.O.Modus operandi: a person's method of working, above all the characteristic way a criminal commits a particular kind o…
- M1A measure of the money supply covering cash, checking accounts, and travelers' checks.
- M2A measure of the money supply covering everything in M1 plus savings and time deposits, money-market accounts, and ov…
- M3A measure of the money supply covering everything in M2 plus large time deposits and money-market funds held by insti…
- maceFormerly, a war club: a staff topped with a heavy metal head. The ceremonial staff carried before a mayor or other of…
- mace-greffA buyer of stolen goods, above all someone who knowingly buys stolen food.
- mace-proofTo exempt someone from arrest, or to protect them against being arrested.
- Macedonian DecreeA Roman decree forbidding anyone to lend money to a son still under his father's authority. A lender who did so could…
- machinationPlotting a scheme, above all a wicked one; also the scheme itself.
- machineIn patent law, a device made of fixed and moving parts working together to do something. Machines are one of the cate…
- Machinists preemptionThe rule that a state may not regulate an area of labor relations that Congress deliberately left free of regulation,…
- MacPherson ruleThe rule, laid down in 1916, that the maker of any product capable of causing serious harm if carelessly made owes a…
- MACRSThe Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System: the federal tax rules governing how the cost of business property is d…
- Mad ParliamentThe commission of 24 men Henry III and his barons summoned to Oxford in 1258 to carry out reforms and settle their qu…
- made lawLaw laid down and enforced within a particular political community by those in authority, as opposed to moral law. It…
- magisterA master or superior, above all by office or rank; also a teacher, and in particular someone eminent in a field of le…
- magister ad facultatesAn officer who grants dispensations, such as leave to marry or to eat meat on forbidden days. In the archdiocese of C…
- magister bonorum vendendorumThe person creditors appointed to sell a debtor's goods and share out the proceeds.
- magister palatiiIn civil law, the master of the palace, an office much like the English Lord Chamberlain.
- magisterialHaving to do with the character, office, powers, or duties of a magistrate.
- magisterial precinctA subdivision of a county marking out the area over which a magistrate, constable, or justice of the peace has author…
- magistracyThe office, district, or power of a magistrate; also magistrates as a body.
- magistralHaving to do with a master or masters; also, of a medicine, made up to a physician's own prescription.
- magistrateThe highest officer in a government, such as a king, a president, or a state governor. The word also covers a local o…
- magistraticHaving to do with the character, office, powers, or duties of a magistrate.
- magistratusA magistrate, or a magistrate's office.
- Magna CartaThe charter King John granted the barons in 1215, later confirmed by Henry III and Edward I. It is counted among the…
- magna negligentiaGross negligence: carelessness so great that it comes close to deliberate wrongdoing.
- maidenA young unmarried woman. In Scotland the word also named a beheading machine, the forerunner of the guillotine.
- maiden assizeAn assize at which no prisoner is sentenced, or at which the sheriff presents the judges with white gloves because th…
- maiden rentA payment a feudal tenant made to the lord for leave to marry a daughter outside the lord's jurisdiction, or to buy o…
- maiestasThe majesty or sovereign authority of a state or ruler: the supreme power of the people, above all as their highest r…
- maihematusMaimed or wounded.
- maihemiumThe kind of injury that makes out mayhem: serious damage to a part of the body a person needs in order to fight.
- mailItems properly addressed, stamped, and handed over for delivery through the postal system; also the postal system its…
- mail coverA procedure by which the Postal Service gives a government agency what is written on the outside of an envelope or pa…
- mail fraudFraud carried out through the U.S. Postal Service, as by mailing false statements to gain something of value.
- mail-order divorceA divorce granted by a place where neither party is present or domiciled. Such divorces are not recognized in the Uni…
- mailableOf a letter or package, lawful to send through the post.
- mailbox ruleIn contract law, the rule that an acceptance takes effect and binds the offeror the moment it is properly posted, unl…
- maimThe kind of injury that makes out mayhem: serious damage to a part of the body a person needs in order to fight.
- main channelThe bed carrying the greatest volume of water; the deepest and most navigable part of a channel.
- main demandThe principal claim in a lawsuit, as opposed to an incidental or ancillary one.
- main opinionAn opinion that more than half the judges hearing the case have joined.
- main potIn tax law, a stage in working out tax liability in which qualifying transactions are set against each other to see w…
- main seaThe open ocean; also a large landlocked arm of the sea.
- main-purpose ruleIn contract law, the rule that a promise to answer for another's debt need not be in writing if the promisor made it…
- main-relief ruleThe rule that venue may rest on the main relief the claimant seeks, even where the suit also carries claims that coul…
- main-rentBeing a vassal; also the service a vassal owed, and the land a vassal held.
- maine-portA small tribute, such as loaves of bread, that parishioners paid the rector instead of tithes.
- mainourA stolen article found in a thief's hands. At common law the thief could be arraigned and tried on that alone, withou…
- mainovreA trespass committed by hand; also manual labor.
- mainpernorA surety who undertakes that a prisoner will appear.
- mainpriseThe handing over of a prisoner to a surety; also the surety's undertaking that the prisoner will appear in court at a…
- mainstreamingTeaching a disabled student in an ordinary class alongside students who are not disabled, rather than in a separate s…
- mainswornFormerly, forsworn: having taken a false oath with a hand laid on a book. The word was used mostly in the north of En…
- maintainTo keep something going; to stay in possession of property; to assert or defend a position in argument; to keep prope…
- maintainorA person who meddles in someone else's lawsuit by supplying money or other help.
- maintenanceKeeping something going, such as a lawsuit; staying in possession of property; asserting or defending a position; kee…
- maintenance and cureThe food, lodging, and medical care a shipowner must provide a crew member who falls sick or is injured while serving…
- maintenance assessmentA charge for keeping an improvement in working order or a home fit to live in.
- maintenance bondA bond guaranteeing against defects in construction for a period after the contracted work is finished.
- maintenance callA broker's demand that a customer put up more cash or securities because the equity in a margin account has fallen be…
- maintenance feeA charge covering the service of reinvesting a mutual fund's earnings and dividends.
- maintenance in grossIn family law, a fixed sum one former spouse pays the other on divorce, in a lump or by installments. The total is me…
- maintenance margin requirementThe minimum equity a customer must keep in a margin account after buying securities on margin. The Federal Reserve Bo…
- maiorIn Roman law, an older person, above all one over 25 and so of full age; also an ancestor. In older English usage, a…
- maius LatiumThe greater Latin right: a grant that made the magistrates of a Latin town, and their families, full Roman citizens.
- majestasThe majesty or sovereign authority of a state or ruler: the supreme power of the people, above all as their highest r…
- majorA person who has reached the age of majority, generally 18.
- major actionIn environmental law, an undertaking that has had or will have a significant effect on the environment, for which an…
- major crimeA serious crime, usually punishable by more than a year in prison or by death, such as murder, rape, arson, or burglary.
- major disasterA hurricane, tornado, storm, flood, earthquake, drought, fire, or similar catastrophe in the United States that the P…
- major disputeUnder the Railway Labor Act, a dispute about basic working conditions, often leading to a new collective agreement or…
- major federal actionIn environmental law, a federal agency undertaking that will significantly affect the environment, such as building a…
- major life activityAnything an average person can do with little or no difficulty, such as seeing, hearing, sleeping, eating, walking, t…
- major trendA long-run movement of the stock market: a general rise or fall in share prices over an extended period.
- major-and-minor fault ruleThe rule that where one ship's fault in a collision is clear and enough on its own to explain the accident, the other…
- major-minor fault ruleThe rule that where one ship's fault in a collision is clear and enough on its own to explain the accident, the other…
- majora regaliaFormerly, the greater royal rights the Crown held under feudal law, such as the powers of war, peace, and coinage.
- majoresIn Roman law, ancestors or forebears; in older English usage, people of higher rank.
- majorityHaving reached the age of majority, usually 18; also a number greater than half of a total.
- majority opinionAn opinion that more than half the judges hearing the case have joined.
- majority ruleThe principle that the majority of a group may make decisions binding the whole group, counting only those who actual…
- majority shareholderA shareholder holding or controlling more than half a company's stock.
- majority votingA method of electing company directors under which each shareholder casts one vote per share for each seat, and a sim…
- majority-consent procedureA statutory rule letting shareholders skip a meeting and act instead by the written consent of holders of a majority…
- majority-minority districtA voting district drawn so that a racial or ethnic minority group makes up more than half the voters, giving that gro…
- makeTo bring something into being; to enact something; to acquire something; or to complete a document in law, as by exec…
- make lawTo legislate; also, of a court, to lay down a precedent that settles a new rule on some subject. Formerly, the phrase…
- make-whole doctrineIn insurance law, the rule that unless the policy says otherwise, an insurer takes nothing out of a settlement until…
- makerA person who frames or enacts something, as in lawmaker; also a person who signs a promissory note, or who orders a b…
- makeup gasIn oil-and-gas law, gas the buyer has already paid for under a take-or-pay contract but that the seller delivers in l…
- malBad or wrong. In Law French it stood alone as a word, matching the Latin male, badly.
- mala antiquaOffenses that have counted as crimes since ancient times.
- mala fidesBad faith: dishonesty of belief or of purpose.
- mala in seAn act wrong in itself, such as murder, rape, or theft, quite apart from any statute forbidding it.
- mala prohibitaActs that count as crimes only because a statute forbids them, though there is nothing immoral about them in themselv…
- maladministrationPoor or improper management, above all by someone holding office.
- malapportionTo carve a state into legislative districts of unequal population, so that a vote in one district counts for more tha…
- malapportionmentThe improper or unconstitutional drawing of legislative districts, above all so that districts hold widely different…
- malconduct in officeA public officer's corrupt breach of duty, whether by doing something forbidden, doing a lawful thing wrongly, or fai…
- maledictionA curse attached to a gift of property to a church, aimed at anyone who tried to interfere with the church's rights i…
- malefactionAn evil deed: a crime or offense.
- maleficiumAn evil deed: a crime or offense.
- maleswornForsworn: having sworn falsely.
- malfeasanceA wrongful or unlawful act, above all misconduct by a public official.
- malfeasorA person who does a wrongful or unlawful act.
- malfunction theoryIn products-liability law, a rule letting a claimant prove a product was defective by showing that it malfunctioned,…
- maliceThe intent to do a wrongful act without justification or excuse; also reckless disregard of the law or of another's l…
- malice aforethoughtThe state of mind required for murder at common law. It covers an intent to kill, an intent to do grievous bodily har…
- malice exceptionA limit on a public official's qualified immunity, under which the official can be sued for deliberately using their…
- malice in factActual ill will or spite toward the person harmed, as distinct from malice the law simply infers from conduct.
- malice in lawMalice the law infers from what a person did, without proof of any actual ill will.
- malice prepenseThe state of mind required for murder at common law: an intent to kill, an intent to do grievous bodily harm, extreme…
- maliciousDone with malice: with the intent to do a wrongful act, or with reckless disregard of another's rights.
- malicious abandonmentDeserting a spouse without any just cause.
- malicious abuse of legal processUsing a properly issued court process for an improper end, to obtain a result that is unlawful or that the process wa…
- malicious abuse of processUsing a properly issued court process for an improper end, to obtain a result that is unlawful or that the process wa…
- malicious accusationAn accusation made for an improper purpose and without probable cause.
- malicious actA deliberate wrongful act done to another with no legal justification or excuse.
- malicious arrestAn arrest made without probable cause and for an improper purpose, especially where someone abuses legal process to h…
- malicious assault with a deadly weaponAn aggravated assault in which the defendant uses a deadly weapon to threaten the victim with death or serious injury…
- malicious bankruptcyAn abuse of process in which someone wrongfully petitions to have another declared bankrupt, or a company wound up as…
- malicious damageThe common-law misdemeanor of deliberately destroying or damaging someone else's property. Most modern statutes keep…
- malicious executionAn abuse of process in which someone, maliciously and without reasonable cause, issues an execution against a judgmen…
- malicious injuryAn injury caused by a deliberate act done knowing it will probably harm another, or in reckless disregard of that ris…
- malicious killingA deliberate killing with no legal justification or excuse.
- malicious mischiefThe common-law misdemeanor of deliberately destroying or damaging someone else's property. Most modern statutes keep…
- malicious motiveA reason for acting that springs from ill will toward the person harmed.
- malicious prosecutionStarting a criminal or civil case for an improper purpose and without probable cause; also the claim that arises from…
- malicious trespassThe common-law misdemeanor of deliberately destroying or damaging someone else's property. Most modern statutes keep…
- malicious use of processStarting a criminal or civil case for an improper purpose and without probable cause; also the claim that arises from…
- malingerTo fake illness or disability, above all to dodge a duty or keep drawing disability payments.
- malisonA curse.
- malitiaA genuine evil design: express malice. The word first meant wrongdoing in general and said nothing about the wrongdoe…
- malitia excogitataPremeditated malice: the wrongful intent formed in advance that turned a killing into murder.
- malleableOf a thing, able to be beaten into shape; of a person, easily influenced.
- Mallory ruleIn criminal procedure, the rule that a confession cannot be used if it was obtained during an unreasonably long delay…
- mallumA superior court dealing with important business; also a public national assembly.
- Maloney ActA 1938 amendment to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 requiring brokers dealing over the counter to register with a…
- malpracticeA professional's negligence or incompetence in doing their work. To win such a claim, the claimant must also prove th…
- malpractice insuranceAn agreement to indemnify a professional, such as a doctor or a lawyer, against claims of negligence.
- maltreatmentBad treatment, above all careless or improper treatment by a surgeon, whether from ignorance, neglect, or deliberate…
- malum prohibitumAn act that counts as a crime only because a statute forbids it, though there is nothing immoral about it in itself.…
- malveillesIll will; also crimes, misdemeanors, or spiteful acts.
- malversationCorruption in office: misconduct by someone holding a public post.
- manAn adult male; also a human being or humankind generally. Formerly, a vassal or feudal tenant.
- man-boteCompensation paid to the kin of a man who had been killed.
- man-endangering state of mindA state of mind so reckless of human life that the law treats it as the equivalent of an intent to kill.
- managed careA system of comprehensive healthcare delivered through a health-maintenance organization, a preferred-provider organi…
- managementThe people in a company responsible for running it.
- management buyoutA buyout of a company by its own directors and officers.
- management companyAny investment company that is neither a face-amount certificate company nor a unit investment trust.
- management feeA charge an investment manager makes for overseeing the account.
- managerA person who runs or supervises the affairs of a business, office, or other organization.
- manager of a conferenceA legislator appointed to a conference committee to settle the differences between the two houses' versions of a bill.
- managing agentSomeone holding general powers involving judgment and discretion, as opposed to an ordinary agent who acts under the…
- managing conservatorSomeone a court appoints to manage the property or affairs of a person who cannot manage them; in the family law of s…
- managing conservatorshipThe office and powers of a managing conservator: primary custody of a child, or charge of an incapable person's prope…
- managiumA dwelling house, together with the land held with it.
- Manahan-type carried interestIn oil-and-gas law, an arrangement in which the holder of a lease assigns the whole working interest to someone who t…
- mancepsIn Roman law, a buyer at a state auction, above all of a right such as the farming of taxes; also a state postmaster.
- mancipareTo transfer a thing by sale, real or pretended; also to sell a person, above all in the pretended sale used to free a…
- mancipatioIn Roman law, a formal way of transferring property by a real or pretended purchase. The buyer laid hold of the thing…
- mancipiumA slave, above all one taken by an enemy in war; also the temporary near-slave status a person passed through in some…
- mandamusA writ from a higher court ordering a lower court or a government officer to carry out a duty they are required to pe…
- mandansThe principal on whose behalf an agent deals with third parties.
- mandantIn French and Scots law, the principal in a contract of mandate, such as the person who hands goods over in a bailment.
- mandataryA person given a mandate: an agent, above all one who acts for nothing but may claim back the expenses of carrying th…
- mandateAn order from an appellate court telling a lower court what to do; also a judicial command to a court officer to enfo…
- mandate ruleThe rule that once an appellate court sends a case back, the lower court must follow the appellate court's decision,…
- mandatorA person who entrusts a task to someone else. In civil law, the person who engages another to act for them without pa…
- mandatory injunctionAn injunction ordering someone to take a positive step or follow a particular course of conduct.
- mandatory instructionAn instruction requiring the jury to find for one party and against the other if it decides that, on a preponderance…
- mandatory joinderJoinder the court must order, because the case cannot be justly decided without that party.
- mandatory presumptionA presumption the factfinder must accept once the basic facts are proved, unless the opposing party comes forward wit…
- mandatory punishmentA penalty a statute fixes, leaving the judge no room to tailor it to the individual case.
- mandatory sentenceA sentence a statute fixes, leaving the judge no room to tailor it to the individual case.
- mandatory statuteA law that requires a course of action rather than merely permitting it.
- mandatory subject of bargainingA topic that the National Labor Relations Act requires an employer and a union to bargain over, such as wages, hours,…
- mandatumA bailment in which the bailee performs some service concerning the goods without charge. It is for the bailor's bene…
- mandavi ballivoFormerly, a sheriff's return stating that they had ordered a bailiff to carry out a writ.
- mangonareTo buy in a market, or to trade.
- manhoodA man's coming of age; also, formerly, the ceremony in which a vassal did homage to their lord.
- manifestA document listing the cargo or passengers carried on a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle.
- manifest constitutional errorAn error by the trial court that harms the trial so plainly that a party's constitutional rights are compromised. An…
- manifest errorAn error that is plain and beyond argument, amounting to a complete disregard of the governing law or of the credible…
- manifest injusticeA trial-court error that is direct, obvious, and plain to see, such as a guilty plea that was not voluntary or that r…
- manifest intentIntent that is plain from the surrounding circumstances even without direct proof of it. Some fidelity bonds, for ins…
- manifest lawFormerly, proof of guilt so plain that no trial was needed, as where a thief was caught with the stolen goods in hand.
- manifest necessityIn criminal procedure, a sudden and overwhelming emergency, beyond the control of the court and the parties, that mak…
- manifest weight of the evidenceA deferential standard of review under which a verdict is overturned only where the opposite conclusion is obviously…
- manifest-disregard doctrineThe rule that an arbitration award will be set aside where the arbitrator knew the governing law and deliberately ign…
- manifest-error-or-clearly-wrong ruleIn some places, the rule that an appellate court may not disturb a trial court's finding of fact unless the whole rec…
- manifestation of intentionIn the law of wills and estates, what the testator actually put into words or acts, as opposed to an intention they k…
- manifestation theoryIn insurance law, the rule that an injury or illness is covered by whichever policy was in force when the symptoms fi…
- manifestoA public written statement of the issuer's principles, policies, or intentions, above all a formal document explainin…
- manipulationIn securities law, the illegal practice of driving a security's price up or down by creating a false appearance of ac…
- mankindHumankind.
- Mann ActA federal law of 1910 making it a crime to transport a person across state lines or into the country for prostitution…
- manner and formIn common-law pleading, the phrase that opened the conclusion of a traverse. It put the other side to proof not only…
- mannireFormerly, to summon an opponent to court, or to prosecute a case.
- mannopusManual labor, or a day's work; also a stolen article found in a thief's hands, on which the thief could be tried at c…
- manorA feudal estate, usually granted by the king to a lord and farmed as a single unit. In earlier times it took in a vil…
- manorial extentA survey of a manor made by a jury of its tenants, listing their names and numbers, the size of their holdings, the t…
- manorial systemThe medieval system of landholding under which serfs and some free men worked a lord's land in return for the lord's…
- manseLand enough to keep one family, or as much as a yoke of oxen could work in a year; also a house without land. In Scot…
- Mansfield ruleThe rule that a juror's testimony or affidavit about what went on among the jurors cannot be used to attack the verdi…
- mansion-houseFormerly, the residence of a lord of the manor; also the house or other structure a person lives in. In real-estate l…
- mansion-house ruleThe rule that where a tract of land lies in two counties, it is assessed for property tax in the county where the hou…
- manslaughterThe unlawful killing of a person without malice aforethought.
- manstealingThe crime of seizing and carrying off a person by force or trickery, often with a demand for ransom.
- mansusLand enough to keep one family, or as much as a yoke of oxen could work in a year; also a house without land. In Scot…
- mantle childrenChildren born before their parents married and made legitimate by the marriage, so called because they stood with the…
- manualDone or used by hand.
- manual deliveryHanding personal property over so that possession actually and physically changes.
- Manual for Courts-MartialThe manual that puts the Uniform Code of Military Justice into practice, setting out the rules of procedure and evide…
- manual giftA gift made by simply handing the thing over, with no writing and no payment.
- manual laborWork done chiefly by muscular effort, whether or not tools or machines are used.
- Manual of the Judge Advocate GeneralThe Secretary of the Navy's directive on military justice, with small differences between the rules for the Navy and…
- manual-rating insuranceInsurance whose premium is set from a manual classifying risks in broad groups, rather than by assessing each case se…
- manucaptioSurety, security, or bail; also the writ letting someone be bailed who had been arrested for felony and whom the sher…
- manucaptionA writ ordering the sheriff to produce a person held in another's custody, so that the court could decide whether the…
- manucaptorA surety who undertakes that a prisoner will appear.
- manufactureIn patent law, something made or built by a person or a machine, as opposed to a product of nature. Manufactures are…
- manufactured diversityDiversity of citizenship created improperly or by collusion, for the sole or main purpose of getting a case into fede…
- manufactured homeIn secured-transactions law, a structure built on a permanent chassis, movable in one or more sections, at least 8 fe…
- manufacturerA person or company that makes or assembles new products. Federal law widens the term to take in those who act for su…
- manufacturing costWhat it costs to produce goods, counting both direct and indirect costs.
- manufacturing defectA flaw in a product that departs from its intended design, even though every possible care was taken in making and ma…
- manumissionSetting a slave or bondman free: releasing a person from another's power. The word comes from the slave being sent ou…
- manungThe district over which an official had jurisdiction.
- manuopusA stolen article found in a thief's hands, on which the thief could be tried at common law without an indictment.
- manupretiumPayment for labor or services done.
- manurableFormerly, of a thing, able to be held in the hand or touched.
- manureTo work on something by hand.
- manusIn Roman law, the authority the head of a household held over its members and slaves, above all a husband's authority…
- manuscriptAn unpublished writing: an author's typescript or completed work put forward for publication.
- manuscript policyAn insurance policy whose terms are not standard but were negotiated between insurer and insured.
- manutenentiaThe old writ of maintenance, against a stranger who meddled in someone else's lawsuit.
- Mapp hearingIn criminal procedure, a hearing to decide whether evidence against the accused came from an illegal search and seizu…
- maraA lake or pool: a body of water that cannot be drained.
- maraudTo rove about plundering: to loot.
- march-in rightsIn patent law, the government's right to grant a fresh licence, or revoke an existing one, where the owner of an inve…
- MarchersLords who held land along the Scottish and Welsh borders and governed it, with the Crown's leave, under their own pri…
- marchesBoundaries between countries or territories, above all the borders between England and Wales and between England and…
- marchetA payment a feudal tenant made to the lord for leave to marry a daughter outside the lord's jurisdiction, or to buy o…
- marchionessThe wife or widow of a marquess, or a woman holding that rank in her own right.
- Marcus modelOne of two tests for deciding whether federal labor law displaces a union member's claim under state law. It asks whe…
- mareThe sea.
- marescallusA marshal or high royal officer; also a master of the stables, a quartermaster ranking with a constable, an officer o…
- marginA boundary or edge; also a measure of difference. In business, the gap between what something costs and what it sells…
- margin accountA brokerage account letting an investor buy or sell securities on credit, with the securities usually standing as col…
- margin callA broker's demand that a customer put up more money or stock as security on a purchase the broker financed. It usuall…
- margin deficiencyIn securities law, the amount by which the margin required exceeds the equity actually in the account.
- margin listA Federal Reserve Board list capping how much may be lent against a particular bank's stock, at a set share of its ma…
- margin requirementIn securities law, the share of the purchase price a buyer must put down with a broker to buy a security on margin. T…
- margin stockA security that may be bought on margin.
- margin transactionA purchase or sale of securities or commodities made through a broker on a margin account.
- marginable securityA security that may be bought on margin.
- marginal costThe extra cost of producing one more unit of output.
- marginal noteA short note printed in the margin of a statute, acting as a subheading for easy reference. Many jurisdictions hold t…
- marginal revenueThe revenue earned from selling one more unit.
- marginal tax rateUnder a progressive tax, the rate that applies to the last dollar earned. It shows what extra income or an extra dedu…
- margined securityA security bought on margin, which then stands as collateral in the margin account.
- mariage de convenanceA marriage entered into for social or financial advantage rather than out of love.
- marinariusA seaman or mariner. The marinarius capitaneus was the admiral or warden of the ports.
- marineHaving to do with the sea, or with navigation and trade upon it.
- marine beltThe waters under a nation's control, taking in inland waters and the belt of sea along the coast, traditionally three…
- marine carrierA carrier operating on navigable waters within United States jurisdiction.
- marine contractA contract about maritime matters, including navigation, marine insurance, the carriage of goods by sea, loans on shi…
- Marine insuranceFormerly, a scarlet letter worn as a punishment by someone convicted of adultery. In Roman law the same letter, writt…
- marine interestInterest on a loan secured by a ship or its cargo. Because the lender's risk is great, the rate may be extraordinaril…
- marine leagueA distance of three nautical miles: one-twentieth of a degree of latitude.
- marine perilA force of the elements at sea strong enough to overcome a sound ship handled with ordinary good seamanship. Such a p…
- marine protestA written statement by a ship's master, sworn before a justice of the peace, notary, or consul, recording that the sh…
- marine riskThe risk of loss from perils of the sea, which marine insurance covers.
- marine ruleThe rule that damaged property counts as totally destroyed where repairing it would cost more than half what it was w…
- marine-rescue doctrineThe rule that when someone goes overboard, the ship must use every reasonable means to get them out of the water if t…
- marinerA person employed aboard a ship in sea navigation: a seaman.
- mariner's willA will made by a sailor at sea, which the law excuses from the usual formalities.
- maritagiumA lord's right to arrange a marriage for a ward still under age, and the payment taken for it; also land given with a…
- maritalHaving to do with marriage.
- marital agreementAny agreement between spouses about who owns what and how their property is to be divided, above all a premarital con…
- marital deductionA federal tax deduction allowed for transfers of property between spouses, whether during life or by will.
- marital dissolutionA court's ending of a marriage.
- marital immunityThe rule that one spouse cannot be sued in tort by the other for personal injury. Most states have now abolished it.
- marital portionThe share of a dead spouse's estate that the survivor is entitled to.
- marital privilegeThe right of a spouse to refuse to testify, and to stop anyone else testifying, about confidential communications mad…
- marital propertyProperty acquired between the start of a marriage and the filing for divorce, assuming a divorce follows. In equitabl…
- marital rapeSexual intercourse a husband forces on his wife or has without her consent. It was no crime at common law, but the ma…
- marital rightsThe rights that flow from marriage, such as rights in property and to live together.
- marital-communications privilegeThe right of a spouse to refuse to testify, and to stop anyone else testifying, about confidential communications mad…
- marital-deduction trustA trust set up by will to make the most of the marital deduction, above all one giving the surviving spouse the incom…
- maritima AngliaeThe seacoast; also the Crown's revenue from the sea, such as wreck and whales or sturgeon cast ashore. Sheriffs colle…
- maritima incrementaFormerly, land gained from the sea by the gradual washing up of soil.
- maritimeConnected with the sea, or with navigation and trade upon it.
- Maritime AdministrationThe federal agency that promotes and regulates the United States merchant marine, running emergency shipping operatio…
- maritime beltThe waters under a nation's control, taking in inland waters and the belt of sea along the coast, traditionally three…
- Maritime CommissionThe federal agency that regulates the ocean-borne foreign and domestic commerce of the United States. It works to kee…
- maritime contractA contract concerning a vessel as a vessel, navigation on navigable waters, carriage by sea, or maritime employment.…
- maritime courtA court with jurisdiction over maritime contracts, torts, injuries, and offenses. The federal courts bear the name wh…
- maritime employmentUnder the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, work connected with loading, unloading, building, or repair…
- maritime flavorHow closely a case touches shipping. Courts weigh it in deciding whether a matter falls within federal admiralty juri…
- maritime interestInterest on a loan secured by a ship or its cargo. Because the lender's risk is great, the rate may be extraordinaril…
- maritime jurisdictionThe authority United States district courts exercise over maritime cases when sitting in admiralty. Such cases follow…
- maritime lawThe body of law governing sea trade and navigation, the carriage of people and goods by sea, and marine affairs gener…
- maritime lienA lien on a vessel securing the claim of someone who supplied maritime services to her or who was injured by her use.
- maritime loanA loan on which the lender loses everything if the cargo is lost or damaged by a peril of the sea, but is repaid with…
- maritime serviceWork done in connection with a ship or with commerce on navigable waters, such as work preserving a ship's crew, carg…
- maritime stateThe officers and seamen of the British navy taken together.
- maritime tortA tort committed on navigable waters.
- maritime-connection doctrineThe test for admiralty jurisdiction over a tort, asking not only whether the wrong happened on navigable water but al…
- maritusA husband: a married man.
- markA symbol, impression, or feature on a thing that identifies it or tells it apart from others; above all a word, phras…
- Mark Hopkins doctrineThe rule that where an employee leaves a job because of a labor dispute, later work must be genuine and meant to last…
- mark upTo raise the price of goods; to revise or amend a bill or rule; also to put a case on the trial calendar.
- marked moneyMoney marked so that it can be traced, usually to a criminal, as where marked notes are handed over as ransom.
- marketA place where goods or services are bought and sold; also an area or group of people considered as a source of demand…
- market activityThe total number of shares traded on an exchange in one day, or the number of one stock traded in a day.
- market approachA way of valuing land by surveying the market and comparing the property with similar ones recently sold, adjusting f…
- market averageA price level worked out for a particular group of stocks.
- market correctionIn securities law, a sudden fall in prices after a run of rises. The word covers the early stage only; a decline last…
- market equityThe share of a market's total value that one company's securities make up, broken down by class of security.
- market intermediaryIn securities law, a person whose business is to deal on both sides of the market, buying and selling the same securi…
- market manipulationIn securities law, the illegal practice of driving a security's price up or down by creating a false appearance of ac…
- market orderAn order to buy or sell at once at the best price the market offers.
- market overtAn open public market, regulated by law, in which a buyer generally took good title to goods even if the seller's own…
- market portfolioA portfolio holding every asset in a market, each in proportion to its value.
- market powerThe ability to cut output and hold prices above the competitive level, above marginal cost, for a sustained period an…
- market priceThe going price at which something sells in a particular market.
- market quotationThe latest price at which a security or commodity is trading.
- market shareThe share of a market a firm supplies, usually its output divided by the market's total output. Antitrust law uses it…
- market structureThe broad shape of a market: how concentrated the sellers are, how far products differ, and how hard it is for newcom…
- market trendThe direction share prices take over a period of several months.
- market valueThe price a willing seller would take and a willing buyer would pay in the open market, neither under pressure: the p…
- market value at the wellIn oil-and-gas law, the value of oil or gas where it is sold, less the reasonable cost of moving it and treating it t…
- market volumeThe total number of shares traded on an exchange in one day, or the number of one stock traded in a day.
- market-comparison approachA way of valuing land by surveying the market and comparing the property with similar ones recently sold, adjusting f…
- market-data approachA way of valuing land by surveying the market and comparing the property with similar ones recently sold, adjusting f…
- market-makerIn securities law, someone who builds a market in a security by posting the prices at which they will buy and sell. A…
- market-makingSetting prices for over-the-counter securities by posting bid and asked quotations. The dealer buys and sells for its…
- market-out clauseIn oil-and-gas law, a clause letting a pipeline buyer of natural gas cut the price when market conditions make the co…
- market-participant doctrineThe rule that a state does not discriminate against interstate commerce, and so does not offend the Commerce Clause,…
- market-recovery programA union program to hold or win back its share of the work in a particular market by financing or backing contractors…
- market-share liabilityLiability apportioned among the makers of a product according to each one's share of the market. It is used where the…
- market-share theoryIn antitrust law, a way of measuring lost profits by working out what the defendant's violation did to the claimant's…
- marketabilityHow readily property, goods, securities, or services can be sold at a given time, price, and terms.
- marketability testIn mining law, the test for patenting a mining claim on federal land: the claimant must show that a prudent person co…
- marketableOf a quality the trade will accept: fit for sale and wanted by buyers.
- marketable securityA security the holder can sell readily on an exchange or over the counter.
- marketable titleA title a reasonable buyer would accept, because it shows no defect and covers the whole of what the seller offered t…
- marketable-title actA state statute letting a person establish good title to land by searching the public records back only a set number…
- marketingPromoting and selling products or services; also the part of a business that works out what customers want, and the s…
- marketing contractA business's agreement with an agency or association to promote sales of its goods or services; also, an agreement be…
- marketing defectA failure to give adequate warning of a risk that is known or ought to be known about a product or its foreseeable us…
- marketplace of ideasA forum where opinions compete freely for acceptance without government interference. Justice Holmes first used the i…
- marking estoppelIn patent law, an estoppel preventing a party who has marked a product with a patent number from later denying that t…
- markonThe amount, usually a percentage, first added to a product's cost to reach the list price. Later rises and falls are…
- Marks ruleThe rule that when the Supreme Court splits without a majority opinion, its holding is the position taken by those Ju…
- marksmanA person who cannot write and so signs documents with a mark or symbol; also a highly skilled shooter.
- markupAn amount added to an item's cost to set its selling price; also a congressional committee session in which a bill is…
- Markush doctrineIn patent law, an exception to the rule against alternative wording in claims, letting a claimant list a group of alt…
- marque, law ofA reprisal allowing a person who has been wronged and cannot get ordinary justice to seize the wrongdoer's goods, if…
- marquisAn English nobleman ranking just below a duke.
- marriageThe legal union of two people as spouses. The common law called it a civil contract, but it is better described as th…
- marriage articleA term agreed before marriage that the couple mean to write into an agreement made after the wedding.
- marriage brokerA person who arranges marriages for payment. Brokering marriages can be a crime, on grounds of public policy.
- marriage ceremonyThe religious or civil proceeding that solemnizes a marriage.
- marriage certificateA document the officiant signs at a wedding and files with a public authority, usually the county clerk, as proof of…
- marriage in jestA voidable marriage in which the parties never meant to be married at all.
- marriage licenseA document from a public authority giving a couple permission to marry.
- marriage of convenienceA marriage entered into for social or financial advantage rather than out of love.
- marriage portionThe property a wife brought to her husband on marriage.
- marriage promiseA betrothal: a promise to marry.
- marriage recordsGovernment or church records holding details about couples intending to marry and about the weddings actually performed.
- marriage settlementAn agreement between spouses, made before or after the wedding, about who owns what and how property is to be divided.
- marriage-notice bookAn English register of marriage applications and licences.
- marshalA law-enforcement officer whose duties resemble a sheriff's; also a court officer who provides security, serves proce…
- marshaling assets, rule ofThe equitable rule that a senior creditor with two funds to draw on must take payment first from the fund the junior…
- marshaling doctrineThe rule that where a senior creditor may look to two or more funds and a junior creditor to only one, the senior mus…
- marshaling the evidencePutting all of a party's evidence in the order it will be presented at trial. The phrase also names the practice of f…
- MarshalseaThe court of the marshal of the royal household; also a London debtors' prison under that court's jurisdiction.
- martA place where goods or services are bought and sold.
- marte suo decurrereFormerly, to run its course under its own force. Civil lawyers used the phrase of a suit that went through without ob…
- martial lawRule of a country by the army rather than the civil authorities, imposed in wartime or emergency for military securit…
- Martindale-Hubbell Law DirectoryAn annual set of volumes listing lawyers and law firms across the United States, along with corporate and government…
- Martinez reportA report a court sometimes orders a party acting without a lawyer to file, so as to make sense of a vague or unintell…
- Mary Carter agreementA contract, usually kept secret, by which some but not all codefendants settle with the claimant and take a release,…
- Mary MajorA made-up name for a woman in a lawsuit, used where her identity is unknown or is being withheld.
- maskingIn critical legal studies, hiding the true nature of something behind a respectable appearance.
- mass assetAn intangible asset, such as a dominant market position, made up of many components but treated as a single thing for…
- mass layoffUnder the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, a reduction in force at a single site lasting 30 days or…
- mass murdererA person who kills many people in a single episode, as distinct from a serial killer, who kills over a series of sepa…
- mass tortA civil wrong that injures many people at once, such as toxic emissions from a factory, an airliner crash, or contami…
- mass-action theoryThe rule that so long as a union is functioning, it is answerable for what its members do together.
- mass-appraisal methodA way of valuing large areas of land from market data on what similar property sells for, without examining each parc…
- mass-asset ruleIn tax law, an intangible asset such as a customer list or a body of goodwill, treated as a single indivisible whole…
- massaA mass or lump of metal, above all of gold or silver before it is worked into a cup or other object.
- Massachusetts ballotA ballot listing the candidates and their party labels in alphabetical order under each office. It is a form of Austr…
- Massachusetts trustA form of business much like a company, in which investors hold transferable certificates of beneficial interest inst…
- mast sellingThe practice of selling a dead seaman's belongings at the mast.
- masterAn employer: someone with personal authority over another's services. The word also names a part-judicial officer, su…
- master agreementAn agreement between a union and the leading firms in an industry, whose terms serve as the model for agreements with…
- master and servantThe relation between a person who has authority over another and may direct the time, manner, and place of the work,…
- Master at Common LawAn officer of an English superior common-law court, appointed to record the proceedings, oversee the issue of writs,…
- Master in ChanceryA senior official of the Court of Chancery who helped the Chancellor by inquiring into matters referred to him, exami…
- Master in LunacyA judicial officer appointed by the Lord Chancellor to inquire into the mental state of people said to be incapable o…
- master leaseA lease that governs the terms of later leases or subleases made under it.
- master limited partnershipA limited partnership whose interests are publicly traded.
- master of a shipThe commander of a merchant ship: the captain. The master is responsible for navigating her and for the safety and ca…
- Master of LawsA law degree taken after the first professional degree, on completing a further year or so of specialized study.
- Master of RequestsA judge of the Court of Requests.
- master of the chanceryA senior official of the Court of Chancery who helped the Chancellor by inquiring into matters referred to him, exami…
- Master of the Crown OfficeA Supreme Court officer appointed by the Lord Chief Justice. The Master was formerly the Crown's Coroner and Attorney…
- Master of the FacultiesAn officer in the archdiocese of Canterbury who heads the Court of Faculties, issues licences, and admits or removes…
- Master of the HorseA peer who, as third officer of the royal household after the lord steward and lord chamberlain, attends the sovereig…
- Master of the MintA salaried officer who oversaw everything done at the royal mint. The Coinage Act of 1870 abolished the post and repl…
- Master of the OrdnanceFrom the reign of Henry VIII, the officer responsible for the Crown's artillery and weapons.
- Master of the PellsAn Exchequer officer who entered the tellers' bills on parchment rolls, called pells, one roll for money received and…
- Master of the RollsThe president of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal in England. The Master of the Rolls was formerly an assist…
- Master of the Supreme CourtAn official of the King's Bench and Chancery Divisions who fills the several posts of master in the common-law courts…
- master planIn land-use planning, a town's plan for housing, industry, and recreation, taking in the effect each will have on the…
- master policyThe single policy under which everyone in a group-insurance plan is covered.
- Master-General of the OrdnanceFrom the reign of Henry VIII, the officer responsible for the Crown's artillery and weapons; in modern times a milita…
- master-servant ruleThe rule that an employer is answerable for wrongs an employee commits in the course of the work.
- master's reportA master’s formal report to the court, usually setting out findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a recommended de…
- matched orderAn order to buy and an order to sell the same security placed at about the same time, in about the same quantity, and…
- matching principleIn accounting, the rule that expenses are recorded in the same period as the revenues they helped to earn, so that ea…
- mateA spouse; also the second-in-command aboard a merchant ship, a petty officer assisting a warrant officer, or simply a…
- materfamiliasThe wife of a paterfamilias: the mistress of a household. The word also covered any respectable woman of the house, m…
- materiaIn Roman law, material, above all building material, as opposed to the shape labor or skill gives it; also matter or…
- materialPhysical, having to do with matter; also bearing on the facts that matter in a case, or important enough that knowing…
- material allegationAn allegation in a pleading that is essential to the claim or defense.
- material alterationA significant change to something, particularly a change to a legal document large enough to alter its meaning or eff…
- material breachA substantial breach of contract, which usually releases the injured party from further performance and entitles them…
- material change in circumstancesIn family law, a change in a family's situation that, had it existed when the decree was made, would have led the cou…
- material evidenceEvidence with some logical bearing on the facts that matter or on the issues in the case.
- material factA fact that matters to the question at issue, or that is essential to it.
- material informationIn securities law, information a reasonable investor would think important in deciding whether to invest. Where a mar…
- material misrepresentationMaking a false or misleading statement about something that matters, usually meaning to deceive; also the statement i…
- material representationA statement bearing directly on the matter in issue, or one that actually brings about an event, as where a party rel…
- material termsThe provisions of a contract dealing with the things that matter: subject matter, price, payment, quantity, quality,…
- material witnessA witness who can testify about matters bearing on the facts that count, above all where few if any others know about…
- materialityThe quality of bearing on the matter in issue and tending to prove or disprove it.
- materialmanA person who supplies materials used in building or repairing a structure or vehicle.
- materialman's lienA lien securing payment for materials supplied for building or repairing a structure.
- maternalHaving to do with, or coming from, one's mother.
- maternal lineA person's ancestry traced through the mother.
- maternal propertyProperty coming from a person's mother and her side of the family.
- maternal-line descentDescent between two people traced through the mother of the younger.
- matertera magnaIn Roman law, a great-aunt: a grandmother's sister.
- matertera majorIn Roman law, a great-great-aunt: a great-grandmother's sister.
- mathematical evidenceLoosely, evidence that establishes its conclusion with absolute certainty.
- Mathews v. Eldridge testIn constitutional law, the test for whether an administrative procedure gives enough due process. It weighs the priva…
- matreIn French law, a master, above all of a ship.
- matricideKilling one's own mother; also the person who does it.
- matriculaIn Roman law, a register of public officials; later, a register or certificate of membership in an organized body.
- matriculateTo enroll or register, as in a university.
- matrimonial actionAn action about the state of marriage, such as one for separation, annulment, or divorce.
- matrimonial cohabitationA husband and wife living together.
- matrimonial domicileThe domicile a husband and wife have established together as their home.
- matrimonial homeThe home a married couple have established together.
- matrimonial jurisdictionThe state that counts as a married couple's domestic center of gravity, and whose courts are therefore the natural fo…
- matrimonial resThe married state itself.
- matrimoniumMarriage.
- matrimonyBeing married: marriage.
- matrixFormerly, mother. In civil law, the original of a legal document, from which every copy must be made.
- matterA subject under consideration, above all one in dispute or in litigation; also something to be tried or proved, or an…
- matter in controversyThe sum a lawsuit is about, which decides whether a court has jurisdiction over it.
- matter in deedA matter provable by a document under seal.
- matter in paisA matter of fact never put in writing, which must therefore be proved by the testimony of witnesses.
- matter ofIn the matter of: the phrase heading a case that has no opposing parties, such as a bankruptcy or a probate.
- matter of courseSomething done as part of a routine process, without needing anyone's permission.
- matter of factA matter calling for a judicial inquiry into whether alleged facts are true.
- matter of formA matter of mere formality, touching nothing that really counts.
- matter of lawA matter calling for a judicial inquiry into what the law is.
- matter of recordA matter entered on a judicial or other public record, and so provable by producing the record itself.
- matter of substanceA matter going to the merits or to an essential element, rather than to mere form.
- matureOf a debt or obligation, to fall due.
- matured claimA claim on a debt that has fallen due for payment.
- maturity dateThe day a debt falls due, as on a promissory note or a bond.
- maturity valueThe sum due and payable when an obligation matures.
- maugreDespite.
- maximA traditional legal principle set in a short fixed phrase, such as "possession is nine-tenths of the law" or "let the…
- maximalist retributivismThe view that every offender deserves punishment and that the state must impose the full measure deserved, leaving no…
- maximum cureThe point at which an injured or sick seaman's condition has settled and no further treatment will improve it. A ship…
- maximum medical improvementThe point at which an injured person's condition has settled and no further recovery is expected, even with more trea…
- maximum sentenceThe heaviest punishment the law allows for a particular offense.
- mayIs permitted to. This is the word's primary legal sense.
- May it please the courtThe phrase lawyers use when first addressing a court, above all in oral argument on appeal.
- mayhemThe crime of deliberately injuring someone's body, above all so as to impair their ability to defend themselves. Mode…
- maynFormerly, a hand, or handwriting.
- maynoverWork done by hand, or the thing made by it.
- mayorThe chief executive of a city, town, or other municipality, whether elected or appointed.
- mayor of the stapleAn officer appointed to take acknowledgments of debt between staple merchants and to hear disputes among them.
- mayor's courtA municipal court, presided over by the mayor, with jurisdiction over minor civil and criminal matters arising in the…
- mayoraltyThe office or dignity of a mayor.
- mayorshipThe office or dignity of a mayor.
- MBEThe multiple-choice part of the bar examination, used by nearly every state, covering broad subjects such as constitu…
- MBOA purchase of a company by its own directors and officers.
- MCAn elected official sitting in the Senate or the House of Representatives, or one appointed to serve out an unexpired…
- McCarran ActA federal law of 1950 requiring Communist Party members to register with the Attorney General and Communist organizat…
- McCarran Internal Security ActA federal law of 1950 requiring Communist Party members to register with the Attorney General and Communist organizat…
- McCarran-Ferguson ActA federal law leaving the regulation and taxation of insurance companies to the states where they do business.
- McClanahan presumptionThe presumption that states may not tax members of a Native American tribe who live or work on tribal land. It is not…
- McDonnell Douglas testIn employment law, the framework for shifting the burden of proof in a discrimination case. The claimant must first m…
- McNabb ruleA confession is inadmissible if obtained during an unreasonably long delay between arrest and the first court appeara…
- McNabb-Mallory ruleIn criminal procedure, the rule that a confession cannot be used if it was obtained during an unreasonably long delay…
- McNaghten rulesIn criminal law, the rule that a person is not criminally responsible if a mental disability kept them from knowing e…
- McNary comityThe rule that a federal district court should not entertain a taxpayer's civil-rights challenge to the way a state ad…
- MDLIn civil procedure, the practice of moving civil cases pending in different federal districts that share common quest…
- MDVA party's request that the court give judgment in its favor before the case goes to the jury, on the ground that no r…
- meanLying at an intermediate point between two extremes; also medium in size, or, of a value, average.
- mean high tideThe average of all high tides, above all over a period of 18.6 years.
- mean low tideThe average of all low tides over a fixed period, above all over 18.6 years.
- mean lower low tideThe average of the lower of each day's two low tides, taken over a fixed period.
- mean reserveIn insurance, the average of a policy year's opening reserve, once the premium is paid, and its closing reserve.
- mean trading priceIn securities law, the average of a security's daily closing price over a 90-day period.
- meander lineA survey line, not a boundary line, run along the course of a river or stream.
- meaningThe sense of something, above all of words: what a written or spoken statement conveys or is meant to convey.
- meansThe resources a person has, above all for paying debts; also anything that helps to reach an end.
- means-plus-function clauseIn patent law, a claim element, usually in a combination patent, describing a part by what it does rather than what i…
- measure of damagesThe basis on which damages are worked out for someone who has been injured. On a penal bond, for instance, damages ar…
- measuring lifeUnder the rule against perpetuities, the last person to die among those alive when the interest was created, used to…
- measuring moneyAn extra duty once collected on cloth, abolished in the reign of Henry IV.
- mechanic's lienA lien on land or a building securing payment for labor or materials supplied to improve or repair it.
- medfeeA bribe or reward; also compensation given where things of unequal value are exchanged.
- mediate descentDescent that does not pass directly, as where a granddaughter takes land from her grandmother after it has first pass…
- mediate evidenceEvidence of a lower order than the best available, which becomes admissible once the best evidence is lost or out of…
- mediate possessionPossession held through someone else, such as an agent. There is always a direct possessor, the agent, and a mediate…
- mediate powersSecondary powers that go with a principal power, above all those a principal gives an agent so that the main task can…
- mediate testimonyEvidence weaker than the original or best evidence, admissible once the best evidence is lost or out of reach, such a…
- mediationA way of settling disputes without binding decision, in which a neutral third party helps those in dispute work out a…
- Mediation and Conciliation ServiceThe federal agency that works to keep labor disputes from interrupting commerce by helping the parties settle through…
- mediatorThe neutral third party who helps people in dispute reach their own agreement. A mediator has no power to impose term…
- mediators of questionsSix people authorized by a statute of Edward III to settle disputes between merchants.
- MedicaidA government program providing medical care to people who cannot afford it, funded jointly by the federal and state g…
- Medicaid-qualifying trustA trust set up to shed assets so that a person can qualify for Medicaid, which is counted as the person's asset anywa…
- medical directiveA durable power of attorney that takes effect when a person loses capacity and names someone to make healthcare decis…
- medical evidenceEvidence given by a doctor, nurse, or other qualified medical person testifying as an expert, or drawn from a standar…
- medical examinerA public official who investigates deaths, performs autopsies, and helps the state prosecute homicide cases. Medical…
- medical expenseThe cost of medical treatment or healthcare, such as drugs and health-insurance premiums. Such costs are deductible s…
- medical jurisprudenceThe application of medical knowledge to legal questions, such as the cause of a death, the effect of an injury, or a…
- medical malpracticeA doctor's failure to use the care and skill that a physician or surgeon in the same specialty would use in similar c…
- medical probabilityIn proving what caused an injury, the standard requiring a showing that the injury was more likely than not caused by…
- medical-emergency exceptionThe rule that a police officer needs no warrant to enter a home in order to help someone the officer reasonably belie…
- medicalsIn litigation, the medical costs a claimant has run up because of the defendant's alleged wrong: doctors' visits, pro…
- MedicareThe federal program under the Social Security Act providing health insurance for older and disabled people.
- medicolegalInvolving the application of medical science to law.
- medietas linguaeFormerly, half-tongue: a jury made up half of natives and half of foreigners, empaneled where one party was an alien.
- medioA writ against a middle lord to protect an undertenant from being harried by the lord above for rent that the middle…
- medium filumThe middle line of a stream, often used to fix the boundary between properties on opposite banks.
- medium of exchangeAnything generally accepted in payment and treated as a standard of value.
- medium workWork involving regular lifting and carrying. Under Social Security rules, it means lifting up to 50 pounds, with freq…
- medletumA mixing together; also a sudden fight or brawl, or interference in someone's business.
- medleyAn affray: sudden or casual fighting.
- meetingA gathering of people, above all to discuss and act on matters of common concern.
- meeting of the mindsThe parties' shared understanding of the terms of their bargain. The older theory required real agreement in each par…
- meeting-competition defenseIn antitrust law, a defense to a charge of price discrimination in which the seller shows that its lower price was a…
- megalopolisA heavily populated stretch of unbroken urban land taking in many cities.
- meindre ageBeing under age: minority.
- meinyA household, above all a royal one.
- meliorBetter: the better of two things.
- meliorationsIn Scots law, lasting improvements to an estate, as distinct from mere repairs.
- melioribus damnisOf the better damages. Where a jury mistakenly awarded separate damages against two or more defendants for a single j…
- melius inquirendumA writ ordering a fuller inquiry where a first inquest had been carried out imperfectly.
- memberIn military law, a person assigned to a court-martial to decide guilt and punishment.
- member bankA bank belonging to the Federal Reserve System.
- member firmIn securities law, a brokerage firm with at least one director, officer, or general partner holding a seat on an orga…
- member of a crewUnder the Jones Act, a person attached to a vessel in navigation who helps in working her: a seaman.
- member of CongressAn elected official sitting in the Senate or the House of Representatives, or one appointed to serve out an unexpired…
- member of ParliamentA person entitled to sit in one of the two houses of Parliament.
- membranaA skin of parchment, or a book of parchment leaves. The English rolls were made of parchment, and their sheets were c…
- membrumA division of something, above all a strip or small piece of land.
- memorandumAn informal written note setting out the terms of a transaction or contract. To satisfy the statute of frauds it may…
- memorandum articlesIn marine insurance, the goods listed in the memorandum clause.
- memorandum checkA check a borrower gives a lender for the amount of a short-term loan, on the understanding that it will not be cashe…
- memorandum clauseA marine-insurance clause protecting underwriters against liability for damage to particularly perishable goods, or f…
- memorandum decisionA unanimous opinion that states the court's conclusion briefly and without elaboration, usually because the decision…
- memorandum in errorA document alleging a mistake of fact, usually supported by an affidavit.
- memorandum of alterationA patentee's giving up of certain rights, such as rights to a part of an invention that is not new and useful, so as…
- memorandum of associationThe document that sets up a company, with or without limited liability, stating its name, purpose, and duration.
- memorandum of intentA written statement of what parties who mean to contract have provisionally agreed: a noncommittal document prelimina…
- memorandum of understandingA written statement of what parties who mean to contract have provisionally agreed: a noncommittal document prelimina…
- memorandum opinionA unanimous opinion that states the court's conclusion briefly and without elaboration, usually because the decision…
- memorandum saleA conditional sale in which the buyer takes the goods but does not accept title until they have been approved.
- memorialA summary of a legal record, above all a deed; also a written statement of facts laid before a legislature or executi…
- memoriterFrom memory. Memoriter proof of a document is given by a witness who recalls what it said.
- men of strawFalse witnesses who loitered about the courts and were paid to give untrue evidence. They stuffed straw in their shoe…
- menacingAn attempt to commit common-law assault, a term used above all where a jurisdiction has folded battery into its defin…
- mendacityUntruthfulness; also a lie.
- mensMind, intention, or will.
- mens reaThe state of mind the prosecution must prove the defendant had when committing the offense: criminal intent or reckle…
- mensaA table. The word survives in the phrase for a separation from bed and board, a divorce a mensa et thoro.
- mensaliaParsonages, or the livings that supported them.
- mensulariusA dealer in money: a moneychanger or banker.
- mensuraFormerly, a measure.
- mensura domini regisThe standard weights and measures fixed under Richard I at his Parliament at Westminster in 1197.
- mental anguishSevere mental suffering, such as grief, fright, humiliation, or rage, brought on by another's conduct. Where it is se…
- mental capacityThe mental ability to understand the nature and effect of one's acts, which the law requires before a person can make…
- mental crueltyAs a ground for divorce, a course of conduct by one spouse causing the other such distress that it endangers their li…
- mental distressSevere mental suffering, such as grief, fright, humiliation, or rage, brought on by another's conduct. Where it is se…
- mental elementThe state of mind the prosecution must prove the defendant had when committing the offense: criminal intent or reckle…
- mental illnessA disorder of thought or mood grave enough to impair judgment, behavior, the grasp of reality, or the ability to cope…
- mental incompetenceThe lack of the mental ability the law requires for some purpose, such as standing trial or giving evidence.
- mental reservationA meaning one party silently attaches to a term of a contract but never discloses. It does not affect what the contra…
- mental shockA shock to the mind producing extreme grief or joy, as from witnessing a family member's violent death.
- mental sufferingSevere mental suffering, such as grief, fright, humiliation, or rage, brought on by another's conduct. Where it is se…
- mentes reaeThe plural of mens rea: the guilty states of mind that different crimes require.
- mentiriTo lie.
- mercantileHaving to do with merchants or trade: commercial.
- mercantile agentAn agent employed to sell goods on the principal's behalf.
- mercantile lawThe body of rules governing trade and commercial dealings, grown out of the customs of merchants and now largely foun…
- Mercantile Law Amendment ActsTwo statutes of 1856, one for England and Ireland and one for Scotland, passed mainly to bring parts of their commerc…
- mercantile paperA written instrument, other than cash, for paying money, such as a draft, a check, a note, or a certificate of deposi…
- mercativeIn Scots law, belonging to trade.
- mercatumA market; also a contract of sale or a bargain.
- mercenariusAn employee or servant; also a soldier of fortune.
- mercenaryIn international law, a professional soldier hired by someone other than their own government to fight in a foreign c…
- mercenlageThe law of the Mercians, one of the three main bodies of law in England at the start of the 11th century. It held in…
- mercesAn agreed payment for services specifically contracted for.
- merchandiseGoods bought and sold in business: commercial wares.
- merchandise brokerSomeone who arranges the sale of merchandise without holding it. Such a broker is an agent with very limited powers.
- Merchandise Marks ActsAn English statute of 1887 making it a misdemeanor to mark goods fraudulently for sale, or to sell goods so marked. I…
- merchantA person or company whose business is buying and selling goods for profit, above all one who holds itself out as havi…
- merchant exceptionIn contract law, an exception to the statute of frauds making an oral agreement between merchants enforceable where o…
- merchant lesseeA lessee who deals in goods of the kind being leased.
- merchant seamanA sailor employed on a merchant ship rather than in the navy.
- Merchant Shipping ActsEnglish statutes passed to improve conditions in shipping, among other things by placing the oversight of merchant sh…
- merchant's accountsRunning mutual accounts between merchants, showing the debits and credits between them for goods supplied.
- merchant's defenseThe rule that a shopkeeper is not liable for reasonably detaining a suspected shoplifter, so that the police can inve…
- merchant's firm offerA merchant’s signed written offer to buy or sell goods, which stays open for the time it states, or for a reasonable…
- merchantabilityAn implied warranty that goods are fit for the ordinary purposes for which such goods are used.
- merchantableFit for sale in the ordinary course of trade at the usual price.
- merchantable titleA title a reasonable buyer would accept, because it shows no defect and covers the whole of what the seller offered t…
- merchantmanA ship employed in foreign or interstate trade, or in the merchant service.
- merchetA payment a feudal tenant made to the lord for leave to marry a daughter outside the lord's jurisdiction, or to buy o…
- merchetaA payment a feudal tenant made to the lord for leave to marry a daughter outside the lord's jurisdiction, or to buy o…
- merchetumA payment a feudal tenant made to the lord for leave to marry a daughter outside the lord's jurisdiction, or to buy o…
- merciamentA court's imposition of a fine at its own discretion, above all on an official for misconduct; also the fine itself.
- Mercian lawThe law of the Mercians, one of the three main bodies of law in England at the start of the 11th century. It held in…
- mercyCompassionate treatment of an offender or of someone in distress, above all imprisonment rather than death as the pun…
- mercy killingKilling someone who suffers from an incurable and often painful condition, out of pity. The law treats it variously a…
- mereMother, as in the phrase for a child still in its mother's womb.
- mere licenseA licence passing no interest in property, which does no more than keep the holder from being a trespasser.
- mere licenseeSomeone whose presence on premises the occupier tolerates without necessarily welcoming, such as a person taking a sh…
- mere motuOf one's own accord: of a court or official acting on its own initiative rather than on anyone's application.
- mere rightA bare right in property, with neither possession nor even the right to possess.
- mere-continuation doctrineThe rule that a successor company answers for what its predecessor did, where only one company is left after the tran…
- mere-evidence ruleIn criminal procedure, the old rule that a search warrant reached the instruments of the crime, such as a murder weap…
- merestoneA stone set to mark a boundary.
- meretriciousInvolving prostitution or unlawful sexual conduct; of a relationship, resting on such conduct or on one party's lack…
- mergeeA company taking part in a merger.
- mergerThe joining of two things into one. In contract law, the swallowing of a lesser right or obligation by a greater, as…
- merger clauseA contract clause stating that the written contract is the parties' whole and final agreement and displaces every ear…
- merger of offensesThe absorption of a lesser offense into a greater one arising from the same conduct, so that the defendant may be pun…
- merit regulationUnder state blue-sky laws, the practice of requiring a securities offering not only to disclose everything material b…
- merit systemHiring and promoting staff, above all in government, on the strength of their competence rather than political favor.
- Merit Systems Protection BoardThe federal agency that hears appeals by civil-service employees and related matters, such as cases brought by the Of…
- meritoriousOf an act, deserving esteem or reward; of a case, deserving to win.
- meritorious considerationConsideration resting on natural love and affection or on a moral duty. It will not usually support the enforcement o…
- meritorious defenseA defense going to the substance of the case rather than raising a technical or delaying objection; also, a defense t…
- meritsThe substance of a claim or defense: the considerations that decide a case, as opposed to side issues and points of p…
- Merrill doctrineThe rule that the government cannot be estopped by what its agents wrongly say, so a person who relies on an official…
- merum jusA bare right in property, with neither possession nor even the right to possess.
- merxFormerly, goods for trade: merchandise.
- mescreauntA wrongdoer or unbeliever.
- meseFormerly, a house.
- mesnaltyThe estate or manor a middle lord held; also the middle lord's rights and tenure.
- mesneMiddle or intervening: standing between two others.
- mesne assignmentAn assignment made somewhere in the middle of a chain: any assignment before the last one.
- mesne conveyanceA conveyance somewhere in the middle of the chain of title, between the first grantee and the present holder.
- mesne encumbranceAn encumbrance created after an earlier one but before a later one, so that it ranks in the middle of the claims agai…
- mesne lordA feudal lord holding land from a superior lord and standing between that lord and the tenant below.
- mesne processProcess issued after the original writ and before final judgment, such as a summons or an order to appear.
- mesne profitsThe profits of land taken by someone wrongfully in possession, recoverable by the rightful owner for the period of th…
- mesne, writ ofA writ against a middle lord to protect an undertenant from being harried by the lord above for rent that the middle…
- mesonomicOf an act that, though it does not touch a person's physical freedom, still carries legal consequences as it works it…
- messageA written or spoken communication, often carried by a messenger or sent electronically.
- message from the CrownAn official communication from the sovereign to Parliament.
- messariusA chief servant, bailiff, or overseer of the harvest.
- messengerA person who carries a communication. Formerly, also an officer with certain ministerial duties, such as taking tempo…
- messuageA dwelling house with its yard and outbuildings.
- metaIn Roman law, the post marking the end of a racecourse or the turn in it, and so a limit in space or time; in older E…
- metalawA hypothetical set of legal principles drawn from the rules of existing legal systems and designed to give those syst…
- metallumMetal, or a mine; also forced labor in the mines as a punishment, one of the heaviest short of death.
- metayer systemA farming system in which land is split into small holdings worked by single families, who give the landlord a fixed…
- mete outTo deal out justice or punishment.
- metecornA portion of corn a lord gave a tenant for labor done.
- metegavelRent or tribute paid in food.
- metelotageIn French law, the hiring out of a ship; also a seaman's wages.
- meterA metric unit of length equal to about 39.37 inches; also an instrument for measuring use or consumption, such as the…
- meter rateThe rate a utility company applies to work out the charge for service supplied through a meter.
- metes and boundsThe boundaries of a piece of land described by distances and angles running from fixed landmarks and along the neighb…
- methodA way of organizing, operating, or doing something, above all to reach a goal.
- metric systemA decimal system of measuring length, weight, area, and volume, built on the meter as the unit of length and the kilo…
- metropolitan councilA body, elected or appointed by the voters of a metropolitan area, that provides unified administration of services s…
- metropolitan districtA special district, covering parts or all of the cities and towns of a metropolitan area, created by a state so that…
- metteshepAn acknowledgment paid in a measure of corn; also a penalty on a tenant who neglected a duty, such as failing to cut…
- metusFear of imminent danger, above all fear used as duress to force someone to act; also a threat that causes damage to a…
- meublesMovable goods, such as household utensils.
- Mexican divorceA divorce obtained in Mexico by mail order, or on the appearance of one spouse who is not domiciled there. Neither ki…
- Mfg.The abbreviation for manufacturing, used in the names of companies in case citations.
- MFNA treaty status granted to a country, usually in trade, letting it enjoy whatever advantages the other parties to the…
- Michaelmas sittingA term of the English common-law courts, running from 2 November to 25 November.
- micheFormerly, to hide, to skulk, or to play truant.
- micheryFormerly, theft or cheating done by stealth.
- mid-channelThe point midway between the well-marked banks in the main channel of a river: the middle thread of its current.
- mid-level scrutinyA standard of review lying between rational-basis review and strict scrutiny. Where a statute draws a quasi-suspect d…
- Midcal testIn antitrust law, the test under which a private party's anticompetitive acts count as state acts, and so escape anti…
- middle burden of proofA standard of persuasion between the balance of probabilities and proof beyond reasonable doubt, requiring a fact to…
- middle line of main channelThe point midway between the well-marked banks in the main channel of a river: the middle thread of its current.
- middle managementThe people who run day-to-day operations in a company and carry out the directions of those at the top.
- middle of the riverThe point midway between the well-marked banks in the main channel of a river: the middle thread of its current.
- middle threadThe center line of something, above all an imaginary line drawn lengthwise through the middle of a stream's current.
- middle-level scrutinyA standard of review lying between rational-basis review and strict scrutiny. Where a statute draws a quasi-suspect d…
- middle-of-the-road testA test for deciding whether letting a privileged document slip out waives the attorney-client privilege. The court we…
- middlemanA go-between or agent standing between two parties, above all a dealer such as a wholesaler who buys from producers a…
- midnight deadlineA time limit that runs out at midnight on a given day. For a bank, it is midnight on the next banking day after the d…
- midshipmanA naval cadet, or a student at the United States Naval Academy.
- midsummer-dayThe summer solstice, about 22 June. It was once one of the four quarter-days on which rent fell due.
- midwayThe middle of the main navigable channel of a waterway, often forming the boundary between states; also the line foll…
- Midwest Piping ruleThe rule that an employer may not recognize any union while rival claims to represent the workers are outstanding.
- migrant workerIn international law, a person who works seasonally as a farm laborer in a foreign country.
- migrationThe movement of people or animals from one country or region to another.
- migratory corporationA corporation formed under the laws of a state other than where its founders live, so that it may carry on much of it…
- migratory divorceA divorce obtained by a spouse who moves to, or stays for a time in, another state or country in order to get it.
- mild exigencyA circumstance excusing a police officer from knocking and announcing before entering, such as a real prospect that t…
- mileA distance of 5,280 feet. At sea and in the air the nautical mile is used instead, one minute of arc of a great circl…
- mileageThe distance in miles between two points; also the distance a vehicle has traveled, and an allowance paid for travel,…
- milesIn Roman law, a soldier; in older English usage, a knight.
- militareIn Roman law, to serve as a soldier, and later to hold public office of any kind; in older English usage, to be knigh…
- militaryHaving to do with the armed forces, or with war.
- military boardA group appointed to find facts or to advise the military authority that appointed it.
- military bounty landLand offered to members of the armed forces as a reward for their service.
- military commissionA court, usually made up of both civilians and military officers and modeled on a court-martial, that tries breaches…
- military courtA court with jurisdiction over members of the armed forces, which enforces the code of military justice.
- military court of inquiryFormerly, in American law, a body set up under the articles of war with power to investigate a transaction or an accu…
- military governmentIn international law, the running of all or most public functions in a country by the armed forces or their members:…
- military judgeA serving commissioned officer who belongs to the bar of a federal court or of a state's highest court and whom the J…
- military jurisdictionThe three kinds of authority the Constitution gives the military: authority under military law, under military govern…
- military justiceThe system of punishments designed to keep order, morale, and discipline in the armed forces.
- military lawThe branch of public law governing discipline and other rules of service in the armed forces. It applies in peace as…
- military leaveA term in employment policies or collective agreements allowing a long leave of absence, without loss of benefits, fo…
- military necessityIn international law, the principle that a belligerent may use as much force as it takes to achieve a legitimate mili…
- military objectiveIn international law, an object whose nature, location, or use contributes to military action and which may therefore…
- military offenseAn offense, such as desertion, that falls within a military court's jurisdiction.
- military officerA person holding a command in the armed forces.
- Military Rules of EvidenceThe rules of evidence that apply in military law and at courts-martial.
- military tenureA tenure carrying some military obligation, such as knight service, grand serjeanty, or cornage.
- military testamentA will made by a soldier on active service, which the law excuses from the usual formalities.
- military-contractor defenseThe rule that a maker of equipment for the armed forces shares the government's immunity from tort claims, where it d…
- militateTo weigh strongly for or against something.
- militesIn Roman law, members of the army; in feudal England, knights serving in the royal army by virtue of their tenure.
- militiaA body of citizens armed and trained by a state for military service outside the regular armed forces. The Constituti…
- Militia ClauseEither of the two clauses of the Constitution giving Congress power to call out, arm, and maintain a military force t…
- millA machine that grinds grain or other material, usually by a wheel turning in a circle; also the building where the gr…
- mill powerA unit of water power used in setting how much water a lessee may take.
- mill privilegeThe right of the owner of a mill site to build a mill and use the stream's power to work it, with due regard for the…
- mill rateA property tax rate in which each mill means $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value.
- mill siteA small piece of land on or beside a watercourse, suitable for building and running a mill. In mining law, a small pa…
- millage rateA property tax rate in which each mill means $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value.
- Miller ActA federal law requiring performance and payment bonds before a contract is awarded for building, altering, or repairi…
- Miller v. Shugart agreementA settlement in which an insured lets judgment be entered against them on terms that the claimant will look only to t…
- Miller-Tydings ActA federal law of 1937 amending the Sherman Act to exempt fair-trade laws and to allow agreements between producers an…
- milling in transitAn arrangement under which a shipment is held at a point along the way, usually so that some manufacturing process ca…
- Mimms orderA police officer's order to a driver to step out of the vehicle. It needs no separate justification if the stop itsel…
- minaFormerly, a measure of grain.
- minageFormerly, a toll for selling grain by the mina.
- mindThe seat of thought and understanding; also the power to will, direct, or consent, and the faculty of memory.
- mind and memoryA testator's mental capacity to make a will. The phrase was usually part of the longer formula "of sound mind and mem…
- mineAn underground working from which minerals or ores are taken; also a mineral deposit, or the place where one lies.
- miner's inchA measure of flowing water, roughly nine gallons a minute through a one-inch square opening. The exact figure varies…
- mineralNaturally occurring inorganic matter with a settled chemical make-up and physical properties that give it value.
- mineral deedA conveyance of an interest in the minerals in or under land.
- mineral districtA region where valuable minerals are commonly found and mined.
- mineral easementAn easement allowing the holder to enter land and remove minerals from it.
- mineral entryThe right to go on to public land in order to mine valuable mineral deposits.
- mineral interestThe right to search for, develop, and take minerals from land, or to receive a royalty on what is produced. It is usu…
- mineral landLand holding valuable minerals in quantities that justify the cost of extraction, so that mining rather than farming…
- mineral leaseA lease giving the lessee the right to search for and take oil, gas, or other minerals. The rent is usually reckoned…
- mineral lodeA bed of mineral-bearing rock with definite limits within the general mass of a mountain: any belt of mineralized roc…
- mineral rightThe right to search for, develop, and take minerals from land, or to receive a royalty on what is produced. It is usu…
- mineral royaltyA right to a share of the income from mineral production.
- mineral servitudeA servitude giving the right to enter someone else's land to search for and take minerals.
- mineratorA miner.
- mini-maxiAn underwriting arrangement under which a broker must sell a minimum number of securities on an all-or-none basis and…
- minimal contactsA nonresident defendant's links with the forum state, such as doing business there or acts that foreseeably lead to b…
- minimal participantUnder the federal sentencing guidelines, a defendant among the least blameworthy of a criminal group, as where they d…
- minimal scrutinyThe rule that a law survives an equal-protection challenge if it bears a reasonable relationship to some legitimate g…
- minimalist retributivismThe more modern form of retributivism, holding that no one may be punished without guilt and blameworthiness, but tha…
- minimentA document, such as a deed or charter, evidencing the rights or privileges of a person, family, or company.
- minimization requirementThe requirement that police acting under an eavesdropping warrant work the wiretap so as to overhear as few conversat…
- minimumThe smallest amount that is acceptable or possible in a given case.
- minimum contactsA nonresident defendant's links with the forum state, such as doing business there or acts that foreseeably lead to b…
- minimum lotA lot of the smallest area a local zoning law allows.
- minimum saleIn the film business, the smallest receipts distributors expect a particular picture to bring in.
- minimum scrutinyThe rule that a law survives an equal-protection challenge if it bears a reasonable relationship to some legitimate g…
- minimum sentenceThe least time a defendant must serve before becoming eligible for parole.
- minimum taxA flat tax that may fall on companies and higher-income individuals to make sure that exclusions, deductions, and cre…
- minimum wageThe lowest hourly pay an employer may lawfully give, fixed by statute.
- minimum-fee scheduleA list of the lowest fees a lawyer might charge, once set by state bar associations. The courts held such schedules t…
- minimum-royalty clauseIn patent law, a term in a royalty agreement fixing a payment the licensee must make to the patent owner whether or n…
- miningTaking ore or minerals out of the ground, or the working of a mine. The word covers drilling for oil and gas as well.
- mining claimA piece of land holding precious metal in its soil or rock, taken up by someone according to the settled rules and cu…
- mining leaseA lease of a mine or mining claim giving the lessee the right to work it, usually with conditions on the amount and k…
- mining locationIn mining law, the act of taking up a mining claim; also the claim so taken up.
- mining partnershipAn association of people who carry on a mining business together, sharing the profits, expenses, and losses. It has f…
- mining rentWhat is given in return for a mining lease, whether the lease creates a tenancy, conveys a fee, or grants only a lice…
- ministerA person acting under another's authority: an agent. Also a senior government officer heading an executive department…
- minister plenipotentiaryA diplomat ranking below an ambassador but holding full power to act for their government, often treated as the perso…
- ministerialOf an act done in obedience to instructions or law, leaving no room for discretion or judgment.
- ministerial officerAn officer whose duties are fixed by law and leave no room for personal judgment, such as a clerk or a sheriff carryi…
- ministerial trustA trust in which the trustee's only duty is to hand the property over to the beneficiary.
- ministerial-function testThe rule that the First Amendment bars a court from deciding an employment-discrimination claim where the employee's…
- ministrantA person who ministers or dispenses something. In older church practice, the party who cross-examined a witness.
- ministri regisFormerly, ministers of the king: a phrase used of judges and other ministerial officers.
- minitrialA private, voluntary, informal way of settling a dispute in which each side's lawyer presents a shortened version of…
- minorA person who has not reached full legal age: a child.
- minor aetasFormerly, being under age: minority or infancy.
- minor crimeA crime less serious than a felony, usually punished by a fine, forfeiture, or a short spell of confinement somewhere…
- minor disputeUnder the Railway Labor Act, a dispute about how an existing collective agreement is to be read or applied, as oppose…
- minor factA subsidiary fact from which a principal fact may be inferred: an item of circumstantial evidence.
- minor participantUnder the federal sentencing guidelines, a defendant less blameworthy than the others in the group but more so than a…
- minor's estateThe property a person under legal age owns, which is managed for them by a guardian or other representative until the…
- minora regaliaFormerly, the lesser royal rights the Crown held under feudal law, such as rights to treasure trove and to royal fish.
- minorityBeing under legal age; also a group holding fewer than a controlling number of votes. The word further names a group…
- minority discountA reduction in the value put on shares in a closely held business held by someone with only a minority stake, on the…
- minority opinionAn opinion by one or more judges who disagree with the decision the majority reached.
- minority shareholderA shareholder holding less than half the shares, and so unable to control the company's management or elect directors…
- mintA place authorized by government to coin money; in everyday use, a large sum.
- mint-markAn authorized mark on a coin showing which mint struck it.
- mintageThe mint's charge for coining money; also what the mint produces.
- minusIn Roman law, less, or not at all. A debt left wholly unpaid was said to be minus solutum.
- minus LatiumThe lesser Latin right: a grant making only the magistrates of a Latin town, and not their families, Roman citizens.
- minute bookA book in which a court clerk enters the minutes of proceedings; also the record of what was discussed and done at a…
- minute entryAn order recorded in the court's minutes rather than entered on the case docket. Where a judge sits officially, a cle…
- minute orderAn order recorded in the court's minutes rather than entered on the case docket. Where a judge sits officially, a cle…
- minutesNotes of a transaction or proceeding. In Scots law, written forms used to preserve evidence.
- minutes bookA book in which a court clerk enters the minutes of proceedings; also the record of what was discussed and done at a…
- minutioIn Roman law, a lessening or reduction.
- Miranda hearingA pretrial hearing to decide whether the Miranda rule was followed, and so whether the prosecution may use statements…
- Miranda ruleThe rule that a suspect in police custody must be told certain constitutional rights before being questioned: the rig…
- MirandizeInformally, to read an arrested person their rights under the Miranda rule.
- mirror-image ruleIn contract law, the rule that an acceptance must be plain, unconditional, and unambiguous, and must not change, add…
- misaThe issue in a writ of right; also an agreement or compromise.
- misadministrationPoor or improper management, above all by someone holding office.
- misadventureA mishap or misfortune; also a killing that happens by accident while a person is doing something lawful with no inte…
- misallegeTo assert a fact or claim wrongly.
- misapplicationUsing funds or property one lawfully holds for an improper or illegal purpose.
- misappropriateTo take another's property or money dishonestly and use it as one's own.
- misappropriationDishonestly applying someone else's property or money to one's own use.
- misappropriation theoryIn securities law, the rule that a person who wrongly uses confidential information to trade in securities, in breach…
- misbehavior in officeA public officer's corrupt breach of duty, whether by doing something forbidden, doing a lawful thing wrongly, or fai…
- misbrandingLabeling a product falsely or in a misleading way. Federal and state law forbid it.
- miscarriage of justiceA grossly unfair outcome in a legal proceeding, as where a defendant is convicted though there was no evidence on an…
- miscegenationMarriage between people of different races, once made illegal in some states. The Supreme Court struck down such bans…
- miscellaneous itemized deductionAn itemized deduction for job or investment expenses, other than the deductions allowed in working out adjusted gross…
- mischargeA wrong jury instruction, which may be a ground for setting a verdict aside.
- mischiefA state of affairs in which a person suffers a wrong or hardship, above all one a statute sets out to cure or equity…
- mischief ruleIn statutory construction, the rule that a court should first work out what defect in the old law the statute was pas…
- misconductA failure of duty, or unlawful or improper behavior.
- miscontinuanceA continuance a court has wrongly granted.
- misdeliveryDelivery that does not match what the contract called for.
- misdemeanantA person convicted of a misdemeanor.
- misdemeanorA crime less serious than a felony, usually punished by a fine, forfeiture, or a short spell of confinement somewhere…
- misdemeanor in officeA public officer's corrupt breach of duty, whether by doing something forbidden, doing a lawful thing wrongly, or fai…
- misdemeanor-manslaughter ruleThe rule that a death occurring while a misdemeanor, or sometimes a non-dangerous felony, is being committed amounts…
- misdescriptionA false or mistaken statement in a contract that deceives, injures, or materially misleads one of the parties; also a…
- misdirectionA wrong jury instruction, which may be a ground for setting a verdict aside.
- miseThe general issue in a writ of right; also a settlement or compromise.
- mise moneyMoney paid under a contract to buy a privilege.
- miserereHave mercy: the opening words of the fifty-first psalm, which a person claiming benefit of clergy had to read to prov…
- misericordiaMercy; also a fine imposed at the court's discretion, or an exemption from one.
- misericordia communisFormerly, a fine laid on a whole county.
- misfeasanceA lawful act done in a wrongful way.
- misfeasance in public officeThe tort of a public officer exercising statutory powers excessively, maliciously, or carelessly, to another's harm.
- misheringFreedom from being fined by a court.
- misjoinderThe improper joining of parties in a civil case, or of offenses in a criminal one.
- miskenningA wrongful summons; also a mistake or irregularity in pleading.
- miskeringFreedom from being fined by a court.
- mislaid propertyProperty the owner deliberately put down meaning to pick it up later, and now cannot find.
- mislayTo put property somewhere and then forget where.
- misleadingOf an instruction or direction, apt to be misunderstood.
- misnomerA mistake in naming a person, place, or thing, above all in a legal document. In federal practice, and in most states…
- misperformanceA faulty attempt to carry out an obligation, above all one under a contract.
- mispleadingPleading wrongly. A party who sees that its pleading is wrong may usually amend it as of right within a set period, a…
- misprisionConcealing or failing to report a serious crime by someone who took no part in it.
- misprision of felonyConcealing or failing to report someone else's felony.
- misprision of treasonConcealing or failing to report someone else's treason.
- misreadingA fraud in which a person reads a document wrongly to someone who cannot read or see, so as to trick them into signin…
- misrecitalA wrong statement of fact in a contract, deed, pleading, or other document.
- misrepresentTo state a fact falsely or misleadingly, whether in words or by conduct.
- misrepresentationMaking a false or misleading statement about something, usually meaning to deceive; also the statement itself.
- misrepresenteeThe person to whom a fact has been misrepresented.
- misrepresenterA person who misrepresents a fact to another.
- missiliaIn Roman law, coins that praetors, consuls, or rich men threw to the crowd as gifts.
- missing personSomeone whose whereabouts are unknown and, after a reasonable time, cannot be found out. Where the absence is long an…
- missing shipA ship gone so long that she is presumed lost at sea, above all one overdue beyond the time such a voyage usually tak…
- missing-evidence ruleThe rule that where a party fails to produce evidence it controls and could properly have produced, the jury may infe…
- missing-witness ruleThe rule that where a party fails to call a witness available only to it whose evidence would have been admissible, t…
- mistakeAn error or mistaken belief. In contract law, the situation where the parties did not mean the same thing, or, meanin…
- mistake of factA mistake about a fact that matters to the transaction.
- mistake of lawA mistake about the legal effect of facts the person knows.
- misteryA business or trade.
- mistrialA trial the judge ends without deciding the merits, because of a procedural error or serious misconduct; also a trial…
- misuseIn products-liability law, a defense that the claimant used the product in an improper, unintended, or unforeseeable…
- misuserAbuse of a right or office, which may cost the holder the right itself.
- mitigateTo make less severe.
- mitigating circumstanceA fact that does not justify or excuse a wrong but lessens how blameworthy it was, and so may reduce the damages in a…
- mitigation of punishmentA reduction in punishment because of circumstances that make the offender less blameworthy, such as having no previou…
- mitigation-of-damages doctrineThe rule that someone injured or wronged must take ordinary care to limit the harm. If the defendant shows they faile…
- mitigatoryTending to lessen the severity of something.
- mitiori sensuIn the milder sense. Under the old rule in slander, a word capable of two meanings was given whichever was more favor…
- mitter avantTo produce evidence before a court.
- mittimusA court order directing a jailer to hold a person until further order; also a certified transcript of a prisoner's co…
- mixed actionAn action having some features of a real action and some of a personal one.
- mixed bloodThe relationship between people whose ancestors are of different races or nationalities.
- mixed cognationA relationship combining ties of blood and of family, such as that between brothers born of the same marriage.
- mixed conditionA condition depending partly on one party's will and partly on either a third person's will or the happening of some…
- mixed contractIn civil law, a contract in which what each side gets is unequal in value. The term also covers a contract for both g…
- mixed costA cost made up of both a fixed and a variable element.
- mixed governmentA government that blends monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, so that no single element holds all the power.
- mixed insurance companyAn insurance company with features of both a stock company and a mutual one, paying part of its profits to shareholde…
- mixed juryA jury made up of both men and women, or of people of different races or nationalities, sometimes required so that a…
- mixed larcenyLarceny attended by aggravation or by violence to the person.
- mixed lawA law dealing with both persons and property.
- mixed marriageMarriage between people of different races, once made illegal in some states. The Supreme Court struck down such bans…
- mixed nuisanceA nuisance that is both public and private: dangerous to the community at large and also causing particular harm to i…
- mixed policyIn marine insurance, a policy combining features of a voyage policy and a time policy.
- mixed presumptionA presumption made up of elements of both law and fact.
- mixed propertyProperty with features of both land and goods, such as heirlooms and fixtures.
- mixed questionAn issue that is neither purely one of fact nor purely one of law. How such questions are divided between judge and j…
- mixed question of law and factAn issue that is neither purely one of fact nor purely one of law, so that deciding it means applying a legal standar…
- mixed tithesTithes of natural products, such as milk or wool, got by human effort as well as by nature.
- mixed trustA trust set up to benefit both private individuals and charities.
- mixed warA war between a nation and private individuals.
- mixed-motive doctrineIn employment law, the rule for a discrimination case where the employer acted partly for a lawful reason and partly…
- mixtionThe mixing of goods so that they can no longer be separated; also the mixture that results.
- mixtum imperiumMixed authority: the power held by subordinate civil magistrates.
- MMIMaximum medical improvement: the point at which an injured person's condition has settled and no further recovery is…
- mobile goodsGoods that normally move from one jurisdiction to another, such as vehicles, rolling stock, and shipping containers.
- Mobile-Sierra doctrineThe rule that the federal energy regulator may not allow a natural-gas producer a rate increase unless the producer's…
- mobiliaMovable things. The word covers chiefly inanimate objects but sometimes animals too.
- mock trialA pretend trial staged so that law students, and sometimes lawyers, can practice advocacy. The phrase also covers a r…
- modal legacyA legacy given with directions about how it is to be applied for the legatee's benefit.
- modeA way of doing something.
- model actA statute drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and offered to the states as a mo…
- Model Code of Professional ResponsibilityA set of ethical rules for lawyers, arranged as canons, disciplinary rules, and ethical considerations. The American…
- model jury chargeA standard form of jury charge, usually approved by a state bar association or similar body, covering matters that ar…
- model jury instructionA ready-made jury charge, usually approved by a state bar association or similar body, covering matters that arise in…
- Model Penal CodeA model criminal code drafted by the American Law Institute, which many states have used as the basis for revising th…
- Model Penal Code testThe Model Penal Code's test for insanity: a person is not criminally responsible if, because of mental disease or def…
- Model Rules of Professional ConductA set of ethical rules for lawyers, some mandatory and some permissive, published with explanatory comments by the Am…
- moderate forceForce neither meant nor likely to cause death or serious injury: force aimed at causing no more than minor harm.
- modiatioA duty once paid on every tierce of wine.
- modificationA change to something; also a qualification or limitation of it.
- Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery SystemThe federal tax method for depreciating business property placed in service after 1986. It sets the recovery period a…
- modified-comparative-negligence doctrineA rule of comparative negligence under which a claimant recovers reduced damages only if their own share of fault is…
- modiusA bushel; also an indefinite measure, as of land.
- modo et formaIn manner and form: the phrase that opened the conclusion of a traverse at common law, putting the other side to proo…
- modusIn criminal procedure, the part of a charging document describing how the offense was committed. In Roman and civil l…
- modus de non decimandoA custom or prescription claimed as a ground for paying no tithes at all.
- modus decimandiA customary way of tithing that departs from the general rule of a tenth part, as by giving a twelfth of the hay, or…
- modus habilisA valid way of doing something, as of proving a debt.
- modus operandiA person's way of working, above all the characteristic method by which a criminal commits a particular kind of offense.
- modus vivendiIn international law, a temporary, provisional arrangement between subjects of international law that binds the parti…
- moebleMovable, as in the phrase for movable goods.
- moietyHalf of something, such as an estate; sometimes a smaller share. In customs law, a payment made to an informer who he…
- moiety actA law providing that half of a fine goes to the informer.
- moleA person who uses long service in an organization to gain access to its secrets and betray them.
- molestationPersecuting or harassing someone, as with a witness; also making unwanted indecent advances, above all for sexual gra…
- molliter manus imposuitFormerly, he gently laid hands upon: a plea in trespass and assault justifying the defendant's use of force as no mor…
- monarchyA government headed by a single ruler, whose powers may range from absolute to purely ceremonial.
- monetagiumThe right to coin money; also a payment a tenant made to persuade the lord not to alter the coinage.
- monetarismThe economic theory that the money supply is the chief influence on the economy, developed by Milton Friedman in the…
- monetaryHaving to do with money: financial.
- monetary bequestA gift of money by will.
- moneyThe medium of exchange a government authorizes as its currency; also assets readily turned into cash, capital investe…
- money bequestA gift of money by will.
- money billA bill that levies or raises taxes. Federal revenue bills must begin in the House of Representatives.
- money brokerA broker who arranges the lending or raising of money for others.
- money changerA person whose business is exchanging one currency for another.
- money claimUnder the English Judicature Act of 1875, money claimed as damages, as for breach of contract or arrears of rent.
- money countA count, usually founded on a simple contract, claiming payment of money.
- money demandA claim for a fixed and certain sum, as opposed to damages a jury must assess.
- money had and receivedAt common law, a claim to recover money paid to the defendant, usually because it was paid by mistake or under pressu…
- money in handCash actually in hand, as opposed to money standing to one's credit in an account.
- money judgmentA judgment for damages that can be enforced at once, as distinct from equitable or injunctive relief.
- money landMoney held on a trust that requires it to be turned into land.
- money madeA sheriff's return on a writ of execution reporting that the sum named in the writ has been collected.
- money marketThe market for short-term negotiable instruments such as commercial paper, certificates of deposit, bankers' acceptan…
- money orderA negotiable draft an authorized body such as a bank or post office sells to a purchaser, used in place of a check to…
- money paidAt common law, a claim to recover money the claimant paid to a third party, rather than to the defendant, where the p…
- money scrivenerA money broker: a person who raises money for mortgages or other loans.
- money supplyThe total amount of money circulating in an economy.
- money-launderingThe federal crime of passing illegally obtained money through legitimate people or accounts so that its origin cannot…
- money-market accountAn interest-bearing account at a bank or other financial institution, usually paying a rate competitive with money-ma…
- money-market fundA mutual fund that invests in short-term, low-risk debt such as Treasury bills, commercial paper, and certificates of…
- money-purchase planAn employee benefit plan giving a benefit based on the total the employer has contributed to a participant's account.…
- moneyed capitalMoney invested with the aim of making a profit.
- moneyed corporationA corporation whose business is done with money capital, especially one such as a bank that lends or exchanges money.
- mongerA seller of goods: a dealer.
- monierAn officer of the mint; also a banker or dealer in money.
- moniesThe medium of exchange a government authorizes as its currency; also assets readily turned into cash, capital investe…
- monitionA warning or caution. In civil and maritime law, a summons to appear as a defendant or to answer a contempt charge. I…
- monitory letterA letter of warning sent by an ecclesiastical judge to those under his authority in answer to reported abuses or scan…
- monocracyGovernment by one person.
- monogamistA person married to only one spouse.
- monogamyThe custom, usual in most modern cultures, of allowing a person only one spouse at a time; also the fact of having on…
- monomachySingle combat: a prearranged fight with deadly weapons between two people under agreed rules, usually before witnesse…
- monomaniaInsanity confined to one subject or class of subjects, the person's reasoning being sound on everything else.
- monopoliumA monopoly: the exclusive right to sell a particular thing.
- monopolizationGaining or holding a monopoly. Under federal antitrust law the offense has two elements: holding monopoly power in th…
- monopolyControl of a market held by one supplier or producer in a given area; the state of affairs where only one firm makes…
- monopoly leveragingThe theory that a firm breaks the antitrust laws when it uses its monopoly in one market to win a competitive advanta…
- monopoly powerThe power to control prices or to shut out competition. The size of a firm's market share is the main indicator of wh…
- monopsonyA market in which a single buyer dominates, so that sellers must deal on its terms.
- Monroe DoctrineThe principle that the United States will allow no non-American nation to intervene in or dominate the Western Hemisp…
- monstrans de droitA showing of right: an old way of obtaining restitution from the Crown, later replaced by the writ of right and today…
- monstrans de faitsA showing of deeds: the production of a document in court to prove a claim.
- monstraveruntA writ giving relief to tenants of ancient demesne whose lord distrained on them to force more service than their ten…
- monthOne of the twelve divisions of the calendar; also any period of about 30 days. At common law it meant 28 days, the ti…
- month-to-month leaseA tenancy running from month to month, which continues until either side gives notice, usually a month, to end it.
- month-to-month tenancyA tenancy that renews itself for successive periods, usually month by month or year by year, until one side gives not…
- Montreal AgreementA private agreement signed by most international airlines, giving up the Warsaw Convention's low cap on liability for…
- monumentA written document or record, above all a legal one; also any natural or artificial object fixed permanently in the g…
- moonlightingWorking at a second job outside the hours of one's regular employment.
- moonshineInformally, illegally distilled liquor, above all whiskey.
- moorageMooring a vessel at a wharf; also the charge for doing so.
- mootIn older usage, open to argument or debatable; in modern usage, of no practical consequence because the dispute has g…
- moot courtA mock court, usually held in law schools, in which students argue hypothetical cases, generally as if on appeal; als…
- moot manA person who argued cases at the Inns of Court.
- mootness doctrineThe principle that American courts will not decide cases in which no live controversy remains.
- mopA fair at which the going rates for labor were announced and workers of both sexes offered themselves for hire.
- moraDeliberate delay or default in performing a legal obligation.
- moral absolutismThe view that an act can always be judged right or wrong in itself, whatever the situation or the consequences.
- moral certaintyCertainty strong enough to convince a reasonable person and to justify acting on it, short of absolute proof. Courts…
- moral considerationConsideration resting on natural love and affection or on a moral duty. It will not usually support the enforcement o…
- moral depravityConduct contrary to justice, honesty, or morality. In legal ethics, offenses involving it, such as fraud or breach of…
- moral duressUnlawful pressure applied by unduly influencing someone or exploiting their weak financial position. It looks to the…
- moral dutyA duty whose breach would be a moral rather than a legal wrong.
- moral evidenceLoosely, evidence resting on belief rather than on complete and absolute proof. It is generally testimony.
- moral fraudConcealment or a false statement, in words or conduct, that harms someone who relies on it.
- moral hazardIn insurance, the risk that having cover will make the insured careless or even dishonest, since someone else will be…
- moral lawA body of principles marking out right and wrong conduct: the standard an act must meet to be right.
- moral necessityA necessity arising from a duty that requires a person to act in a particular way.
- moral obligationA duty resting on conscience alone, which the law will not enforce. In contract law such an obligation may support a…
- moral personAn entity such as a company, created by law and given rights and duties of its own, treated for legal purposes much a…
- moral relativismThe view that there are no fixed or absolute standards of right and wrong.
- moral rightIn copyright law, a right protecting a visual artist beyond ordinary copyright, covering both integrity, the right to…
- moral suasionPersuading someone by appealing to principles of morality.
- moral turpitudeConduct contrary to justice, honesty, or morality. In legal ethics, offenses involving it, such as fraud or breach of…
- moral wrongAn act contrary to natural justice.
- moralityConformity with accepted rules of right conduct; also virtue, above all in sexual matters.
- moratoriumAn authorized postponement, usually a long one, of the time for paying a debt or performing an obligation; also the p…
- moratoryHaving to do with delay, above all with a moratorium.
- moratory damagesIn civil law, damages for delay in performing an obligation. There must be a default before they can be recovered, wh…
- Morgan presumptionA presumption that shifts the burden of proof, so that the party it works against must produce evidence outweighing t…
- morganatic marriageA marriage between a man of high rank and a woman of lower rank, on terms that neither she nor their children may sha…
- morgangivaA gift made to the bride on the morning after the wedding.
- mors naturalisBodily death, as opposed to civil death; also death from natural causes rather than accident or violence.
- mort civileCivil death: the loss by law of civil rights while a person is still alive, as by a life sentence or by entering a re…
- mort d'ancestorFormerly, an assize brought on the death of an ancestor, by which an heir recovered land from whoever had taken posse…
- mortality factorIn life-insurance rate-setting, an estimate from an actuarial table of how many people of each age will die each year…
- mortality tableA chart of statistics showing life expectancy for people in various categories, such as age, family history, and expo…
- mortgageA transfer of title to property as security for a debt or for the performance of a duty, which becomes void once the…
- mortgage bankerA person or firm that makes real-estate loans for a fee, sells them on to others, and collects the monthly payments.
- mortgage bondA bond secured on the issuer's land.
- mortgage brokerA person or firm that markets mortgage loans and brings lenders and borrowers together, without originating or servic…
- mortgage certificateA document showing part ownership of a mortgage.
- mortgage clauseAn insurance-policy clause protecting a mortgage lender's rights in the insured property, usually by directing that t…
- mortgage commitmentA lender's written promise to a borrower setting out the terms on which it will lend for the purchase of particular l…
- mortgage companyA company that makes mortgage loans and then sells or assigns them to investors.
- mortgage deedThe document creating a mortgage. It should name the borrower, use words of grant, name the lender, describe the prop…
- mortgage discountThe gap between the face amount of a mortgage and what it actually sells for; also the up-front charge a lender makes…
- mortgage foreclosureThe sale of mortgaged property after the borrower defaults.
- mortgage insuranceAn agreement to pay off a mortgage if the insured dies or becomes disabled; also an agreement to pay the lender if th…
- mortgage lienA lien on the borrower's property securing the mortgage debt.
- mortgage loanA loan secured by a mortgage or deed of trust over land.
- mortgage marketThe conditions that create demand for new mortgage loans and for the later resale of those loans on the secondary mar…
- mortgage noteA note recording a loan for which land has been given as security.
- mortgage pointOne percent of the face amount of a loan, paid to the lender up front as a service or placement charge.
- mortgage servicingThe administration of a mortgage loan: collecting the payments, releasing liens, and paying the property insurance an…
- mortgage transactionLoosely, any transaction giving security over land, including a deed of trust.
- mortgage warehousingAn arrangement under which a mortgage company holds loans for later resale at a discount.
- mortgage-backed securityA security backed by a pool of mortgages, above all one that passes the borrowers' payments through to the holders.
- mortgage-contingency clauseA clause in a contract for the sale of land making the buyer's obligation depend on getting a mortgage loan.
- mortgage-guarantee insuranceInsurance a lender takes out, at the borrower's cost, to cover the extra risk of a mortgage made with a down payment…
- mortgage-holderThe person to whom property is mortgaged: the lender.
- mortgage-loss clauseA clause providing that the lender's title insurance is not destroyed by anything the borrower does. An act that woul…
- mortgageeThe person to whom property is mortgaged: the lender.
- mortgagee clauseAn insurance-policy clause protecting a mortgage lender's rights in the insured property, usually by directing that t…
- mortgagee in possessionA lender that takes control of the mortgaged land by agreement with the borrower, usually after a default.
- mortgagee policyA title-insurance policy covering the lender's interest alone, not the owner's.
- mortgaging outBuying land with financing that covers the whole purchase price, so that the buyer puts in nothing of their own.
- mortgagorThe person who mortgages property: the borrower.
- mortis causaA gift made in expectation of the giver's imminent death. Three things are needed: the gift must be made in view of a…
- mortmainThe holding of land inalienably by a church or other corporation, so that it never comes back on to the market.
- mortmain statuteA law limiting gifts of land to corporations, above all charitable ones, and forbidding them to hold land forever. In…
- mortuaryA place where bodies are prepared for burial or kept until burial; also a burial place. Formerly, a customary gift cl…
- mortuary tableA chart of statistics showing life expectancy for people in various categories, such as age, family history, and expo…
- mortuum vadiumA dead pledge: a mortgage, so called because the land yielded the lender nothing toward the debt, which stayed alive…
- mortuus civiliterCivilly dead: alive in fact, but stripped by law of civil rights, as by a life sentence or by entering a religious or…
- mortuus estA sheriff's return reporting that the named party has died.
- mortuus sine proleDied without children.
- most favorable lightThe standard for reviewing a verdict under which the court accepts as true all the evidence and inferences supporting…
- most favored nationA treaty status granted to a country, usually in trade, letting it enjoy whatever advantages the other parties to the…
- most suitable useIn valuing land, the use that would bring in the most profit, used above all to fix fair market value where property…
- most-favored-nation clauseA clause by which each of two nations promises to treat the other as well as it treats any nation it gives preferenti…
- most-favored-nation statusA treaty status granted to a country, usually in trade, letting it enjoy whatever advantages the other parties to the…
- most-favored-tenant clauseA clause in a commercial lease promising the tenant the benefit of any concession the landlord grants another tenant.
- most-significant-relationship testIn the conflict of laws, the rule that a court should apply the law of whichever state has the closest connection to…
- most-suitable-use valueIn tax law, the highest and best economic use of a thing. If a farm is worth more as a shopping center, that value go…
- moteerA customary payment or service rendered at the lord's court.
- motherA woman who has given birth to a child or legally adopted one. The word is sometimes read to include a pregnant woman…
- mother countryA nation that founded a colony: the colonial power.
- Mother Hubbard clauseA clause providing that a mortgage secures every debt the borrower may at any time owe the lender. In oil-and-gas law…
- mother-in-lawThe mother of a person's spouse.
- motionA written or spoken application asking a court to make a particular ruling or order; also a proposal made under forma…
- motion for a more definite statementA party's request that the court order the other side to clarify a pleading so vague or ambiguous that a response can…
- motion for a new trialA party's request that the court set aside the verdict and hold a fresh trial, on grounds such as a serious error, mi…
- motion for a protective orderA party's request that the court shield it from abusive treatment by the other side, usually in discovery, as where o…
- motion for a repleaderIn common-law pleading, a losing party's motion after trial asking that the pleadings start again because the issue w…
- motion for directed verdictA party's request that the court give judgment in its favor before the case goes to the jury, on the ground that no r…
- motion for judgment of acquittalA criminal defendant's request, at the close of the prosecution's case or of all the evidence, to be acquitted becaus…
- motion for judgment on the pleadingsA party's request that the court decide in its favor on the pleadings alone, without hearing evidence, as where the o…
- motion for leave to appealA request that an appellate court review an interlocutory order that qualifies under the collateral-order doctrine.
- motion for more definite statementA party's request that the court order the other side to clarify a pleading so vague or ambiguous that a response can…
- motion for new trialA party's request after judgment that the court set the judgment aside and try the case again, on grounds such as ins…
- motion for protective orderA party's request that the court shield it from abusive treatment by the other side, usually in discovery, as where o…
- motion for relief from stayIn bankruptcy law, a request that the court lift or modify the automatic stay so the applicant may act against the de…
- motion for relief from the judgmentA party's request that the court correct a clerical slip in a judgment, so that it says what the court meant, or rele…
- motion for summary judgmentA request that the court give judgment without a trial because there is no genuine dispute about any material fact, s…
- motion in arrest of judgmentA defendant's motion that a substantial error on the face of the record vitiates the whole proceeding and the judgmen…
- motion in limineA pretrial request that inadmissible evidence not be mentioned or offered at trial. A party makes it where even a pas…
- motion to alter or amend the judgmentA party's request that the court correct a substantive error in the judgment, such as a plain mistake of law or fact.…
- motion to compel discoveryA party's request that the court order its opponent to answer a discovery request, as by answering interrogatories or…
- motion to dismissA request that the court throw the case out because it has settled, has been withdrawn, or suffers from a procedural…
- motion to enforce discoveryA party's request that the court order its opponent to answer a discovery request, as by answering interrogatories or…
- motion to lift the stayIn bankruptcy law, a request that the court lift or modify the automatic stay so the applicant may act against the de…
- motion to modify the stayIn bankruptcy law, a request that the court adjust the automatic stay so that the applicant may take some limited ste…
- motion to quashA party’s request that the court set aside a process or step taken by the other side, as in asking that a subpoena be…
- motion to remandIn a case moved from a state court to a federal one, a party's request that it be sent back, usually because the fede…
- motion to strikeIn civil procedure, a party's request that the court delete from an opponent's pleading any insufficient defense or a…
- motion to suppressA request that the court bar the use at a criminal trial of evidence obtained unlawfully.
- motion to transfer venueA request that the case be moved to another district or county, usually because venue was wrong under the rules or be…
- motiveWhat leads a person to act: the reason behind the conduct, as distinct from the intent to do the act itself.
- Motor Carrier ActA federal statute of 1935 bringing interstate motor carriers of freight and passengers under the Interstate Commerce…
- movableProperty that can be moved from place to place, such as personal goods.
- movable estatePersonal property, as opposed to land: the movable part of a person's estate.
- movable freeholdThe land a shore owner gains or loses as the water recedes or advances.
- movable propertyProperty that can be moved from place to place, such as personal goods.
- movantA person who makes a motion to the court.
- moveTo apply to a court for a ruling or order; also to put a proposal under formal meeting procedure.
- moventA person who makes a motion to the court.
- moverInformally, a share whose market price swings sharply.
- moving expenseThe cost of moving house. Where the move is for business reasons, such as a job requiring relocation, most of the cos…
- moving papersThe papers that make up or support a motion in a court proceeding.
- moving violationA breach of a traffic law committed while the vehicle is moving.
- MPMember of Parliament.
- MPCA model criminal code drafted by the American Law Institute, which many states have used as the basis for revising th…
- MPC testThe Model Penal Code's test for insanity: a person is not criminally responsible if, because of mental disease or def…
- MREThe rules of evidence that apply in military law and at courts-martial.
- MSJA request that the court give judgment without a trial because there is no genuine dispute about any material fact.
- MTDA request that the court throw the case out because it has settled, has been withdrawn, or suffers from a procedural…
- MUDA publicly owned corporation or political subdivision that supplies the public with a service such as water, electric…
- mug bookA collection of arrest photographs kept by police to help identify offenders.
- mug shotA photograph of a person's face taken after arrest and booking.
- mulctTo punish by a fine; also to deprive someone of something, above all by fraud.
- mulierIn Roman law, a woman. At different times the word meant a marriageable virgin, a woman who was not a virgin, a wife,…
- muliertyThe status of a legitimate child, as opposed to one born outside marriage.
- multicraft unionA union whose members work in different trades or industries.
- multidistrict litigationIn civil procedure, the practice of moving civil cases pending in different federal districts that share common quest…
- multifariousOf a pleading, improperly running together distinct matters or causes of action; also improperly joining parties. In…
- multilateralInvolving more than two parties.
- multilevel-distribution programA scheme in which a participant pays for the chance to earn money by recruiting new members, and by the recruits' own…
- multimaturity bondA bond the holder may redeem at full value at specified dates before maturity.
- multinational corporationA company operating in two or more countries, able to shift funds and products according to prices and demand, but ex…
- multipartiteOf a document, divided into many parts.
- multiperil policyA policy covering several kinds of loss at once, as a homeowner's policy covers fire, theft, and personal injury.
- multiple accessIn a paternity case, the defense that the mother had other lovers besides the defendant around the time of conception.
- multiple admissibilityThe rule that evidence inadmissible for the purpose it was first offered for may still be admitted if it is relevant…
- multiple countsSeveral separate claims or charges set out in one pleading or indictment.
- multiple damagesDamages a statute sets at a multiple, such as double or treble, of the sum the fact-finder decides is owed.
- multiple dependent claimA patent claim that refers back to more than one earlier claim, narrowing each of them.
- multiple evidenceEvidence with probative value on more than one issue, but usually admitted for one particular purpose.
- multiple hearsayHearsay inside hearsay: an out-of-court statement that itself repeats another out-of-court statement. Each layer must…
- multiple job-holdingWorking at a second job outside the hours of one's regular employment.
- multiple listingA listing under which the agent may let other agents try to sell the property, sharing the commission with whichever…
- multiple offenseAn offense that breaches more than one law, but where each law needs different proof, so that an acquittal or convict…
- multiple sentencesConcurrent or consecutive sentences imposed where a defendant is convicted of more than one offense.
- multiple-party accountAn account with more than one owner holding a present interest in it, such as a joint account, a payable-on-death acc…
- multiplicityIn criminal procedure, the improper charging of the same offense in several counts of an indictment. It offends the F…
- multiplicity of actionsTwo or more lawsuits fighting the same issue against the same defendant.
- multiplied damagesDamages a statute fixes as a multiple, such as double or treble, of the sum the factfinder finds owing.
- Multistate Bar ExaminationThe multiple-choice component of every state's bar examination, covering broad subjects including constitutional law,…
- multistate corporationA corporation incorporated under the laws of two or more states.
- multitalOf legal relations existing among three or more people, above all among a great many.
- multura episcopiA toll a bishop took for grinding corn at his mill.
- mundFormerly, a right of protection or guardianship; also the guardian who held it.
- muneraTenancies at will: holdings that last only so long as the grantor pleases.
- muniA bond issued by a state or local government or one of its units, often to fund local improvements. The interest may…
- municepsA citizen of a Roman municipal town; also a member of such a town's council.
- municipalHaving to do with a city, town, or other local government unit; also having to do with the internal law of a nation,…
- municipal actionAny authorized exercise of governmental power by a municipal officer, board, agency, or other municipal body.
- municipal affairsMatters belonging to the local government of a municipality.
- municipal aidFinancial or other help a municipality gives a private business, usually to persuade it to move there.
- municipal attorneyThe lawyer who advises a municipality and represents it in court.
- municipal bondA bond issued by a state or local government or one of its agencies, such as a state bond funding local improvements.…
- municipal charterThe charter by which a city or town is constituted.
- municipal corporationA city, town, or other local body created by charter from the state and given power to run the state's local affairs…
- municipal corporation de factoA municipal corporation recognized as existing even though it has not fully met the statutory requirements, where the…
- municipal courtA court hearing civil and criminal cases arising within the city where it sits. Its power to give civil judgments is…
- municipal domicileA person's residence in a county or town, as distinct from their state or national domicile.
- municipal electionAn election held to choose the officers of a city or town, or to decide a question put to its voters.
- municipal functionThe duties a municipality owes the people who live in it.
- municipal governmentThe governing body of a city or town, and the powers it exercises over local affairs.
- municipal judgeA local judge with criminal or civil jurisdiction, or both, within a city.
- municipal lawThe ordinances and other law in force within a city, town, or other local body. The phrase also means the internal la…
- municipal lienA lien a city imposes on a property owner for their share of a public improvement that specially benefits that property.
- municipal officerA person holding a municipal office, usually created by statute or charter, who may have to take an oath and exercise…
- municipal ordinanceA law made by a city or town council. Municipal governments may pass ordinances on whatever matters the state allows…
- municipal securityA bond issued by a state or local government or one of its units, often to fund local improvements. The interest may…
- municipal utility districtA publicly owned corporation, or a political subdivision, that supplies the public with a service such as water, elec…
- municipal warrantAn order to draw money from a municipality's treasury to pay its expenses or debts.
- municipalityA city, town, or other local political body formed by charter from the state, with authority of its own to run the st…
- municipiumIn Roman law, a self-governing town: a community allied with or conquered by Rome that was allowed to keep certain pr…
- munimentA document, such as a deed or charter, evidencing the rights or privileges of a person, family, or company.
- muniment houseA room, as in a castle or cathedral, where title deeds and other evidences of title were kept.
- muniment of titleDocumentary evidence of title, such as a deed or a judgment about the ownership of property.
- murderThe killing of a person with malice aforethought. At common law murder had no degrees, but many state statutes now di…
- murder by tortureA murder preceded by the deliberate infliction of pain and suffering on the victim.
- murder of the first degreeMurder that is willful, deliberate, and premeditated, or committed during another grave felony such as rape, kidnappi…
- murder oneMurder that is willful, deliberate, and premeditated, or committed during another grave felony such as rape, kidnappi…
- murderousMarked by an intent to kill, or done with malice aforethought.
- murdrumIn Norman England, a fine laid on the hundred or tithing where a man was found slain, unless it could produce the kil…
- musterTo assemble troops for inspection or service, or to gather people for enlistment.
- muster rollA shipmaster's list of everyone employed on board, with their age, nationality, and rating. In wartime it is used to…
- mutationA basic change in something, above all in property law a change in a thing's status, as from separate property to com…
- muteA person who cannot speak; also a prisoner who stands silent when required to plead. Formerly a jury decided whether…
- mutilationRendering a document legally ineffective by cutting, tearing, burning, or erasing an essential part of it, short of d…
- mutilatorA person who mutilates something.
- mutinyA revolt by members of the armed forces, above all sailors, against the authority of their commanders. Loosely, any r…
- Mutiny ActAn English statute passed each year from 1689 to 1879 authorizing a standing army and punishing mutiny, desertion, an…
- mutualDirected by each toward the other: reciprocal. Of a promise or covenant, given and received on both sides; of a right…
- mutual accountAn account recording dealings running both ways between the parties, with debits and credits on each side.
- mutual affrayA fight on equal terms, entered into willingly by two people armed with deadly weapons in a moment of passion rather…
- mutual assentAgreement by both parties to a contract, usually through offer and acceptance. Modern contract law judges it objectiv…
- mutual associationA cooperative savings and loan association owned by its depositors, whose deposits are their shares. It may not issue…
- mutual combatA fight both sides agree to on equal terms, springing from sudden passion rather than self-defense, between two peopl…
- mutual companyA company owned by its customers rather than by a separate body of shareholders. Many insurance companies and federal…
- mutual contractA contract in which each side promises something, so that each is bound by their own promise and entitled to the othe…
- mutual debtsDebts of the same kind and quality owed by each of two people to the other.
- mutual demandsClaims each party has against the other at the same time, which may be set off one against the other.
- mutual fundAn investment company that pools its shareholders' money and invests it in a spread of securities; loosely, a share i…
- mutual insuranceA system of insurance, above all life insurance, in which the policyholders are the members of the company, each payi…
- mutual insurance companyAn insurance company owned by its policyholders, who are both insurers and insured, paying premiums into a common fun…
- mutual mistakeA mistake in which each party misunderstands what the other intends; also a mistake both parties share and rely on. A…
- mutual promisesPromises exchanged at the same time by two parties, each promise serving as the consideration for the other.
- mutual rescissionAn agreement by contracting parties to release each other from what remains to be performed and bring the contract to…
- mutual savings bankA savings bank owned by its depositors rather than by shareholders, whose profits are returned to them as interest or…
- mutual testamentsWills made by two or more people on the same plan, each disposing of property in a way that matches the others.
- mutual willOne of two wills, made by two people, that mirror each other and dispose of their property on the same plan.
- mutual-agreement programA prisoner-rehabilitation scheme under which the prisoner agrees to take part in stated self-improvement activities i…
- mutual-benefit associationA fraternal or social organization that provides benefits to its members, usually funded by assessments on them.
- mutual-benefit insuranceThe benefits a mutual-benefit association pays when a loss occurs.
- mutuality doctrineThe old collateral-estoppel requirement that a party could not be barred from relitigating an issue unless both parti…
- mutuality of assentThe agreement of both parties to a contract, usually shown by offer and acceptance and judged by what their words and…
- mutuality of contractThe agreement of both parties to a contract to be bound in some way.
- mutuality of debtsIn bankruptcy law, for the purpose of setoff, the state of affairs where debts run both ways between parties acting i…
- mutuality of estoppelThe collateral-estoppel principle that a judgment binds in a person's favor only where the opposite result would have…
- mutuality of obligationThe agreement of both parties to a contract to be bound in some way.
- mutuality of remedyThe availability of a remedy, above all specific performance, to both sides of a transaction, once usually required b…
- mutuantThe person who supplies the goods in a mutuum.
- mutuaryThe person who receives the goods in a mutuum.
- mutuumA transaction in which goods are handed over not to be returned but to be replaced later by others of the same kind.…
- mysterious disappearanceThe loss of property in circumstances so baffling that no one can explain how it happened. Insurance policies use the…
- mystic testamentA secret will that the testator signs, seals, and hands to a notary before three to seven witnesses, declaring it to…
- mystic willA will the testator keeps secret, signing it and handing it sealed to a notary before witnesses, with a declaration t…