Terms beginning with R
1,131 headwords
- RAn abbreviation for the reigning monarch, standing for either Rex or Regina, used in the titles of cases brought by t…
- rabbinical divorceA divorce granted under rabbinical authority.
- race actA recording statute under which whoever records first takes priority, whether or not they knew of an earlier unrecord…
- race of diligenceIn bankruptcy law, a first-come, first-served scramble for the debtor's assets.
- race statuteA recording statute under which whoever records first takes priority, whether or not they knew of an earlier unrecord…
- race to the courthouseIn bankruptcy, the scramble among creditors to stake claims on assets before the others, which the Bankruptcy Code is…
- race-notice statuteA recording statute under which the first to record, without notice of any earlier unrecorded claim, takes priority.…
- racheterTo buy back, or to ransom.
- racial discriminationThe treating of people differently because of their race, whether by a law or by an established practice. Federal law…
- rackAn instrument of torture on which a person was slowly stretched, once used in questioning those charged with crime.
- rack-rentRent equal or nearly equal to the full annual value of the property: an excessively high rent.
- racketOrganized criminal activity, above all extorting money by threats or violence; also a dishonest scheme or business.
- racketeerA person who engages in racketeering.
- Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ActA federal law of 1970 aimed at organized crime, allowing the investigation and prosecution of those who take part in…
- racketeeringOrganized crime of the traditional kind, extorting money from businesses by intimidation or violence; also, in the mo…
- raffleA form of lottery in which each participant buys one or more chances to win a prize.
- raidA sudden descent by law-enforcement officers, usually to make an arrest or search for evidence; also a business's or…
- raiderA person or company that tries to seize control of another company against its wishes by buying its stock and replaci…
- railroadTo carry by train; also to rush a measure through a legislature with little time for debate, or to convict someone ha…
- railroad companyA company organized to build, maintain, and operate railroads.
- railroad corporationA company formed to build, maintain, and run railroads.
- railroad-aid bondA bond a public body issues to fund the building of a railway.
- railway easementThe right to build and run a railway or road across another's land, and the strip of land so used.
- Railway Labor ActA federal law of 1926 giving transportation workers the right to organize free of interference from management and se…
- rainmakerA lawyer who brings in a great deal of business for a firm, usually through wide contacts among clients.
- raiseTo increase in amount or value; also to gather or collect, as to raise funds, and to put forward a point for decision.
- raised checkA check whose face amount has been fraudulently increased after it was written.
- raising an instrumentThe fraudulent alteration of a negotiable instrument, above all a check, so as to increase the sum payable.
- rake-offA share taken out of a transaction, above all an illegal one: a bribe or a skimming of profits.
- rallyA sharp rise in prices or trading after a falling market.
- RAMA mortgage under which the lender pays out money over time to give the borrower, usually an older person, a regular i…
- Rambo lawyerA lawyer, above all a litigator, who uses aggressive or improper tactics and shows no courtesy to opponents.
- rangeIn United States government surveys, a strip of public land running north and south, made up of a row of townships si…
- rangerFormerly, an officer of a royal forest who patrolled it, drove out stray animals, and prevented trespass; also a ward…
- rankA person's official position or standing, as in the armed forces.
- rank and fileThe enlisted members of an armed force, as distinguished from the officers; also the ordinary membership of a union.
- ransomThe freeing of a captured person or property in exchange for a price; also the money demanded or paid for it.
- ransom billIn international law, a contract by which a ship or cargo captured at sea in wartime is ransomed, in exchange for rel…
- rapResponsibility for a criminal act; also a criminal charge or conviction.
- rap sheetInformally, a person's criminal record.
- rapeAt common law, unlawful sexual intercourse by a man with a woman not his wife, by force and against her will, which r…
- rape shield statuteA statute limiting the use, in a rape or sexual-assault case, of evidence about the victim's past sexual conduct.
- rape under ageSexual intercourse with a person under the age of consent, whether or not they agreed. Generally only an adult can be…
- rapinaThe forcible taking of another's movable property with intent to make it one's own.
- rapineThe forcible seizing and carrying off of another's property: plunder.
- rapport a successionIn civil law, the bringing back into an estate of property an heir received from the deceased in advance, so that the…
- rapporteurAn official who reports a committee's proceedings to a larger body, above all a legislature.
- rapprochementThe establishing or restoring of cordial relations between nations.
- raptu haeredisFormerly, a writ for the carrying off of an heir held in socage.
- raptu virginumA writ for the carrying off of a woman or girl against her will.
- raptureThe forcible seizing and carrying off of a person: abduction.
- rapuitRavished: a word once used in indictments for rape.
- RARA revenue agent's report, setting out the changes a tax audit has produced.
- rasureThe scraping of a document's surface to remove the writing: erasure.
- ratableProportionate; also capable of being valued or apportioned, or liable to be taxed.
- ratchet theoryThe principle that in exercising its enforcement power under the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress may enlarge the Amend…
- rateA proportion or relative value; also the amount charged for a good or service.
- rate baseThe value of the investment or property on which a company, above all a utility, is allowed to earn a set rate of ret…
- rate of interestThe percentage a borrower must pay the lender for the use of money, usually stated as a yearly percentage of the prin…
- rate of returnThe yearly income from an investment, stated as a percentage of the sum invested.
- ratepayerA person who pays local taxes.
- ratificationThe confirming and adopting of an earlier act, which makes it valid from the moment it was done. In contract law, a p…
- ratihabitioRatification, above all a principal's approval of what an agent has done.
- ratio decidendiThe rule of law on which a decision rests; also the rule a later court takes to have been the basis of an earlier dec…
- ratio legisThe reason or purpose behind a law.
- ratiocinationThe process of reasoning.
- rationabile estoveriumFormerly, a reasonable allowance for maintenance, above all one made to a wife out of her husband's estate.
- rationabili parte bonorumFormerly, a writ letting a dead man's wife and children recover a reasonable share of his goods from his executors on…
- rationabilibus divisisA writ to settle the boundary between landowners of different towns where one claimed the other had trespassed.
- rational-basis testThe rule that a law survives an equal-protection challenge if it bears a reasonable relationship to some legitimate g…
- ratione impotentiaeBy reason of helplessness: once the ground for claiming property in young wild animals too undeveloped to run or fly…
- ratione lociBy reason of place: once the ground for claiming property in rabbits and hares on one's land.
- ratione privilegiiBy reason of privilege: the ground on which someone entitled to hunt over another's land claimed property in the game…
- ratione rei sitaeBy reason of where a thing is situated: the ground on which the courts of a place claim jurisdiction over property th…
- ratione soliBy reason of the soil: the ground for claiming property in bees and other creatures found on one's land.
- rationes decidendiThe rules of law on which decisions rest, as distinguished from remarks made in passing.
- ratteningThe taking away of tools or destruction of machinery to force a worker to join a union or an employer to follow union…
- ravishTo carry a person off by force, or to rape them.
- ravishmentThe forcible seizing and carrying off of a person, above all a woman: abduction; formerly also used of rape, a use no…
- re-funding bondA bond issued to pay off an existing bond.
- re-upTo re-enlist in the armed forces; also to sign an extension of a contract, above all one of employment.
- reaIn civil and canon law, a female defendant.
- reacquired stockStock a company issued and then bought back, which it either cancels or holds. Some states have dropped the classific…
- readjustTo adjust something again, above all to reorganize a company's finances without a court's involvement.
- readjustmentA voluntary reorganization of a financially troubled company by the shareholders themselves, without a trustee or rec…
- reaffirmationThe approving again of something already decided. In bankruptcy law, an agreement by which the debtor promises to pay…
- reaffirmation hearingIn bankruptcy law, a hearing at which the debtor and a creditor put a reaffirmation of a dischargeable debt before th…
- realRelating to land and buildings and other things that cannot be moved. In civil law, attached to a thing rather than a…
- real accountAn account recording assets and liabilities rather than receipts and payments.
- real actionAn action to recover land or other real property, particularly one to recover possession of a freehold estate.
- real assetProperty that has a physical existence and its own value, such as land, buildings, or equipment, as distinct from a f…
- real authorityAuthority a principal has genuinely given an agent, whether expressly or by implication, as opposed to authority the…
- real chattelA property interest less than a freehold, such as a leasehold. The most important is an estate for years in land, tre…
- real contractFormerly, a contract under which money or other property passed from one party to the other. In Roman law, from which…
- real covenantA covenant that, because it concerns the land itself, binds every later owner indefinitely. The land cannot be convey…
- real defenseA defense good against any claimant, so that the maker or drawer of a negotiable instrument may raise it even against…
- real earningsEarnings adjusted for inflation, so as to show what they will actually buy.
- Real estateThe rate at which property will let or sell on the market at a given time.
- real estate ownedProperty a lender has taken, usually by foreclosure, in satisfaction of a debt.
- Real Estate Settlement Procedures ActA federal law requiring lenders to give home buyers information about the known or estimated costs of closing.
- real evidencePhysical evidence, such as a wound or a weapon, that itself played a direct part in the events in question.
- real incomeIncome adjusted for inflation or deflation, so that it shows what the money will actually buy.
- real lawThe law of real property; in civil law, the law relating to things rather than to persons.
- real moneyMoney with metallic or other intrinsic value, as opposed to paper currency that is worth only what the government say…
- real party in interestThe person the substantive law entitles to enforce the right sued on, who generally, though not always, benefits from…
- real propertyLand and whatever grows on, is attached to, or is built on it, apart from anything that can be removed without harmin…
- real rateAn interest rate adjusted to strip out the effect of inflation.
- real rightA right in a thing itself, good against the world, as opposed to a right against a particular person.
- real securitySecurity consisting of a mortgage or other charge over land.
- real servitudeA servitude that burdens one piece of land for the benefit of another, so that it passes with the land rather than be…
- real statuteIn civil law, a law dealing with property rather than with persons or acts.
- real suretyshipA suretyship in which particular property may be taken but the surety is not personally answerable in damages.
- real thingsProperty that is fixed and cannot be moved, such as land and buildings.
- real wagesWages measured in purchasing power, found by dividing money wages by a price index.
- real wrongAn injury to a freehold interest in land.
- real-estate agentAn agent representing a buyer or seller, or with proper disclosure both, in the sale or letting of land. Such an agen…
- real-estate brokerA broker who negotiates sales and other agreements, such as mortgages or leases, between buyers and sellers of land.…
- real-estate investment trustA company that invests in and manages a portfolio of real estate, distributing most of its income to shareholders. It…
- real-estate mortgage trustA real-estate investment trust that deals in mortgages rather than in property itself.
- real-estate syndicateA group of investors who pool their money to buy and sell land, usually organized as a limited partnership or an inve…
- real-estate-mortgage investment conduitAn entity holding a fixed pool of mortgages or mortgage-backed securities, which issues interests in itself to invest…
- realignmentThe court's rearranging of the parties as claimants and defendants according to their real interests, usually when de…
- realizationThe turning of non-cash assets into cash. In tax law, an event such as a sale or exchange that so changes a taxpayer'…
- realized gainA gain that has actually been made, because the asset has been sold or exchanged.
- realized lossA loss that has actually been suffered, because the asset has been sold or exchanged at less than its cost.
- realtorA member of the National Association of Realtors, whose name is a service mark; loosely, any real-estate agent or bro…
- realtyLand and whatever grows on, is attached to, or is built on it, apart from anything that can be removed without harmin…
- reapportionTo divide something again, above all to redraw legislative districts so that representation matches population.
- reapportionmentThe redrawing of a legislative district's boundaries to reflect changes in population, which the Supreme Court has he…
- reargueTo argue a case again before the same court.
- reargumentThe putting of further arguments to a court that has already heard the case, usually suggesting that it overlooked a…
- rearrestAn arrest without warrant of someone who has escaped custody, broken parole or probation, or failed to appear in cour…
- reason to knowInformation from which a person of ordinary intelligence, or of whatever greater intelligence they have, would infer…
- reasonableFair and moderate in the circumstances; also in accordance with reason.
- reasonable accommodationA change made to accommodate a person's disability, so long as it imposes no undue hardship on the party making it. U…
- reasonable careFor deciding negligence, the care that a prudent and competent person in the same line of work would take in the same…
- reasonable causeReasonable ground to suspect that a person has committed or is committing a crime, or that a place holds particular i…
- reasonable diligenceThe degree of care a person of ordinary prudence would take in circumstances like those in question.
- reasonable doubtDoubt that keeps a factfinder from being firmly convinced of the defendant's guilt: a real possibility that the defen…
- reasonable forceForce that goes no further than is needed and fits the job of protecting oneself or one's property. Using force withi…
- reasonable groundsReasonable ground to suspect that a person has committed or is committing a crime, or that a place holds particular i…
- reasonable manThe hypothetical person the law measures conduct against, above all in deciding negligence: one who acts sensibly, wi…
- reasonable medical probabilityIn proving what caused an injury, the standard requiring a showing that the injury was more likely than not caused by…
- reasonable noticeNotice that may fairly be expected, or that the circumstances require.
- reasonable personThe hypothetical person the law measures conduct against, above all in deciding negligence: one who acts sensibly, wi…
- reasonable royaltyA payment made to an author or inventor for each copy sold under a copyright or patent, set at what a willing license…
- reasonable suspicionA particular and objective basis, resting on specific facts that can be articulated, for suspecting a person of crimi…
- reasonable timeThe time reasonably needed to do what a contract requires, judged by the circumstances. Where the parties fix no time…
- reasonable useUse of one's property for a proper purpose that does not unreasonably interfere with another's use of theirs.
- reasonable-expectation doctrineIn insurance law, the rule that an ambiguity in a policy is resolved in favor of what the insured reasonably expected.
- reasonable-inference ruleThe rule that a jury deciding a case may draw any reasonable inference from the evidence put before it.
- reasonable-use theoryIn property law, the rule that owners of riparian land may make reasonable use of the water so long as they do not de…
- reasonably prudent personThe hypothetical person the law measures conduct against, above all in deciding negligence.
- reassuranceThe insuring by one insurer of all or part of a risk with a second insurer, who takes it on in return for a share of…
- rebateA return of part of a payment, by way of discount or reduction.
- rebellionOpen, organized, armed resistance to an established government; also open opposition to authority generally.
- rebus sic stantibusIn civil and international law, the principle that an agreement binds only so long as the circumstances in which it w…
- rebutTo answer or disprove something by evidence or argument.
- rebuttable presumptionAn inference drawn from facts that make out a prima facie case, which contrary evidence may displace.
- rebuttalThe contradicting in court of an opponent's evidence; also the time allowed a party to put in such contradicting evid…
- rebuttal evidenceEvidence offered to disprove or contradict what the other side has put forward.
- rebuttal witnessA witness called to contradict evidence already given.
- rebutterIn common-law pleading, the defendant's answer to the claimant's surrejoinder, which the surrebutter might in turn an…
- recallThe removal of a public official by popular vote; also a manufacturer's request that consumers return a defective pro…
- recall electionAn election in which voters may remove a public official from office before the term ends.
- recall exclusionA clause in some commercial general liability policies excluding cover for the cost of withdrawing, inspecting, repai…
- recantTo withdraw or take back an earlier statement or testimony, formally or publicly.
- recapitalizationA recasting of a company's capital structure, its shares, bonds, and other securities, by exchanging one class for an…
- recaptionThe peaceful retaking of one's own property, without going to court, from someone who wrongfully took it; at common l…
- recaptureThe retaking or recovery of something. In tax law, the government's clawing back of a benefit such as a deduction or…
- recapture clauseA contract clause capping prices or allowing goods to be recovered if market conditions turn out very differently fro…
- receding marketA securities market in which prices fall over a long stretch.
- receiptThe taking of something; also a written acknowledgment that something has been received.
- receiptorA person who takes from a sheriff property seized in garnishment and undertakes to give it back on demand or on execu…
- receivableCapable of being received or accepted; of a debt, awaiting payment.
- receiverA disinterested person a court appoints to hold and protect property that is the subject of competing claims, as wher…
- receiver generalA public officer in charge of a government's receipts and treasury.
- receivershipThe state of being under a receiver's control; also the receiver's office, and the proceeding in which a court appoin…
- receiving stateThe country to which a diplomat or consul is sent by the country they represent.
- receiving stolen propertyThe offense of acquiring or controlling property known to have been stolen by another. Some places also require a wro…
- recens insecutioFormerly, fresh pursuit of a thief immediately on discovering the theft.
- receptionThe adopting by one jurisdiction, wholly or in part, of another's law.
- receptitiousOf property, kept by the wife and not included in the dowry; of a dowry, one agreed to be returned to the giver on th…
- receptusAn arbitrator, so called because the parties have received them as the person to decide.
- recessA short break in court proceedings; also an interval between sittings of a legislature.
- recessionA period of sharply slowing economic activity, with falling employment, investment, and consumer spending.
- RechtLaw in general; also a body of law, or a right or claim.
- RechtsphilosophieThe branch of legal philosophy concerned with the ethical significance and adequacy of law, bringing moral and legal…
- recidivateTo fall back into criminal behavior.
- recidivationA tendency to fall back into criminal behavior.
- recidivismA tendency to fall back into criminal behavior.
- recidivistA person convicted of repeated offenses, usually of a similar kind: a repeat offender.
- reciprocalDirected by each toward the other: mutual; also binding on both parties, or corresponding.
- reciprocal contractA contract in which each side promises something, so that each is bound by their own promise and entitled to the othe…
- reciprocal dealingAn arrangement in which a buyer with the greater economic power agrees to buy from a seller only if the seller buys s…
- reciprocal exchangeAn association whose members insure one another, exchanging contracts and paying premiums through an attorney-in-fact…
- reciprocal insuranceAn arrangement in which several people or businesses, acting through an agent, underwrite each other's risks, so that…
- reciprocal insurance exchangeAn association whose members insure one another, exchanging contracts and paying premiums through an attorney-in-fact.
- reciprocal interinsurance exchangeAn association whose members insure one another, exchanging contracts and paying premiums through an attorney-in-fact.
- reciprocal negative easementAn easement arising where a landowner sells part of the land and restricts the buyer's use of it, and the same restri…
- reciprocal trade agreementAn agreement between two countries to trade goods with each other on lower tariffs and better terms than either allow…
- reciprocal trustA pair of trusts in which each party is the beneficiary of a trust the other set up. Spouses commonly create them.
- reciprocal willOne of two wills, usually made by a husband and wife, in which each makes matching provisions in favor of the other.
- reciprocityMutual action; also the granting of matching advantages or privileges between countries or states, in trade or in pro…
- recisionOne party's unmaking of a contract for a good legal reason, such as the other's serious breach, which puts both back…
- recissionOne party's unmaking of a contract for a good legal reason, such as the other's serious breach, which puts both back…
- recitalAn account of some fact; also a preliminary statement in a contract or deed explaining the background of the transact…
- reciteTo set out formally in a document, above all in the opening statements of a contract or deed.
- recklessCreating a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm to others while consciously disregarding it. Reckless conduct g…
- reckless disregardConscious indifference to the consequences of an act. In defamation law, a serious indifference to whether what is pu…
- reckless drivingThe offense of driving in a way that shows conscious indifference to the safety of others.
- reckless endangermentThe offense of putting another person at substantial risk of death or serious injury. It exists only by statute, not…
- reckless homicideA killing caused by conduct so reckless of the risk to human life that the law treats it as criminal, though the kill…
- reckless knowledgeA defendant's awareness that a forbidden circumstance may well exist, coupled with a decision to run the risk anyway.
- reckless negligenceA want of even slight care: a deliberate act or omission in reckless disregard of a legal duty and of the consequence…
- recklesslyIn a reckless manner: knowing the risk and going on regardless.
- recklessnessConduct in which the actor does not want the harm but foresees the possibility and consciously runs the risk. It is w…
- reclamationThe improving of useless land by physical works, such as irrigating a desert; in commercial law, a seller's limited r…
- reclusionImprisonment as punishment for a crime, above all in solitary confinement or at hard labor.
- recognitionThe acknowledging that something is what it claims to be: that an act done by another was authorized, that a person o…
- recognition clauseIn real-estate law, a clause protecting the buyers of individual lots in a subdivision if the developer defaults on t…
- recognition picketingPicketing by a union to press an employer to accept it as the employees' bargaining agent.
- recognition strikeA strike to force an employer to recognize the union as the employees' bargaining agent. Such strikes became largely…
- recognitorFormerly, a member of a jury empaneled on an assize or inquest.
- recognizanceAn obligation entered into before a court by which a person promises to do something, such as appear when called, pay…
- recognized gainA gain that must be brought into account for tax, as opposed to one the law allows to go unrecognized.
- recognized lossIn tax law, the part of a loss that actually reduces taxable income.
- recognized marketA market where the goods traded are many and alike, where haggling is unusual, and where prices paid for comparable i…
- recognizeeThe person in whose favor a recognizance is made.
- recognizorThe person bound by a recognizance.
- recollectTo call something back to mind.
- recollectionThe calling of something back to mind, above all by conscious effort; also the thing recalled.
- recompensableAble to be compensated for.
- recompenseRepayment or compensation for something, above all an injury or loss.
- reconciliationThe restoring of harmony between people who have been in conflict; in family law, the voluntary resumption of full ma…
- reconciliation statementAn accounting statement in which discrepancies between two sets of figures are adjusted and explained.
- reconductionIn civil law, the renewal of a lease. In international law, the forcible return of foreign nationals to their country…
- reconsiderationThe taking up of a matter again.
- reconsignmentA change in the terms of a consignment while the goods are still in transit.
- reconstructionThe rebuilding or reorganizing of something. In patent law, the rebuilding of a worn-out patented article so thorough…
- recontinuanceThe resuming or renewing of something; also the recovering of an incorporeal right of which the holder had been wrong…
- reconventionThe making of a counterclaim.
- reconventional demandA counterclaim by which a defendant asserts a claim of their own against the claimant in the same action.
- reconversionThe undoing of an earlier notional conversion of land into money or money into land, so that the property is treated…
- reconveyanceThe returning of something, above all an estate or title, to a former owner.
- recordAn account of past events made to preserve them; information written down or stored in a medium from which it can lat…
- record agentA person authorized by an insurer to sell its policies and bind it by recording the risk.
- record dateThe day on which a shareholder must own the shares to be entitled to vote or to receive a dividend.
- record noticeNotice the law treats a person as having of the contents of a properly recorded document, such as a deed or mortgage.
- record on appealThe official account of what was said and done in a case, on which an appeal proceeds.
- record ownerThe owner in whose name the title stands in the public records; also the person the issuer's books show as holding st…
- record titleThe title as it appears in the public records once the deed has been properly recorded.
- recordaIn England, the records containing the judgments and pleadings in cases tried before the barons of the Exchequer.
- recordalThe recording of an instrument, such as a deed or mortgage, in a public registry. Recording generally protects the ho…
- recordareA writ to bring up on appeal a judgment given by a justice of the peace.
- recordari facias loquelamFormerly, a writ by which a replevin suit could be moved from a county court to a superior court.
- recordationThe recording of an instrument, such as a deed or mortgage, in a public registry. Recording generally protects the ho…
- recorded recollectionA document about events a witness once knew but can no longer remember. Though hearsay, it may be admitted, or read i…
- recorderFormerly, a magistrate with criminal jurisdiction in certain British cities; also a municipal judge with the criminal…
- recorder of deedsA county officer who keeps the public record of deeds and other instruments affecting land.
- recorder’s courtA court with jurisdiction over felony cases, surviving in only a few places.
- recording actA law setting out the requirements for recording a deed or other interest in property and the rules for deciding prio…
- recording agentA person authorized by an insurer to sell its policies and bind it by recording the risk.
- recording statuteA law setting out the requirements for recording a deed or other interest in property and the rules for deciding prio…
- recordo et processu mittendisA form of writ of error, requiring the record and proceedings to be sent up.
- recordumA record, above all a judicial one.
- recoupmentThe recovering of something, above all expenses; also the withholding, on equitable grounds, of part of what is due,…
- recourseThe seeking of help; also the enforcing of a right, above all the right of the holder of a negotiable instrument to d…
- recourse loanA loan that lets the lender, on default, both seize the collateral and sue the borrower or guarantor for any shortfal…
- recourse noteA note on which the holder may look to the debtor's other assets as well as to the collateral if it is not paid.
- recoverTo get back what was lost; also to obtain something by a judgment, to obtain a judgment in one's favor, or to succeed…
- recoverableCapable of being recovered, above all as a matter of law.
- recovereeThe party against whom judgment is given in a common recovery.
- recoverorThe party who obtains judgment in a common recovery.
- recoveryThe regaining of something lost; also the obtaining of a right, above all to damages, by judgment, and the amount so…
- recriminationIn a divorce suit, a counter-charge that the complaining spouse has themselves done something that would be a ground…
- recriminatoryMaking a counter-charge of the same kind against one's accuser.
- recross-examinationA second cross-examination, following redirect examination.
- recta gubernatioGovernment in which the highest power, however strong, is neither arbitrary nor unaccountable, deriving from a law ab…
- rectificationA court's correcting of a written contract so that it expresses what the parties actually agreed, as where a lease mi…
- rectification of boundariesAn action to settle or correct the boundary between two adjoining pieces of land.
- rectification of registerA procedure by which someone wrongly entered in or left out of a register can compel the keeper to put it right.
- rectifyTo correct a written agreement so that it expresses what the parties actually intended.
- rectitudoA right or legal due; also a tribute or payment.
- recto de advocationeA writ restoring a person's right to present a clerk to a benefice where that right had been interfered with. It was…
- recto de rationabili parteFormerly, a writ by which one coparcener or blood relative holding land in fee simple could obtain their rightful sha…
- recto patensAn open writ of right, issued to the lord of whom the land was held, requiring him to do right between the parties.
- rectorIn church law, the spiritual head and presiding officer of a parish church.
- rector sinecureA rector who holds the living without the cure of souls.
- rectumRight; also a trial or an accusation.
- rectusOf a line of descent, straight or direct.
- rectus in curiaFormerly, free from charge or offense: competent to appear in court and entitled to the benefit of the law.
- recuperatioFormerly, the judicial restoring of something wrongfully taken or withheld.
- recuperatoreIn Roman law, a special judge appointed to decide disputes between citizens and foreigners quickly, whose jurisdictio…
- recusableOf an obligation, arising from a voluntary act and capable of being avoided; of a judge, liable to be disqualified fr…
- recusalThe stepping aside of a judge or official from a matter, above all because of a conflict of interest.
- recusantRefusing to submit to authority or obey a command.
- recusationIn civil law, an objection, above all one alleging that a judge is biased or has a conflict of interest; also a judge…
- recuseTo step aside as judge in a case because of bias or a conflict of interest; also to object to a judge as disqualified…
- recusementThe stepping aside of a judge or official from a matter, above all because of a conflict of interest.
- red herringSomething raised to divert attention from the real issue.
- red tapeA bureaucratic procedure that must be gone through before official action can be taken, above all rigid adherence to…
- red-herring prospectusA preliminary prospectus, so called from the red lettering on its cover warning that the registration statement is no…
- redactionThe editing of a document to remove confidential or objectionable material; also the edited document.
- reddendoA clause in a charter setting out a duty or service owed by a vassal to a superior, and the service so specified.
- reddendo singula singulisAssigning separate things to separate persons, or separate words to separate subjects: a rule of construction used to…
- reddendumA clause in a deed by which the grantor reserves something new, above all rent, out of what has been granted.
- redditionAn acknowledgment in court that one does not own the property demanded and that it belongs to the person claiming it.
- redditusA revenue or return, above all rent.
- redeemable bondA bond the issuer may call in for payment before maturity.
- redeemable securityA security, other than a short-term note, which on presentation to the issuer entitles the holder to a share of the i…
- redeemable stockPreferred stock the issuing company may call in and retire.
- redeliveryThe giving back or returning of something.
- redelivery bondA bond a claimant gives in order to seize property held by the defendant before judgment in a replevin action; also,…
- redemiseTo convey back an estate that has already been leased or granted.
- redemptio operisIn civil law, a contract by which a worker agrees to do a piece of work for an agreed price.
- redemptionThe buying back of something, above all by paying a set price. In bankruptcy, a debtor's right to buy property back f…
- redemption periodThe period a statute allows a defaulting borrower to recover property after a foreclosure or tax sale by paying off t…
- redemption priceThe price at which the issuer may buy a bond back before maturity; also the price a mutual fund pays a shareholder wh…
- redemptionerA person who redeems, above all one who redeems land under the equity or the statutory right of redemption.
- redeundoReturning, or while returning.
- redevanceDues owed by a tenant to the lord, not necessarily in money.
- redhibereTo give a defective purchase back to the seller; also, of a seller, to take it back.
- redhibitionIn civil law, the undoing of a sale because the thing sold has a defect that makes it useless, or so far from what wa…
- redhibitory actionAn action to undo a sale of goods so defective that they are useless, or so flawed that the buyer would never have bo…
- redimereTo buy back; also, to obtain someone's release by payment, or to ransom.
- redirect examinationA second questioning of one's own witness after the other side's cross-examination, usually confined to matters the c…
- rediscountThe discounting again of a negotiable instrument that has already been discounted, as where a bank sells on paper it…
- rediscount rateThe rate at which a member bank may borrow from the Federal Reserve on a loan secured by commercial paper the bank ha…
- redisseiseTo dispossess again someone whom one has already put out of the same land.
- redisseisinA second dispossession of the same person from the same estate by the same wrongdoer; also the writ for recovering th…
- redisseisinaA writ by which someone who had already recovered land or rent by an assize of novel disseisin could recover it again…
- redistributionThe distributing of something over again on a new basis.
- redistrictTo divide an area into new districts, above all electoral ones.
- redistrictingThe redrawing of legislative district boundaries to reflect population change. The Supreme Court requires districts t…
- reditusA revenue or return, above all rent.
- redliningA lender's refusal, usually unlawful, to make loans on property in neighborhoods it has written off, typically along…
- redraftA fresh bill drawn by the drawer after the first one has been dishonored.
- redressRelief for a wrong; also the means by which such relief is sought.
- reduction to practiceIn patent law, the actual building or working of an invention that shows the inventor's idea produces the intended re…
- reenactment ruleThe rule that a legislature reenacting a statute is taken to adopt the settled court and agency readings of it.
- reenterTo go back onto land and retake possession of it.
- reentryThe retaking of possession of land by someone who formerly held it and reserved the right to take it back; also, a la…
- reeveFormerly, a local officer of some standing: the chief magistrate of a hundred, who served process, kept the peace, an…
- reexaminationA second questioning of one's own witness after cross-examination, usually confined to matters the cross-examination…
- reexchangeA fresh exchange; also the recovering of the costs caused by the dishonor of a bill of exchange abroad, and those cos…
- reexecutionThe equitable remedy of restoring a lost or destroyed deed or other instrument. If the claimant proves a right under…
- reexportThe exporting again of goods that were imported; also the goods so sent out.
- reextentA second valuation of land, made on complaint that the first was improperly done.
- refectionIn civil law, the repair or restoration of a building.
- refereeAn officer a court appoints to help with part of a case. In some places a referee takes the evidence and then reports…
- referee in bankruptcyA federal officer who used to administer bankruptcy cases. The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 abolished the post and p…
- referenceThe sending of a matter to someone else for information, advice, or decision, above all the sending of a case to a ma…
- reference statuteA statute that adopts the provisions of another statute simply by referring to them.
- referendariusAn officer who received petitions to the emperor and carried back the answers.
- referendo singula singulisMatching separate things to separate persons, or separate words to separate subjects: a rule of construction used to…
- referendumThe putting of a legislative act, a constitutional amendment, or an important public question to the voters for final…
- referralThe sending of a person or matter on to someone else for information, service, or decision.
- referral sales contractA pair of linked agreements: the consumer buys goods or services, usually at an inflated price, and the seller promis…
- refinancingThe replacing of an old debt with a new one, as by taking a different rate or term or paying off the existing loan wi…
- reformTo correct a written contract so that it says what the parties actually agreed; also, of a court, to adjust the words…
- reformationThe equitable remedy by which a court rewrites a written agreement to reflect what the parties actually intended, usu…
- reformative punishmentPunishment aimed at changing the offender's character.
- reformatoryA penal institution for young offenders.
- refoulementThe sending of a refugee back to a country where they face persecution, which international law forbids.
- refreshing recollectionIn the law of evidence, the reviving of a witness's memory by showing them a document about the events. The document…
- refugeeA person who flees or is driven out of a country, above all because of persecution, and seeks safety in another.
- refundThe giving back of money to someone who paid too much, such as a taxpayer whose employer withheld more tax than was o…
- refund annuityAn annuity under which, on the annuitant's death, the estate receives the difference between the purchase price and t…
- refundingThe financing of capital spending by issuing long-term debt, or the turning of short-term obligations into long-term…
- refunding bondA bond assuring an executor that a legatee will hand back what they were given if the remaining assets prove too smal…
- refus de justiceIn international law, a failure in a country's courts or administration of justice so serious that it breaches the co…
- refusalThe rejecting of something offered or demanded; also the chance to take or leave something before it is offered to an…
- refusal to dealA company's declining to do business with another. A business may refuse to deal, so long as the refusal is not part…
- refusal to payAn insurer's refusal to pay a claim without proper grounds, above all on mere suspicion rather than hard facts that t…
- refutantiaA release or acknowledgment giving up all future claims.
- refuteTo prove a statement false, or a person wrong.
- regale episcoporumThe temporal rights and revenues attached to a bishopric.
- regaliaFormerly, the rights held by the Crown under feudal law.
- regardAttention or consideration; also, formerly in England, an official inspection of a forest to find out whether trespas…
- regardantAttached to a particular manor.
- regarderAn officer who inspected a forest to find out whether trespasses had been committed.
- regencyThe office of a regent or body of regents, the government they carry on, and the period during which they govern.
- regentA person who rules a kingdom while the sovereign is a child, absent, or otherwise unable to rule; also a member of th…
- regicideThe killing of a king; also the person who kills one, above all a subject of that king.
- regimeA system of rules or of government.
- ReginaRex or Regina: the Crown, and so the prosecution in criminal proceedings in a monarchy.
- regional securities exchangeA securities exchange dealing mainly in stocks and bonds of local interest, such as the Boston, Philadelphia, and Mid…
- registerAn official who keeps public records.
- register in bankruptcyA federal officer who administered bankruptcy cases under the earlier bankruptcy acts, later replaced by the referee…
- register of actionsThe court's running list of the papers filed and steps taken in each case.
- Register of CopyrightsThe federal official in charge of the Copyright Office, which issues copyright regulations and processes registration…
- register of deedsA public official who records deeds, mortgages, and other instruments affecting land.
- register of land officeA federal officer appointed for each land district to keep the local records and handle the sale or other disposal of…
- register of shipsA record kept by the customs authorities giving the names and owners of merchant ships and other key particulars. A s…
- Register of the TreasuryAn officer of the Treasury who kept the accounts of public receipts and spending, recorded the public debt, signed an…
- register of willsA public official who records probated wills, issues letters testamentary and letters of administration, and acts gen…
- register tonnageThe cargo-carrying capacity of a ship, officially measured and entered in the register, used above all for taxes and…
- register’s courtFormerly, a probate court in Pennsylvania.
- registered agentSomeone authorized to accept service of court papers for another, especially for a company, in a particular jurisdict…
- registered bondA government or corporate obligation to pay money, evidenced by a single certificate given to the creditor and record…
- registered brokerA broker registered, or required to be registered, under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
- registered checkA check bought at a bank and drawn on funds the bank has set aside to meet it.
- registered corporationA company that has registered its securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and so must meet the period…
- registered dealerA dealer registered, or required to be registered, under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
- registered mailMail that the Postal Service records when posted and at each stage of its journey, so as to guarantee safe delivery.
- registered offeringA public offering of securities registered with the federal securities regulator and with the appropriate state autho…
- registered organizationAn organization formed under state or federal law, of which the government must keep a public record showing that it…
- registered public offeringA public offering of securities registered with the SEC and with the state securities commissions concerned.
- registered representativeA salesperson licensed to handle securities orders for customers on behalf of a brokerage firm.
- registered securityA security whose owner is recorded in the issuer's books, so that dividends and proxies can be sent to the right pers…
- registered stockStock whose owner is recorded in the issuer's books, so that dividends and proxies can be sent to the right person.
- registered tonnageThe cargo-carrying capacity of a ship, officially measured and entered in the register.
- registered trademarkA trademark recorded with the Patent and Trademark Office, usually marked with the ® symbol.
- registered voterA person qualified to vote whose name is entered on the roll for the district where they live.
- registrantA person who registers something, above all to secure a right the law grants on registration.
- registrarA person who keeps official records, above all the school official who keeps academic and enrollment records.
- Registrar of CopyrightsThe federal official in charge of the Copyright Office, which issues copyright regulations and processes registration…
- registrar of deedsA public official who records deeds, mortgages, and other instruments affecting land.
- registrarii liberFormerly, the register's book in chancery, containing all the decrees.
- registrationThe entering of something on an official record.
- registration statementThe document of detailed information the SEC requires before corporate securities may be sold to the public. It conta…
- registrum breviumFormerly, the register of writs.
- registrum judicaleFormerly, the register of judicial writs.
- registryThe official record itself, or the office where it is kept; in maritime law, the list of ships subject to a particula…
- regnalOf or relating to a monarch's reign.
- regnal yearA year of a monarch's reign, counted from the day the monarch came to the throne. Before 1963, British statutes were…
- regnantReigning, or holding rule.
- regrantThe granting of something again, above all the renewing of a grant of property.
- regratingThe buying up of goods, above all necessary provisions, in order to resell them at a higher price in or near the same…
- regressThe going back to a place, and the right to go back; formerly also the right to be repaid or compensated.
- regressive taxA tax whose rate falls as the amount taxed rises. A flat tax such as a sales tax counts as regressive, despite its co…
- regulaA rule.
- regula catonianaIn Roman law, the rule that the passing of time cannot cure something void from the start. Named after Cato, it was u…
- regula placitandiFormerly, a rule of pleading.
- regular armyThe permanent military establishment, kept up in peacetime as well as in war.
- regular course of businessThe normal routine of running a trade or business.
- regular electionAn election held at regular intervals; also, an election for all the seats at once, as opposed to a by-election.
- regular incomeIncome received at fixed or stated intervals.
- regular life policyA life policy requiring fixed annual premiums for life and paying out only on the insured's death.
- regular meetingA yearly gathering of a company's shareholders to elect directors and handle other routine business.
- regular processProcess issued lawfully and in the prescribed form.
- regular sessionA sitting held at fixed intervals or at times the law appoints.
- regular termA term of court begun at the time the law appoints and continued, as the court sees fit, until it lawfully adjourns.
- regular useIn insurance law, a use that is normal and customary rather than occasional or incidental. The phrase matters in moto…
- regulateTo control by rule.
- regulationThe controlling of something by rule; also a rule adopted by a body for its own governance, or a rule with the force…
- Regulation AAn SEC rule exempting smaller public offerings from full registration, now allowing up to $75 million to be raised in…
- Regulation DAn SEC rule exempting certain offerings, such as private placements, from registration under the Securities Act of 1933.
- Regulation JA Federal Reserve Board rule governing the collection of checks and the transfer of funds through member banks.
- Regulation QA Federal Reserve rule, made under the Banking Act of 1933, that capped the interest banks could pay on deposits and…
- Regulation TA Federal Reserve rule limiting the credit a broker or dealer may extend to a customer, and setting the initial margi…
- Regulation UA Federal Reserve rule limiting the credit a bank may extend to a customer who buys or carries securities on margin.
- Regulation XThe Department of Housing and Urban Development rule that carries out the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.
- Regulation ZThe Federal Reserve rule that carries out the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act, requiring lenders to disclose t…
- regulatory agencyA public body given power to make and enforce rules governing an industry or activity.
- regulatory offenseA crime created by statute, as opposed to one known to the common law.
- regulatory searchA search of business or public premises by a regulatory body to check compliance with health, safety, or security rul…
- rehabilitationIn criminal law, the effort to change an offender's character and outlook so that they can live in society without of…
- rehabilitative alimonyAlimony to help a divorced person get back on their feet and play a useful part in society, through vocational or oth…
- rehearingA further hearing of a case or appeal, usually to consider an error or omission in the first.
- reiOf a thing or a matter: the possessive form of the Latin res, found in phrases such as rei vindicatio.
- rei interventusSteps taken by one party to a contract with the other's agreement, amounting to part performance, so that the other c…
- reifIn Scots law, robbery.
- reificationThe treating of an abstract idea as though it were a physical thing. In civil procedure, the pinning down of the disp…
- reifyTo treat an abstract idea as though it were a physical thing.
- reimbursementRepayment of what someone has laid out; indemnification.
- reimbursement alimonyAlimony repaying a spouse who during the marriage made financial contributions that directly boosted the other's futu…
- reinscriptionA second or renewed recording of a mortgage or other title document.
- reinstateTo put someone back in a position or condition they formerly held.
- reinsuranceInsurance of all or part of one insurer's risk by a second insurer, who takes it on in return for a share of the orig…
- reinsurance treatyA standing, usually long-term, reinsurance contract covering whole classes of the reinsured's business, under which t…
- reinsuredAn insurer that passes all or part of a risk it has underwritten to a reinsurer, usually along with a share of the or…
- reinsurerAn insurer that takes on all or part of a risk underwritten by another insurer, usually in exchange for a share of th…
- reinvested dividendA dividend used to buy further shares in the company instead of being taken in cash.
- reinvestmentThe adding of interest earned back to the principal; also a further investment, above all the use of dividends or oth…
- reissuable noteA note that may be put back into circulation after it has once been paid.
- reissueThe issuing again of something already issued, such as a corrected patent or a fresh batch of securities.
- reissue patentA patent issued to correct an error in an original patent, whether by revising the specification or fixing an invalid…
- REITA company that invests in and manages a portfolio of real estate and passes most of its income to its shareholders. I…
- rejectTo refuse to accept something offered, above all an offer of a contract or goods tendered under one.
- rejectionThe refusing of a contractual offer; also a buyer's refusal to accept goods tendered as performance. Under the Unifor…
- rejoinderIn common-law pleading, the defendant's answer to the claimant's reply.
- related goodIn trademark law, a product that infringes a mark because it looks as though it comes from the same source, even thou…
- related proceedingIn bankruptcy law, a proceeding on a claim that will affect the administration of the estate, such as a tort claim be…
- relation backThe rule that a later act is treated as having happened at an earlier time. In federal civil procedure, for instance,…
- relativeA person connected with another by blood or marriage.
- relative factA minor fact that goes along with another fact.
- relative nullityIn civil law, a defect that makes a transaction voidable only at the instance of the person the rule protects, as opp…
- relative powerA power that relates directly to land, as distinguished from a collateral power.
- relative rightA right that avails against a particular person, matching a duty that person owes, as opposed to a right good against…
- relative-convenience doctrineThe rule that a court may refuse an injunction or other equitable relief where granting it would put one party to gre…
- relatorThe person with the real interest in whose name a state or attorney general sues; also the applicant for a writ such…
- relaxatioA document by which one person gives up a right or claim to another.
- releaseThe giving up of a right or claim against the person it could have been enforced against; also the document that does…
- release clauseIn a blanket mortgage, a clause letting the borrower free a particular parcel from the mortgage by paying more than t…
- release deedA deed issued once a mortgage has been paid off, expressly releasing and reconveying to the borrower the whole intere…
- release of mortgageA recorded document discharging a mortgage once the borrower has paid in full, showing that the borrower now owns the…
- release on recognizanceThe release of an arrested person before trial on their own promise, usually in writing, to come back to court, witho…
- release to usesA conveyance by deed of release from one party to another for the benefit of the first party or of a third person.
- releaseeA person who is released, whether from custody or from an obligation; also the person to whom an estate is released.
- releasorA person who releases property or gives up a claim to another.
- relegatioBanishment of a citizen or convicted person, for a time or for good, without full loss of civil rights or property.
- relegationBanishment, above all for a time; also the handing over of a matter to someone else.
- relevanceThe quality of bearing on the question at issue.
- relevancyThe quality of bearing on the question at issue.
- relevantLogically connected to a matter in issue and tending to prove or disprove it.
- relevant artThe field of knowledge one could reasonably be expected to search for a solution to the problem a patented device add…
- relevant evidenceEvidence tending to prove or disprove a matter in issue. Such evidence is both probative and material, and is admissi…
- relevant marketIn antitrust law, a market capable of being monopolized: one in which a firm could push prices above the competitive…
- relianceThe acting on the faith of another’s statement or conduct, which the law protects where the other meant it to be acte…
- reliance damagesDamages for the losses the claimant incurred in reliance on the contract.
- reliance interestThe interest a party who kept the bargain has in recovering what they spent in reliance on the contract being performed.
- reliance-loss damagesReimbursement for losses or expenses the claimant suffered in reliance on the defendant's contractual promise that wa…
- relictA surviving spouse, above all a widow.
- relicta verificationeFormerly, a confession of judgment in which the defendant gave up the defense pleaded and let judgment go against them.
- reliefWhat a party asks a court to give: the redress or benefit sought, whether damages or something equitable such as an i…
- religionA system of faith and worship, usually resting on belief in a supreme being and carrying a moral code. In applying th…
- Religion ClauseIn the First Amendment, the words forbidding Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion or proh…
- religion, freedom ofThe right to hold any religion or none, to practice or not practice it, and to be free of government interference wit…
- religious corporationA corporation formed to carry out a religious purpose.
- religious libertyThe freedom, guaranteed by the First Amendment, to hold and express any religious opinion or none, and to take part i…
- relinquishmentThe giving up of a right or a thing.
- reliquaWhat is left owing on a debt once the account has been balanced.
- relitigateTo litigate a matter over again.
- relocatioIn civil law, the renewal of a lease.
- relocationThe moving of a person or thing to a new place. In mining law, the staking of a fresh claim over a tract, whether by…
- relyTo act on the faith of another's statement or conduct.
- remA thing, in the accusative form used in phrases such as in rem, meaning against the thing itself rather than against…
- remainderIn property law, a future interest given to someone other than the grantor or the grantor's heirs, to take effect whe…
- remainder bequestA gift of what is left of the estate after the debts, legacies, and specific gifts have been paid.
- remainder interestThe property that passes to a beneficiary once an intervening income interest ends. If land is held in trust with the…
- remainder subject to divestmentA vested remainder that will be cut off if a stated event happens, as in a grant to A for life, then to B, but to C i…
- remainder subject to openA vested remainder given to one member of a class that may grow, so that the holder may later have to share it, as in…
- remaindererA person entitled to a remainder.
- remaindermanA person entitled to a remainder.
- remainorA person entitled to a remainder.
- remake rightsIn copyright law, the right to make further films or screenplays from substantially the same story as the one covered…
- remandThe sending of a case, claim, or person back for further action; also the order that does so.
- remanent pro defectu emptorumFormerly, the words a sheriff used in returning a writ of execution to say that the seized goods remained unsold for…
- remanentiaA remainder, or something lasting.
- remanetA case whose hearing has been put off; also a remnant.
- remarginTo put up further cash or collateral when the equity in a margin account has fallen too low.
- remarginingThe putting up of further cash or collateral with a broker when the equity in a margin account has fallen below the r…
- remediableCapable of being put right, above all by law.
- remedialProviding a remedy or a means of redress; also meant to correct or lessen a wrong or defect, or concerned with enforc…
- remedial actionIn environmental law, action to bring about or restore long-term environmental quality, especially a measure under CE…
- remedial enforcementA right given by procedural law to enforce a substantive right, such as the right to damages for breach of contract.
- remedial lawA law that gives a means of enforcing rights or redressing injuries; also one passed to correct an existing law, abov…
- remedial liabilityLiability arising from a proceeding with no punitive object. Proceedings for specific enforcement and for restitution…
- remedial promiseA seller's promise to repair or replace goods, or to refund the price, if they do not match the contract or a represe…
- remedial reliefRelief, above all in a settlement, that requires the defendant to take corrective steps rather than pay damages, as w…
- remedial rightA right that exists to enforce another right, such as the right to damages for a breach, as opposed to the primary ri…
- remedial statuteA law that provides a remedy.
- remedial trustA trust a court imposes on someone who has obtained property by wrongdoing, so that they cannot keep the benefit. It…
- remediesThe branch of law dealing with how rights are enforced and wrongs put right.
- remedyThe means of enforcing a right or of preventing or making good a wrong, whether at law or in equity.
- remedy overA remedy that rests on a right of indemnity or subrogation. A city held liable for injuries caused by a defect in a s…
- remedy, mutuality ofThe old rule that equity would not order specific performance for one party unless it could have ordered it against t…
- réméréIn civil law, a seller’s reserved right to buy the property back.
- REMICA pool of mortgages held in trust and financed by several classes of securities, taxed once in the investors' hands r…
- remiseTo give up or release a right or interest.
- remissionThe cancelling of all or part of a debt or claim.
- remitTo pardon or forgive; also to lessen, to send a matter to another authority for decision, above all to send a case ba…
- remittanceThe sending of money to another person or place, and the money so sent.
- remittance adviceNotice that money has been sent, usually by mail, in payment for goods or services.
- remitterThe rule that someone holding an estate under two titles, who took possession under the later or weaker one, is treat…
- remitting bankA paying or intermediary bank that pays or passes on an item during collection.
- remittiturThe reducing by a court of the damages a jury has awarded, or the offer of a lower sum in place of a new trial; also…
- remittitur of recordThe sending of the record of a case back from an appellate court to the trial court, and the notice by which it is done.
- remonetizationThe restoring of a precious metal such as gold or silver to use as legal tender.
- remonstranceA setting out of reasons for objecting to something; also the document that does it, above all a formal protest again…
- remoteFar off in time, place, or connection; also slight. In property law, beyond the period of a life in being plus twenty…
- remote causeA cause too distant from the harm to have brought it about directly or inevitably.
- remote damagesDamages so uncertain that a court will not award them.
- remote possibilityA limitation depending on two or more contingent and uncertain events: a possibility upon a possibility, which the la…
- removalThe moving of a person or thing from one place to another; also the transfer of a case from a state court to a federa…
- removal actionIn environmental law, and above all under the federal Superfund statute, a short-term measure to contain and clean up…
- removal bondA bond covering duties that may be owed by someone taking goods out of a warehouse for export; also, in some states,…
- removeTo transfer a case from one court to another, above all from a state court to a federal one; also to put a person out…
- REMTA real-estate investment trust that deals in mortgages rather than in property itself.
- remunerationPayment for work or services; also the making of such payment.
- rencounterA hostile meeting, or a fight.
- renderA payment in money, goods, or services made by a feudal tenant to the lord; also a conveyance back from the grantee t…
- rendezvousA place appointed for meeting, above all of troops or ships; also the meeting itself.
- renditionThe giving out of something, such as a court's decision; also the handing over of a fugitive to the state where they…
- rendition of judgmentThe judge's ruling, spoken or written, that states the judgment given.
- rendition warrantA warrant asking that a fugitive be handed over from one jurisdiction to another.
- renegeTo break a promise or back out of a deal.
- renegotiable-rate mortgageA government-sponsored mortgage whose terms must be renegotiated every three to five years in light of market conditi…
- renegotiationThe negotiating of something again on fresh terms; also the reopening of a government contract to strip out or recove…
- renewTo take up an agreement again for a further period on the same terms.
- renewable term insuranceInsurance the holder may carry on at the end of a term, usually at a higher premium, and generally without a fresh me…
- renewalThe restoring of something; also the making of a fresh contract in place of an old one, as opposed to merely extendin…
- renewal noteA note that carries on an obligation already due under an earlier note.
- renounceTo give up a right or interest formally; also to refuse to obey or recognize something.
- rentWhat is paid, usually at regular intervals, for the use or occupation of property, above all land or buildings.
- rent chargeA right to an annual sum out of the income of land, usually forever, with the right to take back possession if the pa…
- rent controlA limit, usually set by a city ordinance, on the rent a landlord may charge, often coupled with limits on the power t…
- rent of landsWhat is paid for the use or occupation of land, as distinct from a rent charged on its income.
- rent seckA rent reserved by deed but with no power to seize goods if it goes unpaid.
- rent serviceA rent that carries some service with it, such as fealty, and a right to seize goods if it goes unpaid.
- rent strikeA concerted refusal by tenants to pay rent until their complaints against the landlord are dealt with.
- rent-a-judgingA form of dispute resolution in which the parties hire a private person to hear and decide the case, either by agreem…
- rent-seekingEffort spent on capturing a larger share of existing wealth, as by lobbying for a favorable rule, rather than on crea…
- rentchargeA right to an annual sum out of the income of land, with the right to take back possession if the payments fall into…
- renteIn French law, annual income or rent.
- rente foncièreIn French law, a perpetual rent payable for the use of land.
- rente viagereA rent charge or annuity payable for the holder's life.
- renteeRarely, a tenant.
- rentierA person who owns rentes; also anyone who lives on income from property or investments.
- rents, issues, and profitsThe whole income arising from owning or holding property.
- renunciationThe giving up of a right, openly or by conduct, without passing it to anyone else. In criminal law, the complete and…
- renvoiThe rule that a court turning to a foreign law takes that law's own conflict-of-laws rules with it, which may send th…
- REOProperty a lender has taken over, usually through foreclosure, in satisfaction of a debt.
- reorganizationIn bankruptcy, the financial restructuring of a company, above all of its debts, under a plan the court approves.
- reorganization bondA bond issued when a company is reorganized.
- reorganization planThe plan under which a company in bankruptcy restructures its debts and capital, which the creditors vote on and the…
- reparable injuryAn injury that money can adequately make good.
- reparationThe making of amends for a wrong; also the compensation itself, above all for damage in war or for breach of an inter…
- reparative injunctionAn injunction ordering the defendant to put the plaintiff back in the position they held before the wrong was done.
- repealThe doing away with an existing law by a later legislative act.
- repealerA statute that does away with an earlier one; also a person who works for a repeal.
- repealing clauseA provision in a statute repealing an earlier one.
- repeat offenderA person convicted of a crime more than once.
- repeaterA person convicted of several offenses, usually of a similar kind.
- repetitionIn civil law, a claim for the return of what was paid or given.
- repetitum namiumFormerly, a second or reciprocal seizure of goods.
- repetundaeMoney or goods a public official extorted as a bribe, which the giver may reclaim; also the offense of extorting them.
- replacement costWhat it would cost to acquire an asset as useful or productive as the one now held.
- replacement insuranceInsurance under which a loss is measured by what it would cost to replace the property now, rather than by its deprec…
- replacement-cost depreciation methodA depreciation method that fixes an asset's value by what it would cost to replace it.
- repleadTo plead again, above all to file a fresh pleading correcting a defect in the earlier one.
- repleaderIn common-law pleading, an order made on the motion of the losing party requiring both sides to plead afresh because…
- replegiareTo take something back on giving pledge or security.
- repleviableCapable of being recovered by replevin.
- replevinA suit to get back personal property wrongfully taken or kept, in which the claimant gives security and holds the goo…
- replevin bondA bond a claimant gives in order to seize property held by the defendant before judgment in a replevin action; also,…
- replevin in cepitA replevin action where the goods were both wrongfully taken and wrongfully kept.
- replevin in detinetA replevin action where the goods were lawfully taken but are now wrongfully kept.
- replevisableCapable of being recovered by replevin.
- replevy bondA bond a defendant in a replevin action gives in order to get the seized property back while the case goes on. It doe…
- repliantA party who files a replication, the common-law reply.
- replicatioThe claimant's answer to the defendant's plea.
- replicationThe claimant's answer to the defendant's plea or answer.
- replication de injuriaIn common-law pleading, a reply by which the claimant denies the whole substance of a plea that offers nothing but a…
- replication per fraudemIn common-law pleading, a reply alleging that the discharge the defendant pleads was obtained by fraud.
- replyIn federal civil procedure, the claimant's response to a counterclaim, or to an answer where the court orders one. In…
- reply briefA brief answering the issues and arguments raised in the brief the other side has already filed.
- repoA short-term loan dressed as a sale: one party sells a security and promises to buy it back on a set date at a set pr…
- reportA formal account of facts, spoken or written.
- report of proceedingsA written copy of the evidence given at a trial or hearing, taken down by the court reporter.
- reported decisionA reported decision cited for the proposition it establishes.
- reporterA person who prepares and publishes a report, above all the officer who publishes a court's decisions.
- reporter of decisionsThe officer who publishes a court's opinions, often also checking citations, correcting spelling and punctuation, and…
- reporting companyA company that, because its securities are publicly traded, must meet the reporting requirements of the Securities Ex…
- reportsThe published volumes in which a court's decisions appear.
- Reports, TheThe thirteen volumes of case law that Sir Edward Coke published in the seventeenth century.
- reposeRest, or the ending of activity; also the period fixed by statute after which no action may be brought, even if it ru…
- repositoryA place where things are kept or stored.
- repossessTo take back goods sold on credit when the buyer fails to pay.
- repossessionThe taking back of property, above all a seller's taking back of goods sold on credit when the buyer fails to pay.
- representationA statement of fact, by words or conduct, made to get someone to act, above all to enter into a contract.
- representation electionAn election the National Labor Relations Board holds to decide whether a particular union will represent the employee…
- representation, estoppel byAn estoppel arising where someone's statement or admission leads another to believe something and that other reasonab…
- representativeA person who stands or acts for another.
- representative actionA lawsuit in which one person or a small group represents the interests of a much larger group. It also covers a suit…
- representative capacityThe standing of one who acts for another under delegated authority.
- repressive taxA tax set high enough to discourage the activity taxed rather than to raise money.
- reprieveThe putting off for a time of a criminal sentence, above all a death sentence.
- reprimandIn professional responsibility, a disciplinary sanction imposed after formal charges that declares a lawyer's conduct…
- reprisalIn international law, the use of force short of war against another country to answer a wrong that country has done.
- repriseA yearly deduction or payment out of a manor or estate, such as an annuity.
- reprobateTo condemn or reject as unworthy.
- reprobationThe raising of an objection, as to a witness's competence or the sufficiency of the evidence.
- reprobatorIn Scots law, formerly, a proceeding to disqualify a witness or to overturn the evidence of an objectionable one.
- reproduction rightThe copyright owner's exclusive right to make copies or recordings of the protected work. Copying without permission…
- reproductive rightsA person's rights over their own procreation: the civil liberties bearing on pregnancy, abortion, and sterilization,…
- republicA form of government in which sovereign power rests with the people, who elect representatives to exercise it. It sta…
- republicanOf or relating to a republic, above all in the constitutional guarantee to every state of a republican form of govern…
- republicationThe publishing of something again. In the law of wills, the reviving of a revoked will by going through the formaliti…
- republishTo revive a revoked will, whether by executing it afresh, by adding a codicil, or by revoking the later will that can…
- repudiateTo reject an obligation, above all to make plain that one will not perform a contract. Formerly, to divorce or disown…
- repudiateeThe party to a contract that the other party has repudiated.
- repudiationWords or conduct by which a contracting party shows they do not mean to perform, amounting to a threatened breach.
- repudiatorA person who repudiates, above all a party who repudiates a contract.
- repugnancyAn inconsistency between two parts of a legal document such as a contract or statute.
- repugnantInconsistent with, or contradictory to.
- repugnant verdictA verdict that contradicts itself, convicting and acquitting the defendant of different crimes made up of identical e…
- repurchaseThe buying of something back, above all a company's buying back of its own shares at market price.
- repurchase agreementA short-term loan dressed as a sale: one party sells a security and promises to buy it back on a set date at a set pr…
- repurchase priceThe price at which the issuer buys back a bond before maturity, or at which a mutual fund buys back a shareholder's s…
- reputationThe regard in which a person is held by others. Evidence of reputation may be used to prove character wherever charac…
- reputation evidenceEvidence of what others think a person to be. It may be offered to prove character where character is in issue, or us…
- reputational evidenceEvidence of what others think a person to be, admissible to prove character where character is in issue or is used ci…
- reputed manorA manor whose demesne lands and services have been wholly separated, so that it is a manor only in name.
- request for admissionIn pretrial discovery, a written statement of fact served on another party, who must admit it, deny it, or object. Ma…
- request for instructionsA party's written request that the judge direct the jury on the law in the terms set out in the request.
- request for productionIn pretrial discovery, a written demand that another party hand over specified documents or things for inspection and…
- request to admitIn pretrial discovery, a written statement of fact served on another party, who must admit it, deny it, or object.
- request to chargeA party's written request that the judge direct the jury on the law in the terms set out in the request.
- required noticeNotice a court or statute requires before a particular step may be taken.
- required reserveThe share of its deposits a bank must hold in cash or with the central bank rather than lend out.
- required-records doctrineThe rule that the privilege against self-incrimination does not cover business records a person must keep under gover…
- requirements contractA contract in which the seller promises to supply all the goods or services the buyer needs over a set period at a se…
- requisitionA formal demand made with authority; also a government's taking of property for public use.
- requisitionistA person who makes a formal demand, as for performance of an obligation or the return of a fugitive.
- requisitory letterA document one court issues to a court abroad, asking it to take evidence from a named person or to serve process the…
- rere-countyA lesser English county court the sheriff held on the day after the regular county court.
- resA thing, interest, or status, as opposed to a person; also the property that makes up a trust.
- res adjudicataA matter already decided, which cannot be litigated again between the same parties.
- res communesThings common to all, such as air and running water, which no one can own.
- res gestaeThe events in question and what happened around them at the time. In the law of evidence, statements made as part of…
- res gestae witnessA witness who was at the scene and can give a firsthand account of what happened.
- res judicataA matter already judged. Once a court of competent jurisdiction has given final judgment on a claim, the same parties…
- res litigiosaeIn civil law, things that are the subject of a pending lawsuit.
- res mancipiIn Roman law, the class of property that could pass only by the formal ceremony of mancipation: Italian land, slaves,…
- res mobilesIn civil law, movable things.
- res nec mancipiIn Roman law, property that could be transferred without the formal ceremony of mancipation.
- res quotidianaeIn civil law, everyday matters and familiar questions.
- resaleThe selling to someone else of goods already sold to a buyer who broke the contract; also a retailer's selling on to…
- resale-price maintenanceA form of price-fixing in which a manufacturer makes or persuades its retailers to sell at the same price, so that th…
- resceitThe letting in of an interested third party to plead in a case between two others.
- rescindTo cancel a contract, either alone for good cause or by agreement; also to annul or repeal.
- rescindableCapable of being rescinded.
- rescissioIn civil law, the annulling of something.
- rescissionOne party's unmaking of a contract for a good legal reason, such as the other's serious breach, which puts both back…
- rescissoryServing to rescind or undo a transaction.
- rescissory damagesDamages meant to put the claimant back in the position they occupied before the defendant's wrongdoing, whether by re…
- rescriptA judge's written direction to the clerk on how to dispose of a case; also an appellate court's short, usually unsign…
- rescueThe saving of someone from danger or captivity; also the unlawful freeing by force of a person under arrest or in pri…
- rescue clauseIn marine insurance, a clause under which the insurer meets the costs the insured runs up in protecting the insured p…
- rescue doctrineIn tort law, the rule that someone whose negligence puts a person in danger is also liable to anyone hurt while tryin…
- rescussuA writ against a person who forcibly took back goods that had been lawfully distrained.
- research and developmentA company's work to create or improve its products or services, above all by finding new technology or advancing what…
- reseiserThe Crown's retaking of lands where a livery or ouster le main had been misused.
- resentencingThe imposing of a fresh sentence in place of the original one.
- reservationThe keeping back by a grantor of a new right, such as an easement, in land being conveyed to another.
- reserve accountAn account of money a lender holds and builds up to pay taxes, insurance, or other recurring charges on a property.
- reserve bankOne of the twelve regional banks of the Federal Reserve System, which holds member banks' reserves and issues currency.
- Reserve BoardThe board that runs the Federal Reserve System and sets national monetary and credit policy. It has seven members, ap…
- reserve clauseA clause in a professional athlete's contract limiting the right to move to another team, even after the contract end…
- reserve priceThe lowest price the seller will accept at an auction, announced in advance.
- reserve ratioThe share of its deposits the Federal Reserve requires a member bank to hold in reserve.
- reserved easementAn easement the seller of land creates to benefit the land they keep and to burden the land they sell.
- reserved point of lawAn important or difficult point of law arising at trial that the judge sets aside for later argument, so that the evi…
- reserved powerA power that a constitution neither lists nor forbids, and which therefore remains with the states or the people.
- Reserved Power ClauseThe Tenth Amendment, ratified with the Bill of Rights in 1791, which leaves to the states or the people any power the…
- reserved surplusThe part of a company's surplus set aside for a particular purpose.
- resetIn Scots law, the receiving of stolen goods meaning to keep them from the owner; in older usage, the sheltering of a…
- resettlementThe settling of people in a new or former place; also the reopening of an order or decree to correct a mistake or sup…
- resiantLiving continually in a place.
- residenceThe living in a given place for a time, and the place where a person actually lives, as opposed to their domicile. Re…
- residencyThe fact of living in a given place, and the official residence itself.
- residentA person who lives in a particular place. A resident need be neither a citizen nor domiciled there.
- resident agentA person appointed to receive court papers on behalf of another, above all a company, in a particular state.
- resident alienAn alien who has lawfully established a permanent home in the United States.
- residential clusterIn land-use planning, a tract developed as a unit with grouped housing and shared open space.
- residential community treatment centerA halfway house for people leaving prison or hospital, or otherwise needing help to settle back into ordinary life.
- residualLeft over.
- residual estateWhat is left of a dead person's estate once the debts, expenses, taxes, and specific gifts have been met.
- residual valueWhat an asset is worth once it is no longer useful to the owner: the sum expected on disposing of it at the end of it…
- residuaryLeft over, or making up the residue.
- residuary bequestA gift by will of what remains of the estate after debts, legacies, and specific gifts have been paid.
- residuary clauseIn the law of wills, the clause disposing of whatever is left of the estate once the specific gifts have been satisfied.
- residuary deviseA gift by will of whatever land is left after the specific gifts have been taken.
- residuary deviseeThe person named in a will to take whatever land is left after the other gifts have been satisfied.
- residuary estateWhat is left of a dead person's estate once all debts, expenses, taxes, and specific gifts have been met.
- residuary legacyA gift of whatever is left of the estate once every claim and every specific, general, and demonstrative legacy has b…
- residuary legateeThe person named to take what remains of the estate after all other gifts and claims are met.
- residueWhat is left after a part has been taken away.
- residuumWhat remains.
- residuum ruleIn administrative law, the rule that an agency decision resting partly on hearsay will stand on review only if some p…
- resignationThe giving up of an office, right, or claim; also the formal notice by which it is given up.
- resisting arrestThe offense of obstructing a police officer making an arrest.
- resisting unlawful arrestThe opposing of a police officer who is making an unlawful arrest. Most places now make even an unlawful arrest somet…
- resolutionA formal statement of an opinion, intention, or decision by an official body, above all a legislature.
- Resolution Trust CorporationThe federal agency set up in 1989, when the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation was abolished, to take ove…
- resolutive conditionA condition which, when it happens, ends an obligation already in force and entitles the parties to be put back as th…
- resolutoryServing to annul or bring to an end.
- resolutory conditionA condition that, once fulfilled, ends an obligation already in force and puts the parties back where they started.
- resortSomething a person turns to for help.
- RESPAThe federal statute requiring lenders to tell home buyers what the settlement costs will be, so far as these are know…
- respiteA period of delay, or an extension of time; also the putting off of a death sentence, a delay allowed a court or jury…
- respondeat ousterAn order that a party whose delaying plea has been rejected must now plead to the merits.
- respondeat superiorIn tort law, the rule making an employer or principal liable for wrongs an employee or agent commits within the scope…
- respondentThe party against whom an appeal is brought; also the party against whom a motion or petition is filed, and, at commo…
- respondent bankA bank or other body with trust powers that holds securities for their beneficial owners and deposits them for safeke…
- respondentiaA loan secured on the cargo of a ship rather than on the ship itself.
- respondentia bondThe bond given by a borrower on the security of a ship's cargo, under which the loan need not be repaid if the cargo…
- respondere non debetThe state of being legally accountable, whether by civil remedy or by criminal punishment; also the duty a person owe…
- responsa prudentiumThe opinions eminent jurists gave on questions of law put to them. In early Rome, citizens, magistrates, and judges a…
- responsalisFormerly, a person who appeared and answered for another; in church law, a proctor.
- responsibilityThe state of being legally accountable for something, enforceable by civil remedy or criminal punishment.
- responsibleLegally accountable, or answerable for one's conduct.
- responsible broker-dealerA broker-dealer who communicates bids or offers on the floor of a stock exchange at the place designated for trading…
- responsiveAnswering what has been put.
- responsive pleadingA pleading that answers an opponent's earlier pleading.
- responsive verdictIn Louisiana practice, a verdict the jury may lawfully return on the charge before it, the permitted verdicts for eac…
- restOf a party at trial, to finish presenting evidence.
- RestatementOne of the influential treatises the American Law Institute publishes, setting out the law of a field and guiding its…
- restaterAn author or reporter of a Restatement.
- restaurThe claim insurers, above all marine underwriters, have against one another according to the dates of their policies;…
- restitutio in integrumIn Roman and civil law, the putting of the parties back as they were. A Roman praetor could do this by annulling a tr…
- restitutionThe giving back of a particular thing to its rightful owner; also the paying over of a benefit gained by wronging ano…
- restitution damagesDamages awarded where the defendant has been unjustly enriched at the claimant's expense.
- restitutionaryAimed at restoring a benefit, whether by giving back what the wrongdoer gained or by making good what the claimant lost.
- restitutionary redressCompensation to an injured person measured by what the wrongdoer gained rather than by what the injured person lost.
- restitutione extracti ab ecclesiaIn church law, a writ restoring to the church someone suspected or accused of a felony.
- restitutione temporaliumIn church law, a writ directing the sheriff to restore the temporal property of a diocese to its bishop.
- restitutory interdictAn interdict by which a praetor ordered something restored to a person who had been dispossessed of it.
- restorThe claim insurers, above all marine underwriters, have against one another according to the dates of their policies;…
- restraining orderA court order forbidding a person to harass, threaten, or sometimes even contact or come near another, most often mad…
- restraintConfinement or limitation, and the holding back of action.
- restraint of marriageA condition, above all in a gift or bequest, that cancels the gift if the recipient marries or remarries. Such condit…
- restraint of princesAn embargo or other interference with a voyage by a government. The phrase still turns up in marine insurance.
- restraint of tradeIn antitrust law, an agreement or combination among businesses meant to shut out competition, create a monopoly, forc…
- restraint on alienationA restriction, usually in a deed, on the owner's power to sell or transfer land, preventing disposal altogether or di…
- restricted interpretationAn interpretation held in check by principles lying outside the text being interpreted.
- restricted securityA security not registered with the SEC, which therefore cannot be sold publicly unless set conditions are met. It is…
- restricted stockStock not registered with the SEC, which therefore cannot be sold publicly unless set conditions are met.
- restricted surplusA surplus that may be used only for limited purposes, above all the part of retained earnings that cannot be paid out…
- restrictionA limitation, above all one placed by deed on the use of property. In military law, a punishment that limits liberty…
- restriction in lieu of arrestAn order confining a person to set limits, such as a base or a ship, while leaving them to perform full military duties.
- restrictive conditionA condition forbidding a party to do something, such as a clause stopping a tenant from subletting; a promise not to…
- restrictive covenantA clause, usually in an employment, partnership, or business-sale agreement, by which one party promises not to run a…
- restrictive covenant in equityA promise about the use of land that equity enforces against later owners who took with notice of it, even though the…
- restrictive indorsementAn indorsement that attaches a condition, or otherwise limits how the instrument may be dealt with, as with the words…
- restrictive interpretationA reading confined by principles lying outside the text being interpreted.
- restrictive principle of sovereign immunityThe rule that a foreign state is immune from suit only over its public acts, not over its private or commercial deali…
- resulting powerA power that follows from the powers a constitution grants taken together, rather than from any one of them alone.
- resulting trustA trust the law implies where property is transferred in circumstances showing that the transferor did not mean the r…
- resulting useA use arising by implication and staying with the grantor where the conveyance was made without consideration.
- resummonsA second summons to a party or witness already summoned.
- resumptionThe taking back of property given up or lost; formerly, the Crown's retaking of lands or rights granted to another, a…
- resurrenderThe giving back of a copyhold estate to the mortgagor by the mortgagee once the debt is paid.
- retailThe selling of goods to the people who will use them, as opposed to selling for resale or further processing.
- retail installment contractA contract for the sale of goods under which the buyer pays by installments and the seller keeps title or a security…
- retail installment saleA conditional sale in which the buyer pays a deposit and then installments, the seller keeping title or a security in…
- retail sales taxA tax on sales of goods and services to consumers, usually a percentage of the price.
- retailerA business that sells goods to the public or to consumers, rather than to people who mean to resell them.
- retainTo hire a lawyer to act in a matter, usually by paying a sum in advance.
- retainageThe share of the price a landowner holds back from a contractor until the work is finished properly and the mechanic'…
- retained earningsA company's accumulated income after dividends have been paid out.
- retainerA client's authority for a lawyer to act in a case; also the fee paid to secure the lawyer's services.
- retaining feeA fee paid to secure a lawyer's services.
- retaining lienA lawyer's right to keep a client's papers until the client pays for the work done. Some states forbid it by statute.
- retaliatory dischargeA dismissal made in retaliation for something the employee did, such as reporting the employer's unlawful conduct to…
- retaliatory evictionAn eviction, almost always unlawful, begun in response to a tenant's complaints or to activities the landlord objects…
- retaliatory lawA state law that burdens another state's businesses, as by taxing them, in answer to the same treatment of its own bu…
- retaliatory tariffA tariff imposed to push another country into dropping its own tariffs or making trade concessions.
- retalliaThe selling of goods in small quantities.
- retinueThe body of attendants kept to follow and wait on a sovereign or other person of rank.
- retired stockStock a company issued and then bought back, either cancelling it or holding it. Some states have dropped the categor…
- retirementThe voluntary ending of one's own working life, above all on reaching a certain age; also the withdrawing of somethin…
- retirement annuityAn annuity that starts paying only after the annuitant retires. If they die first, an agreed sum is usually refunded…
- retirement planAn employee benefit plan, such as a pension or Keogh plan, provided by an employer, or by a self-employed person, for…
- retirement-income insuranceAn agreement under which the insurer pays an annuity from a stated age if the insured lives that long, and the policy…
- retorno habendoFor having a return: the words used of a judgment for the defendant in a replevin action, of the writ of execution on…
- retorsionIn international law, lawful retaliation in kind for another country's unfriendly or unfair act, as by suspending dip…
- retractionThe taking back of something said; also, in the law of wills, the withdrawing of a renunciation.
- retraxitA claimant's open withdrawal of a suit in court, giving up the right to sue again. Modern practice calls it a volunta…
- retreat ruleThe rule that a person facing a deadly attack must retreat to safety if they can, rather than use deadly force, unles…
- retrialA fresh trial of a case already tried.
- retributionIn criminal law, punishment imposed as repayment for the offense; also what a person justly deserves.
- retributive dangerA hidden hazard an occupier sets to injure trespassers. It is lawful only so far as the occupier could have justified…
- retributive punishmentPunishment aimed at satisfying the community's sense of indignation at the wrong done.
- retributivismThe theory that punishing a morally accountable offender needs no further justification, whether or not it deters any…
- retroactiveOf a statute or ruling, reaching back to matters that happened before it took effect.
- retroactive lawA statute that reaches back to acts or facts existing before it took effect. Such a law is constitutional unless it w…
- retroactivityThe reaching back of a new rule to earlier events. True retroactivity applies the new rule to a transaction already c…
- retrocessionThe ceding back of something, such as territory or jurisdiction, to the party that granted it; also a reinsurer's pas…
- retrocessionaireA reinsurer that takes on risk from another reinsurer.
- retrocessional agreementAn agreement by which one reinsurer reinsures with another.
- retrospectant evidenceEvidence arising after an act which points to the person alleged to have done it as in fact having done it.
- retrospectiveOf a statute or ruling, reaching back to matters that happened before it took effect.
- retrospective lawA statute that reaches back to acts or facts existing before it took effect. Such a law is constitutional unless it w…
- retrospective statuteA statute that applies to events already past.
- retryTo try a case over again, on the facts and the law alike, as though there had been no first trial.
- returnA court officer's bringing back of a writ to the court that issued it, and the officer's note on it saying what was d…
- return dateThe day on which a defendant must appear in court or file an answer, on which proof of service or a writ of execution…
- return dayA day on which a defendant must appear in court, or file an answer; also, a day by which proof of service or a writ o…
- return of serviceA document filed in court, usually by the sheriff, proving that process was served on a party.
- return of writThe sheriff's bringing back of a writ to the court that issued it, with a short note, usually on the back, of how it…
- returning boardThe official body that counts and certifies election returns.
- reusA defendant; also, more broadly, either party to a suit or to a transaction.
- revalidationThe reviving of something already made valid once, above all the restoring of a revoked will by executing it again or…
- revaluationA rise in the value of one currency against another.
- revaluation surplusThe surplus shown in a company's accounts when its assets are written up to a higher value than they were carried at.
- revalueTo raise the value of a currency against others.
- reveFormerly, the bailiff of a franchise or manor.
- revendicationThe claiming back of something by formal demand; in civil law, an action to recover ownership and possession of prope…
- revenue agent's reportA report setting out any changes the IRS made to a tax return after an audit. It is mailed to the taxpayer with a 30-…
- revenue billA bill that levies or raises taxes. Federal revenue bills must begin in the House of Representatives.
- revenue bondA bond repayable out of the revenue generated by the project it financed, rather than out of general taxation.
- Revenue ProcedureAn official statement by the Internal Revenue Service about how the tax laws are administered and what procedures to…
- Revenue RulingAn official Internal Revenue Service statement of how the tax law applies to a particular kind of transaction. Such r…
- revenue stampA stamp showing that a tax has been paid.
- revenue tariffA tariff imposed mainly to raise money rather than to protect home industry.
- reversalAn appellate court's overturning of a lower court's decision; in securities law, a turn in a security's short-term pr…
- reverse annuity mortgageA mortgage under which the lender pays out money over time to give the borrower, usually an older person, a regular i…
- reverse bonusA fee arrangement in which a defense lawyer is paid according to how much they save the client against the potential…
- reverse contingent feeA fee arrangement in which a defense lawyer is paid according to how much money they save the client against the clie…
- reverse discriminationFavorable treatment of minorities, usually through affirmative-action programs, that works to the disadvantage of mem…
- reverse doctrine of equivalentsThe rule that there is no infringement where an invention is largely described by another's patent claims but perform…
- reverse FOIA suitA suit by the owner of confidential business information to stop an agency from releasing it to the public under the…
- reverse spot zoningZoning that singles out one parcel for treatment more restrictive than that of the land around it, to the owner's dis…
- reverse stock splitA cutting of the number of a company's shares by calling in all those outstanding and issuing fewer, each worth more.
- reverse subsidiary mergerA merger in which the buyer's subsidiary is absorbed into the target, which then becomes the buyer's subsidiary.
- reverse triangular mergerA merger in which the buyer's subsidiary is absorbed into the target, which then becomes the buyer's subsidiary.
- reverse-confusion doctrineIn trademark law, the rule that infringement may occur where a larger newcomer floods the market with a confusingly s…
- reversible errorAn error that affects a party's substantive rights or the outcome of the case, and so is a ground for reversal where…
- reversionThe interest left in a grantor who carves a smaller estate, such as a life estate or a term of years, out of their ow…
- reversionaryOf or relating to a reversion or to a future interest kept back by the grantor.
- reversionerThe person entitled to a reversion, whether the grantor or their heir; more broadly, anyone with a lawful interest in…
- reverterThe interest a grantor keeps after conveying a fee simple determinable, under which the estate ends by itself and the…
- reverter guaranteeIn real-estate law, a mortgage clause protecting the lender against loss if the event that ends the borrower's estate…
- revestTo vest again.
- reviewThe looking again at something so as to check it.
- reviewable issueA question an appellate court may properly consider, whether because the ruling below is final or because a statute m…
- revised statutesStatutes gathered, arranged, and reenacted as a single body by the legislature.
- revisionA careful reexamination for correction or improvement. In military law, the reconvening of a court-martial to revise…
- revivalThe bringing back into force of something lapsed, such as an expired contract or a dormant judgment; in the law of wi…
- revival statuteA statute providing for the renewal of actions, of wills, or of the effect of documents.
- revivorA proceeding to bring back to life an action that stopped because a party died or for some other such reason.
- revocableCapable of being cancelled or withdrawn.
- revocable guarantyA guaranty the guarantor may withdraw, so that it covers only debts the principal incurs before notice of withdrawal.
- revocable letter of creditA letter of credit the issuing bank may cancel on proper notice. It cannot be revoked once a third party has already…
- revocable trustA trust the settlor may end, taking back the property and any income not yet paid out.
- revocationIn contract law, an offeror's withdrawal of an offer. In the law of wills, a testator's cancelling of a will, whether…
- revocation hearingA hearing to decide whether a person's probation or parole should be revoked for breaking its conditions, or whether…
- revocatory actionA suit by a creditor to set aside a transaction the debtor entered into that deepens the debtor's insolvency.
- revocaturIt is recalled: the note formerly entered on an English judgment set aside for a mistake of fact, as opposed to one r…
- revolutionThe overthrow of a government, usually bringing fundamental political change.
- revolver loanA single loan a debtor takes out to replace several credit lines or loans from different creditors, reviewed for rene…
- revolving charge accountA consumer-credit arrangement letting the borrower keep buying goods or drawing loans, so long as the outstanding bal…
- revolving creditA consumer-credit arrangement letting the borrower keep buying goods or drawing loans, so long as the balance owed st…
- revolving fundA fund whose money is spent and then topped back up over and over, such as a petty-cash fund.
- revolving letter of creditA letter of credit that renews itself, supplying a standing line of credit the beneficiary draws on and the customer…
- revolving loanA loan the borrower may draw down, repay, and draw again up to an agreed limit.
- revolving performance bondA performance bond that stays in force throughout the contract, usually for a set number of days beyond it.
- rewardMoney or other benefit offered for the doing of something, such as returning lost property or giving information lead…
- rexThe title of a reigning king; also the prosecution, acting in his name, in criminal cases in a monarchy.
- rezoneTo change the zoning boundaries or restrictions of an area.
- RFAIn pretrial discovery, a written statement of fact served on another party, who must admit it, deny it, or object. Wh…
- RFIA party's written request that the judge direct the jury on the law in the terms set out in the request.
- RFPA written demand in pretrial discovery that another party hand over specified documents or things for inspection and…
- rhadamanthineOf a judge, stern and unbending.
- Rhodian lawThe earliest known body of maritime law, said to date from about 900 B.C. and to come from the island of Rhodes in th…
- ribbon-matching ruleIn contract law, the rule that an acceptance must match the offer exactly, adding nothing and changing nothing, or no…
- Richard RoeA made-up name for a male party whose real name is unknown or withheld, used above all for the second such party in a…
- RICOA statute aimed at organized crime, allowing the investigation and prosecution of those who take part in, or conspire…
- riderAn attachment to a document, such as a bill in the legislature or an insurance policy, that changes or adds to it.
- rien culpFormerly, a plea of not guilty.
- rien ditA plea saying nothing in answer to the claim, so that judgment goes against the defendant by default.
- rien luy doitFormerly, a plea that the defendant owes the claimant nothing.
- riens en arrièreNothing in arrear: a plea that no payment is overdue.
- riens per descentThe plea of an heir sued for an ancestor's debt who received no land or assets from the ancestor.
- rier countyA lesser English county court the sheriff held on the day after the regular county court.
- rigging the marketThe forcing up of a stock's price by a run of bids, so that demand looks strong and other investors are drawn in.
- rightSomething a person may justly claim: a power, privilege, or immunity the law secures to them, or an enforceable claim…
- right against self-incriminationThe Fifth Amendment guarantee that the government cannot force a person to give testimony that might lead to their ow…
- right heirThe person who by law takes a dead person's property where there is no will.
- right in personamA right good only against particular people, matched by a duty those people owe.
- right in re alienaA right in property belonging to someone else, such as an easement or a mortgage.
- right in re propriaA right in one's own property, that is, full ownership of it.
- right in remA right good against the world at large, which everyone is bound to respect.
- right of actionThe right to bring a particular case to court; also a right that can be enforced by suing.
- right of approachIn international law, the right of a warship on the high seas to come near another vessel to find out what flag it sa…
- right of assemblyThe First Amendment right of the people to gather peacefully to express themselves on religion, politics, or grievances.
- right of audienceThe right to appear and be heard in a given court. The phrase is used chiefly in England, of which kind of lawyer may…
- right of commonA right to go onto another's land and take something of value from it, such as timber, fish, or pasture for one's ani…
- right of contributionThe right of one of several people liable on a common debt, who has paid it off for the benefit of all, to recover a…
- right of dissent and appraisalThe statutory right of shareholders who object to an extraordinary step such as a merger to have their shares valued…
- right of electionIn the law of wills, a surviving spouse's statutory right to take either what the will gives them or the share the pr…
- right of entryThe right to take or resume possession of land peaceably; also the interest a grantor keeps after conveying a fee sim…
- right of entry for breach of conditionThe interest a grantor keeps after conveying a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent, under which the grantee'…
- right of entry for condition brokenThe interest a grantor keeps after conveying a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent, under which the grantee'…
- right of exonerationA surety's right to make the principal debtor pay the debt, rather than having to pay it and then seek repayment.
- right of first refusalA right to match the terms of a third party's offer if the seller means to accept it. If Beth holds a right of first…
- right of fisheryThe right of the public to fish in public waters, subject to federal and state rules such as closed seasons, licenses…
- right of innocent passageIn international law, the right of a foreign ship to pass through a country's territorial waters without charge, abov…
- right of petitionThe First Amendment right of the people to make formal requests of their government, whether by lobbying or by writin…
- right of possessionThe right to hold, use, or occupy property, above all the right to enter land and put out someone wrongfully in posse…
- right of preemptionA right to be offered the property first, at a set price, if the owner decides to sell. If Beth holds such a right ov…
- right of privacyThe right to be let alone, which the Supreme Court has held implicit in the guarantees of several constitutional amen…
- right of publicityThe right to control the commercial use of one's own name, picture, or likeness, and to stop others from exploiting i…
- right of redemptionA defaulting borrower's right to save the property by paying what is owed. Until the foreclosure sale the borrower ma…
- right of reentryThe interest a grantor keeps after conveying a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent, under which the grantee'…
- right of rescissionThe remedy of undoing a contract altogether, open to a party where the other has broken a duty that exists apart from…
- right of revolutionThe inherent right of a people to throw out their rulers or remake their institutions by force or general uprising, w…
- right of searchIn international law, the right to stop and examine ships on the high seas to see whether they or their cargo are lia…
- right of subrogationThe right of a person secondarily liable on a debt, having paid it, to step into the creditor's shoes and enforce eve…
- right of supportA landowner's right to have the land held up by the neighboring land and by the ground beneath; also a servitude lett…
- right of survivorshipA joint tenant's right to take the whole estate when the other joint tenant dies.
- right of terminationThe remedy of bringing a contract to an end, open to a party where the other has broken a duty the contract itself im…
- right of transit passageIn international law, the right of a ship or aircraft to navigate or fly over a strait solely for continuous and spee…
- right of visitIn international law, the right to stop and examine ships on the high seas to see whether they or their cargo are lia…
- right of visit and searchIn international law, the right to stop and examine ships on the high seas to see whether they or their cargo are lia…
- right of visitationIn family law, a court-granted right of a parent or grandparent who does not have custody to spend time with the chil…
- right of visitation and searchIn international law, the right to stop, board, and search ships on the high seas to see whether they or their cargo…
- right of wharfing outA right to the exclusive use of submerged land, as by building a permanent wharf on it at which ocean-going ships can…
- right to assembleThe First Amendment right of the people to gather peacefully to express themselves on religion, politics, or grievances.
- right to bear armsThe Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The Supreme Court held in 2008 that it belongs to individuals and n…
- right to chooseThe liberty to make one's own decisions about intimate matters, used above all of the decision whether to end a pregn…
- right to counselA criminal defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a lawyer: to hire one, and, if they cannot afford one, to have the co…
- right to dieThe right of a person who is dying to refuse treatment that would keep them alive.
- right to petitionThe First Amendment right of the people to make formal requests of their government, whether by lobbying or by writin…
- right to privacyThe right to be let alone in one's personal life and to make certain intimate decisions without government interferen…
- right to refuse treatmentA patient's right to refuse medical treatment, including treatment that keeps them alive.
- right to remain silentThe Fifth Amendment guarantee that the government cannot force a person to give testimony that might lead to their ow…
- right to rescindThe remedy of undoing a contract altogether, open to a party where the other has broken a duty that exists apart from…
- right to terminateThe remedy of bringing a contract to an end, open to a party where the other has broken a duty the contract itself im…
- right to travelThe constitutional right to move freely from state to state and to be treated as a citizen on arriving in a new one.
- right to voteThe right to cast a vote at a public election.
- right-and-wrong testIn criminal law, the rule that a person is not criminally responsible where a mental disability kept them from unders…
- right-of-wayA right, gained by use or by agreement, to pass over land belonging to someone else; also the strip of land over whic…
- right-to-convey covenantA promise, usually in a warranty deed, that the seller holds an estate of the kind and size being conveyed, or has th…
- right-to-know actA federal or state statute requiring businesses that make or store hazardous substances to tell both the surrounding…
- right-to-work lawA state law forbidding any agreement between employer and union that makes joining the union a condition of holding a…
- right-wrong testIn criminal law, the rule that a person is not criminally responsible where a mental disability kept them from unders…
- rightfulOf an act, fair; of a person, properly entitled to what they hold.
- rights arbitrationArbitration about whether an existing contract has been broken or what it means, ending in a final ruling on the cont…
- rights offTraded without the right to subscribe: the value of the subscription privilege has been taken out of the price, so th…
- rights offeringAn issue of rights letting existing shareholders buy newly issued stock at a fixed price, usually below market, in pr…
- rights onTraded with the right to subscribe: the buyer takes rights that have been declared but not yet handed out, such as th…
- rights-consciousnessThe quality of a legal culture in which people expect justice as a matter of course and will take real steps to get it.
- rigid constitutionA constitution set out in a special enactment whose terms cannot be changed by ordinary legislation. The U.S. Constit…
- rigor mortisThe temporary stiffening of the joints and muscles after death. It sets in anywhere from about a quarter of an hour t…
- ringing outA method by which a group of commodity dealers settle contracts for future delivery in advance, by offsetting, cancel…
- ringing the changesA fraud in which the offender pays for a small purchase with a large note, waits for the change to be put on the coun…
- ringing upA method by which a group of commodity dealers settle contracts for future delivery in advance, by offsetting, cancel…
- riotAn unlawful breach of the peace by a group, usually of three or more, acting together in a violent or tumultuous way…
- Riot ActThe English statute of 1714 making it a capital offense for twelve or more rioters to stay together for an hour after…
- riotousMarked by or taking part in a riot.
- riotous assemblyAn unlawful gathering of 12 or more people that disturbs the peace.
- riparianOf or on the bank of a river or stream, and sometimes of another body of water such as a lake.
- riparian proprietorA landowner whose property borders a stream or river.
- riparian rightThe right of a landowner whose land borders a watercourse to make reasonable use of the water.
- riparian-rights doctrineThe rule that owners of land along a watercourse have equal rights to make reasonable use of the water flowing past.
- ripeReady for decision, the facts having developed far enough for a court to rule usefully.
- ripenessThe state of a case that has developed far enough for a court to decide it usefully, but no further; also the require…
- rising of courtA court's final adjournment at the end of a term; also a break in its business, as at the end of the day.
- riskThe chance of injury, damage, or loss, and the liability for it if it happens. In insurance, the word covers the like…
- risk arbitrageArbitrage in assets that are probably but not certainly equivalent, especially in the shares of companies involved in…
- risk capitalMoney or property put into a business venture, especially where the investor has no say in running it.
- risk factorIn life-insurance rate-making, the estimated cost of claims present and future, worked out from a mortality table. It…
- risk managementThe systems a business uses to keep accidental losses to a minimum.
- risk of jury doubtA party's task of persuading the fact-finder to accept their version of the facts. In a civil case the claimant must…
- risk of lossThe danger that a party will have to bear the cost if goods or other property are damaged, destroyed, or lost.
- risk of nonpersuasionA party's task of persuading the fact-finder to accept their version of the facts. In a civil case the claimant must…
- risk-averseOf a person, unwilling to take risks and uncomfortable with uncertainty.
- risk-benefit testA test of product liability under which the maker is liable if a reasonable person would find that the benefits of th…
- risk-capital testIn securities law, a test of whether a transaction is the sale of a security, and so subject to the securities laws,…
- risk-utility testA test of product liability under which the maker is liable if a reasonable person would find that the benefits of th…
- robTo take property from another by violence or threat.
- robberyThe taking of property from a person, or in their presence, by violence or threat. It is a felony at common law and u…
- robeThe legal or judicial profession, from the gown its members wear.
- Robinson-Patman ActThe federal statute, an amendment to the Clayton Act, that forbids charging different buyers different prices where t…
- rocket docketA fast-track procedure for resolving disputes; also a court known for disposing of cases quickly.
- rogatory letterA document one court issues to a court abroad, asking it to take evidence from a named person or to serve process the…
- rollA record of the proceedings of a court or public office; also an official list of the people and property subject to…
- rolled-up pleaIn defamation law, a plea that the words complained of are true so far as they state facts and, so far as they are co…
- rolloverThe renewing or refinancing of a maturing loan or note; also the moving of funds, such as those in a retirement accou…
- rollover mortgageA government-sponsored mortgage whose terms must be renegotiated every three to five years in light of market conditi…
- Roman lawThe law of ancient Rome, which forms the basis of the modern civil law and remains influential in continental Europe,…
- Roman-Dutch lawThe law of Holland from the mid-fifteenth to the early nineteenth century, mixing Germanic custom with Roman law as t…
- Romanesque lawThe civil-law tradition descended from Roman law, one of the two great legal systems of the Western world.
- RomanistA person learned in Roman law.
- root of titleThe recorded transaction, usually at least forty years old, from which a search of title starts.
- RORThe release of an arrested person before trial on their own promise, usually in writing, to come back to court, witho…
- Roth IRAA form of individual retirement account in which contributions are not deductible when made, but neither the contribu…
- round lotThe standard trading unit for stocks and bonds: usually 100 shares of stock, or bonds with a par value of $1,000 or $…
- routThe offense committed when an unlawful assembly takes some step toward carrying out its common purpose.
- Royal Marriages ActThe English statute of 1772 forbidding members of the royal family to marry without the sovereign's consent. Legislat…
- royaltyA payment made to an author, inventor, or landowner for each copy sold or each unit produced under a copyright, paten…
- RTCThe federal agency set up in 1989 to take over insolvent savings-and-loan associations and sell off or wind up their…
- rubber checkA check that is not paid because the account holds too little money or does not exist.
- rubber-stamp sealIn most states, a notary public's official seal, inked from a rubber stamp so that it can be photocopied. It usually…
- rubricThe title of a statute or code; also a heading or category, a rule for conducting worship, an explanatory note, and a…
- ruleAn authoritative standard directing how one is to act in a given kind of situation.
- Rule 10b-5The SEC rule forbidding deception or manipulation, including material misstatements and omissions, in buying or selli…
- Rule 11In federal practice, the rule requiring the lawyer of record, or an unrepresented party, to sign every pleading, moti…
- Rule 11 agreementAn agreement between lawyers or parties about a pending suit, which the rules require to be in writing and filed, or…
- rule absoluteA decree nisi that has ripened: a decree that has become unconditional because the time set in it has run out.
- rule against accumulationsThe rule voiding any accumulation of income that runs beyond the perpetuity period.
- rule against perpetuitiesIn property law, the rule that a future interest is void unless it must vest, if at all, within twenty-one years afte…
- rule nisiA decree that will become absolute unless the party against whom it runs shows the court, within a set time, why it s…
- rule of 72A quick way to find how long money takes to double at a compound rate: divide 72 by the rate. At 6 percent it takes a…
- rule of 78A method of working out how much interest a borrower saves by paying a loan off early, where the interest is loaded t…
- rule of captureIn property law, the rule that wild animals belong to whoever catches them, wherever they came from. In water law, th…
- rule of completenessThe rule of evidence that where a party puts in part of a writing or statement, the other side may require the rest t…
- rule of constructionA rule used in reading legal documents, above all contracts and statutes. A few states have written the canons of con…
- rule of courtA rule governing practice or procedure in a particular court.
- rule of decisionThe rule, statute, body of law, or earlier decision on which a case is decided.
- rule of fourThe Supreme Court's practice of granting certiorari when four of the nine justices vote to hear the case.
- rule of inconvenienceThe rule that a court should not read a statute in a way that would harm an important public interest or work serious…
- rule of interpretationA rule used in reading legal documents, above all contracts and statutes. A few states have written the canons of con…
- rule of justiceThe principle that marks out how far a person may pursue their own welfare, holding that liberty within limits that s…
- rule of lawA settled legal principle; also the supremacy of regular over arbitrary power, the doctrine that everyone is subject…
- rule of lenityThe rule that where a criminal statute is ambiguous, laying down several or inconsistent punishments, the court shoul…
- rule of marshaling assetsThe equitable rule that a senior creditor with two funds to draw on must take first from the fund the junior creditor…
- rule of marshaling liensThe rule that where a debtor has sold off encumbered land in parcels, a creditor must look to the parcels in the reve…
- rule of marshaling remediesThe equitable rule that a senior creditor with two funds to draw on must take first from the fund the junior creditor…
- rule of marshaling securitiesThe equitable rule that a senior creditor with two securities to draw on must resort first to the one the junior cred…
- rule of necessityThe rule that a judge or official must hear a case despite bias or a conflict of interest where stepping aside would…
- rule of optional completenessThe rule of evidence that where a party puts in part of a writing or statement, the other side may require the rest t…
- rule of rankThe rule that a statute dealing with people or things of a lower rank cannot be stretched by general words to reach t…
- rule of reasonIn antitrust law, the rule that a trade practice breaks the Sherman Act only if, judged on economic grounds, it restr…
- rule of recognitionIn H.L.A. Hart's theory of law, the fundamental rule by which all the other rules of a legal system are identified. H…
- rule of rightThe rule that gives rise to a right; the source from which the right springs.
- rule of the last antecedentThe rule that qualifying words attach to the words immediately before them, not to more distant ones, unless the cont…
- rule of the sum of the digitsA method of working out how much interest a borrower saves by paying a loan off early, where the interest is loaded t…
- rule to show causeA usually expedited hearing on an order requiring a party to show why the court should not do something.
- rule, theThe rule that witnesses wait outside the courtroom while another witness gives evidence, so that no one shapes their…
- rulemakingThe process by which an administrative agency makes, amends, or repeals a rule.
- rules of changeIn H.L.A. Hart's theory of law, the secondary rules by which a legal system's other rules are altered, such as the ru…
- rules of courtRules with the force of law governing practice and procedure in the courts, such as the Federal Rules of Civil Proced…
- Rules of Decision ActThe federal statute directing that, except where the Constitution or an act of Congress provides otherwise, the law o…
- rules of navigationThe rules governing the steering and sailing of ships so as to avoid collisions, including the International Rules fo…
- rulingA court's decision on a point of law or on the case as a whole.
- ruling caseA reported case cited as settling the point being litigated.
- ruling letterA letter the Internal Revenue Service issues at a taxpayer's request giving its view of the tax effect of a transacti…
- runTo lapse at the end of a fixed period; also to pass with a conveyance of land, as a covenant does, and to apply.
- runnerA law-office employee who carries papers between offices and files them at court; also a person who touts for persona…
- running accountAn open, unsettled account showing the claims running each way between the parties.
- running covenantA covenant that passes with the land, binding and benefiting later owners who never agreed to it. Covenants of this k…
- running daysThe days allowed by law for doing something, counted without leaving out Sundays or holidays.
- running objectionA single objection covering a whole line of questioning. A judge may allow one where an objection has been overruled…
- running policyA policy covering property whose quantity or location keeps changing, such as jewelry or stock in trade.
- runoff electionAn election held after a general election in which no candidate won a majority, between the two who polled highest, s…