Terms beginning with S
2,264 headwords
- S corporationA corporation whose income is taxed in the hands of its shareholders rather than the company itself. Only corporation…
- S-1The SEC form a company must usually file before its securities can be listed and traded on a national exchange. It is…
- S.CAn abbreviation used in citations for the Supreme Court, for South Carolina, and, in older practice, for “same case,”…
- S.CtThe abbreviation for the Supreme Court Reporter, in which the decisions of the United States Supreme Court appear.
- S.DSouthern District, in the names of United States judicial districts.
- S.LThe abbreviation for session laws, and for statute law.
- S/FThe statute requiring certain kinds of contract, such as those for the sale of land, to be evidenced in writing and s…
- Sabbath lawA statute regulating or forbidding trade on Sundays. Such laws were once common but have declined since the 1980s, ma…
- Sabbath-breakingThe breaking of laws requiring the Sabbath to be observed.
- sabotageThe destroying or damaging of materials, premises, or utilities used for national defense, or the knowing production…
- sacerOf an outlaw, placed outside the protection of the law.
- sachbaroA judge, or one who settles disputes.
- SacheA thing or matter.
- sacramentalesFormerly, compurgators: people who swore an oath to a defendant's innocence.
- sacramentumIn Roman law, a form of action used both against a thing and against a person where no other remedy was laid down, in…
- sacrilegeThe profaning of something sacred; formerly, the theft of sacred objects, as from a church.
- sacrilegiumThe theft of a sacred thing, once punishable by death; also the breaking of an imperial law.
- sacrilegusA person guilty of stealing a sacred thing.
- sacristanThe caretaker or sexton of a church.
- sacristyThe room in a church where the priest's robes are kept.
- saevitiaCruelty by one spouse that makes living together dangerous enough to justify a decree of separation.
- safeNot exposed to danger, and not causing it.
- safe harborA means of protection; above all a provision in a statute or regulation that shields a person from liability or penal…
- safe workplaceA workplace from which every danger that could reasonably be removed has been removed, and which is reasonably safe f…
- safe-berth clauseA clause in a charter requiring the ship to go only to a safe port the charterer names. The ship may refuse an order…
- safe-conductA privilege a belligerent grants allowing an enemy, a neutral, or another person to travel in or through a stated are…
- safe-deposit boxA locked box kept in a bank's vault for a customer's valuables, usually needing two keys, one held by the bank and on…
- safe-deposit companyA company with which money or valuables are left for safekeeping.
- safe-port clauseA clause in a charter requiring the ship to go only to a safe port the charterer names.
- safekeepingUnder the Securities Investor Protection Act, the holding of a security on behalf of the investor or broker who has p…
- Safety Appliance ActThe federal statute regulating the safety of equipment used by railroads engaged in interstate commerce.
- safety engineeringThe inspecting and study of dangerous conditions, usually in industry, so that precautions can be taken.
- safety-deposit boxA locked box kept in a bank's vault for a customer's valuables.
- sagibaroA judge, or one who settles disputes.
- saidAforesaid, or already mentioned. The word is dying out in legal drafting, its last refuge being patent claims, and ev…
- sake and sokeFormerly, a lord's right to hold a court and require attendance at it.
- salableFit to be sold in the ordinary course of trade at the usual price.
- salable valueThe price a willing seller would take and a willing buyer would pay on the open market, neither being under pressure:…
- salariumIn Roman law, an allowance for living expenses paid to those in the learned professions, such as teachers and doctors…
- salaryAgreed pay for services, above all professional ones, usually fixed by the year and paid at regular intervals rather…
- saleThe transfer of property or title for a price, and the agreement by which it is made. It requires parties competent t…
- sale and leasebackThe sale of property on the footing, or with an express option, that the seller will lease it back from the buyer as…
- sale and returnA sale in which goods delivered mainly for resale may be returned to the seller whether or not they match the contrac…
- sale as isA sale in which the buyer takes the property as it stands, unless the seller has misrepresented its quality.
- sale by sampleA sale in which the parties treat the goods shown as the standard the rest must match. A sample made part of the barg…
- sale in grossA sale of a tract of land with no guarantee of its exact area or size.
- sale noteA broker's memorandum of the terms of a sale, given to the buyer and the seller.
- sale of landThe passing of title to land from one person to another under a contract of sale, more often called a conveyance.
- sale on approvalA sale that is complete only if the buyer is satisfied, whether or not the goods match the contract. Title and the ri…
- sale on creditA sale in which the goods are handed over at once but payment is put off to a later date.
- sale or exchangeIn tax law, a transfer of property for value rather than as a gift, producing a gain or loss that counts for federal…
- sale or returnA sale in which goods delivered mainly for resale may be returned to the seller whether or not they match the contract.
- sale per aversionemA conveyance of all the land lying within the boundaries the agreement describes, rather than of a stated acreage. Th…
- sale with all faultsA sale in which the buyer takes the property as it stands, unless the seller has misrepresented its quality.
- sale with right of redemptionA sale in which the seller keeps the right to take the goods back by returning the price.
- sale-of-business doctrineThe now-rejected rule that a transfer of stock as part of the sale of a business was not a transfer of securities. Th…
- sales agreementA contract by which ownership of property passes from seller to buyer, either at once or in the future, for a fixed sum.
- sales finance companyA finance company that does not lend to consumers directly but buys up the installment paper created when dealers sel…
- sales in grossTotal sales before any deduction for returns and allowances.
- sales invoiceA document setting out the details of a sale, including the price and quantity of the goods.
- sales journalThe book in which sales made on account are recorded.
- sales loadAn amount added to a security's price or to an insurance premium to cover the sales commission and expenses.
- sales mixThe proportions in which a business's individual products make up its total sales.
- sales priceThe whole sum for which property is sold, often including the cost of services forming part of the sale. Sales-tax st…
- sales pufferyThe expressing of an exaggerated opinion, rather than a statement of fact, in order to sell something. A seller has s…
- sales taxA tax on sales of goods and services, usually a percentage of the price.
- sales-assessment-ratio studyA way of finding how far a jurisdiction's property assessments depart from real values, by comparing assessed values…
- Salic lawAn influential early Frankish code, originating with the Salian Franks, dealing with property and family matters but…
- saltingA union tactic in which a paid union organizer takes a job with a non-union employer in order to organize the workfor…
- salva gardiaA writ issued in England to protect strangers from harm while they pursued their legal rights.
- salvageThe rescuing of property in peril; also the property saved after a fire or other loss, which an insurer that has paid…
- salvage chargesIn insurance law, the costs necessarily incurred in salving property.
- salvage lossA loss that would have been total had someone not stepped in and saved part of the property.
- salvage serviceHelp given, whether voluntarily or under contract, to a vessel in danger. Salvage may involve towing, but it differs…
- salvage 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…
- salvagerA person who saves a vessel and its cargo from danger, and who is entitled to salvage.
- salvoSaving, or excepting: a word introducing a reservation in a document.
- salvo conductuA writ of safe conduct.
- salvorA person who saves a vessel and its cargo from danger, and who is entitled to salvage.
- SAMA mortgage under which the lender is entitled, as extra interest, to an agreed share of any rise in the property's va…
- sameThe very thing just mentioned.
- same inventionIn patent law, a later invention claiming exactly the subject matter an earlier patent claimed, which cannot be paten…
- same offenseFor double-jeopardy purposes, the same criminal act or transaction for which the person has already been tried; for s…
- same-actor inferenceIn employment law, the rule that where the same person hires and fires an employee within a fairly short time, the di…
- same-elements testA way of deciding whether one crime is a lesser included offense of another, by asking whether committing the greater…
- same-evidence testA test asking whether the facts alleged in one case are essentially those alleged in an earlier one. If they are, the…
- same-invention double patentingThe refusal of a second patent for an invention already patented, where the later claims cover exactly the same subje…
- same-sex harassmentSexual harassment in which the harasser and the person harassed are of the same sex, which the law treats no differen…
- sample saleA sale in which the goods shown are treated as the standard the rest must match.
- sanctioIn Roman law, the clause in a statute imposing a penalty for breaking it.
- sanctionOfficial approval; also a penalty imposed for failing to obey a law, rule, or order.
- sanctionableOf conduct, deserving or likely to draw a penalty.
- sanctional enforcementA right given by procedural law to enforce a substantive right, such as the right to damages for breach of contract.
- sanctioning rightA right that procedural law gives to enforce a substantive right, such as the right to damages for a breach of contract.
- sanctions tortA means of recovering for the other side's abuse of discovery, the judge ordering the offender to pay a sum to the in…
- sanctity of contractThe principle that parties who have duly made a contract must keep to it.
- sanctuaryA place of safety, above all one where legal process cannot be executed.
- sandbaggingA lawyer's staying deliberately silent when something may have gone wrong at trial, hoping to keep the point for appe…
- sandpaperingA lawyer's general preparation of a witness before a deposition or trial.
- sandwich leaseA lease under which the tenant sublets the property to someone else, above all for more rent than the tenant pays.
- saneOf sound mind: able to reason and to tell right from wrong.
- sanguisBlood, and so kinship by blood; formerly also a lord's right to try cases of bloodshed.
- sanitary codeA body of ordinances regulating the food and healthcare trades.
- sanityThe condition of having a sound and healthy mind.
- sanity hearingAn inquiry into whether a person is mentally fit to stand trial; also a proceeding to decide whether someone should b…
- sans ce queWithout that: the words introducing a special denial in common-law pleading.
- sans fraisWithout expense.
- sans impeachment de wastWithout impeachment of waste: words freeing a life tenant from liability for waste.
- sans jourFormerly, without a day being appointed, so that the matter ends or is adjourned indefinitely.
- sans recoursWithout recourse: words by which an indorser of a negotiable instrument refuses to answer for its payment.
- sapA club, a blackjack, or any similar object used as a bludgeon.
- SARThe form a financial institution must file with the federal regulators when it suspects that a transaction passing th…
- sasineIn Scots law, possession of a freehold estate in land.
- satellite litigationLawsuits that grow out of a major piece of litigation being fought elsewhere; also the side-skirmishes that accompany…
- satellite stateA country obliged to share control of its foreign relations with a foreign power.
- satisdareTo give security, above all through a surety.
- satisdatioIn Roman law, security given by a person such as a debtor through a surety.
- satisfactionThe giving of something meant to wipe out an existing legal or moral obligation. It differs from performance in that…
- satisfaction contractA contract in which one party promises to perform to the other's reasonable satisfaction.
- satisfaction of debtThe giving of something meant to wipe out an existing obligation, standing in place of what was originally promised.
- satisfaction of judgmentThe full discharge of what a judgment requires; also the document entered on the record showing that the judgment has…
- satisfaction of lienThe meeting of all the obligations a lien secures; also the document by which the lienholder releases the property.
- satisfaction of mortgageThe paying off of a mortgage in full; also the discharge signed by the lender showing that the debt is paid and the p…
- satisfaction pieceA written statement that one party, usually a debtor, has discharged an obligation, which the other party accepts.
- satisfactory evidenceEvidence sufficient to satisfy an unprejudiced mind seeking the truth.
- satisfactory proofEvidence strong enough to satisfy an open mind seeking the truth.
- satisfied mortgageA mortgage that has been paid off or otherwise discharged, so that the lender's interest in the property is at an end.
- satisfied termA term of years in land that has served the purpose it was created for before the term itself has run out.
- satisfyTo discharge an obligation, whether by paying it or by giving something the creditor accepts in its place.
- Saturday-night specialA cheap handgun, easily bought and easily hidden. In corporate law, a surprise tender offer held open only briefly, o…
- saunkefinThe end of a bloodline, so that a line of succession fails.
- sauvagineA wild animal, or the wild nature of an animal.
- saveTo keep from danger or loss; also to lay up, to suspend the running of something, to reserve a right, and to avoid a…
- save harmlessTo relieve another of any liability arising from a transaction.
- save-harmless agreementA contract in which one party promises to indemnify the other.
- save-harmless clauseA clause by which one party agrees to answer for liability or harm the other may incur.
- saver defaultTo excuse a default.
- saving clauseA provision excluding from a statute something its words would otherwise cover. It is used above all in a repealing a…
- saving-to-suitors clauseThe federal provision that leaves people free to bring maritime claims in state court under ordinary common-law remed…
- savings accountA depositor's account at a savings bank, usually paying interest or carrying conditions such as notice before withdra…
- savings bankA bank that takes deposits and pays interest on them, historically confined to savings accounts and mortgage lending…
- savings bondA non-transferable bond issued by the federal government to small investors.
- savings clauseA provision excluding from a statute something its words would otherwise cover, used above all in a repealing act to…
- savings noteA short-term interest-bearing instrument issued by a bank or by the federal government.
- savings-account trustA bank account a depositor holds in trust for another, which the depositor may draw on and revoke at any time, the ba…
- savings-and-loan associationA financial institution, often chartered like a bank, that lends mainly on home mortgages but also keeps checking acc…
- savings-and-loan bankA bank that takes deposits, pays interest on them, and makes certain kinds of loans, chiefly home mortgages, without…
- savings-bank trustA bank account a depositor holds in trust for another, revocable at will, the balance passing to the named person on…
- savorTo partake of the nature of something. An interest arising out of land is said in older idiom to savor of the realty.
- SBAThe federal agency that assists small businesses, often by making low-interest loans.
- SBICA company licensed to invest in small businesses, whose own funds are partly supplied on favorable terms by the Small…
- scabA worker who works on terms contrary to a union contract, above all one who crosses a picket line to take a striker's…
- scabiniFormerly, the judges or assessors in a count's court. The title goes back to Charlemagne's empire, where the French c…
- scalamThe scale. Paying money to the Exchequer by the scale meant adding sixpence to every twenty shillings to make up for…
- scaleA range of degrees, above all of wage rates, and a wage fixed by such a range; also an instrument for weighing. In th…
- scale orderAn order to buy or sell a security in portions across a range of prices.
- scale toleranceThe small variation in the weight a scale shows for the same goods when weighed on different scales.
- scaling lawA statute laying down how to adjust for the gap in value between depreciated paper money and coin. Such statutes were…
- scalpingAn investment adviser's buying of a security just before recommending it to clients, so that their buying lifts the p…
- scandalDisgraceful conduct; also slander.
- scandalous matterIn civil procedure, matter in a pleading that is both grossly disgraceful and beside the point. The court may order i…
- scandalum magnatumSlander of people of high rank, such as peers, judges, or officers of state, once actionable as a distinct wrong.
- scarlet-letter punishmentA punishment meant to shame the offender and often to warn the public, as by requiring a sign in the offender's yard…
- scatter-point analysisA way of studying how changes in the minority population affect voting, by plotting the share of the vote candidates…
- scènes à faireIn copyright law, stock themes and incidents so common to a kind of work that no one may claim them as their own.
- scheduleA written list or inventory, above all one attached to a document setting out in detail what the document refers to.
- scheduled injuryA partly disabling injury for which a workers' compensation statute sets a fixed amount of compensation in advance.
- scheduled propertyIn insurance law, property itemized on a list attached to a policy, recording the values on which payment is based if…
- schemeAn orderly plan or arrangement; also an artful plot, usually to deceive.
- schismA split within a group, such as a union; also a division over belief within a religious body.
- schoolAn institution of learning, above all for children.
- school boardThe body of trustees or directors responsible for the public schools of a city, county, or district.
- school bondA bond a city or school district issues to fund the building of schools.
- school districtA political subdivision of a state, created by the legislature with local powers of self-government, to build, mainta…
- school landPublic land a state sets aside for sale to fund and establish public schools.
- science of legislationThe work of improving a nation's laws, or the law on a particular subject, usually by a commission or expert committe…
- scienterKnowledge of a kind that makes a person answerable for what they do or fail to do; the fact that an act was done know…
- scientific evidenceTestimony or opinion drawing on technical or specialized knowledge and depending on scientific method for its value a…
- scientific knowledgeIn the law of evidence, knowledge resting on scientific methods that have been properly validated. Four things bear o…
- scientific methodA way of working in which a hypothesis is framed and then tested systematically by observation and experiment.
- scilicetThat is to say. Like videlicet, the word introduces a more particular statement of something already mentioned in gen…
- scintillaA spark or trace.
- scintilla jurisA fragment of right: the figurative trace of seisin said to remain in feoffees so that contingent uses could be execu…
- scintilla-of-evidence ruleThe rule that if there is even the slightest relevant evidence on an issue, the case must go to the jury and cannot b…
- scofflawA person who treats the law with contempt, above all one who habitually flouts rules that are hard to enforce.
- scoldA person who habitually breaks the peace by railing at neighbors and making a nuisance of themselves. It was once pun…
- scolding bridleAn iron bridle once fitted over a scold's head and mouth as a punishment.
- scope noteIn a digest, the short note after a heading saying what the heading takes in and what it leaves out.
- scope of a patentIn patent law, how far the protection a patent gives extends, fixed by reading its claims according to settled princi…
- scope of authorityThe power an agent has been given, or might reasonably be expected to have been given, in carrying on the principal's…
- scope of employmentThe range of activities an employee may reasonably and foreseeably engage in while carrying on the employer's business.
- scorched-earth defenseIn corporate law, a defense against takeover in which the target sells its most valuable assets or divisions, so as t…
- scotA payment, above all a customary tax.
- scot and lotThe customary payment of a share of local taxes according to one's means; also a municipal tax that carried the right…
- scotalAn extortion by which forest officers made people drink at the officers' own alehouses, often in return for overlooki…
- Scotch marriageA marriage made by consent alone, without any ceremony, so called because Scots law recognized such marriages as vali…
- Scotch verdictThe verdict of “not proven,” still open to a Scottish criminal jury, which acquits the accused but leaves a strong su…
- scrambling possessionPossession that is uncertain because it is disputed. The argument is over who actually holds the property, not over w…
- scrap 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…
- scratching the ticketA party member's rejection of a candidate on the party ticket, by striking out the name or voting for the other party…
- scrawlA written mark, above all one added to a signature in place of a seal.
- screening grand juryA body of people, often twenty-three, empaneled for a month or longer, who hear the prosecution's evidence in private…
- screening mechanismAn arrangement within a firm that walls off one or more lawyers from a matter so as to protect a client's confidences…
- scribaA clerk of a court or office, a scribe, or a secretary. In England the king's secretary was the scriba regis.
- scripA document entitling the holder to receive something of value; also paper money issued for temporary use.
- scrip dividendA dividend paid in certificates entitling the holder to shares that the company has yet to issue. It usually signals…
- scriptAn original or principal writing; also handwriting.
- scrivener’s errorA clerical slip in drafting a document, which a court may correct so that the writing says what the parties meant.
- scrivener's exceptionAn exception to the attorney-client privilege: the privilege does not attach where the lawyer was engaged only to car…
- scrollA roll of paper, or a list; also a draft to be completed later, and a mark added to a signature in place of a seal.
- scruet-rollThe record of bail accepted in a habeas corpus case.
- scrutatorAn officer who enforced the king's rights over water, as by taking charge of wreck, flotsam, and jetsam; also a custo…
- scutageA payment the king levied on barons in place of the knights they were bound to supply. It appears from the twelfth ce…
- scutagio habendoA writ ordering a tenant holding by knight's service to serve in a war, send a substitute, or pay a sum instead; also…
- scyraA shire or county, and its inhabitants.
- seaThe ocean; also a large body of salt water smaller than an ocean, the swell of the ocean, and, figuratively, a vast q…
- sea briefA document issued in wartime by the port where a neutral ship was fitted out, certifying her nationality, describing…
- sea lawThe body of law governing shipping and navigation, the carriage of people and goods by sea, and maritime affairs gene…
- sea letterA document issued in wartime by the port where a neutral ship was fitted out, certifying her nationality and cargo an…
- sea passA document issued in wartime certifying a neutral ship's nationality and cargo and allowing her to sail under her own…
- sea reeveFormerly, an officer appointed to watch the shore and enforce a lord’s maritime rights, including the right to wreck.
- sea roverA person who roams the sea for plunder, or the ship they sail in.
- sea-going vesselA vessel which, given her design and capabilities, is expected both to carry passengers for hire and to operate well…
- seabedThe floor of the sea, over which countries may claim sovereignty, above all where it lies beneath their territorial w…
- seagoing vesselA craft used, or capable of being used, to navigate on water. To count as a vessel under the Jones Act, the structure…
- sealA mark or impression that gives an instrument legal effect; also a fastening that must be broken before something can…
- seal of the stateThe official seal of a state, used to authenticate documents issued in its name.
- seal of the United StatesThe official seal of the United States, kept by the Secretary of State and used to authenticate documents issued in t…
- sealed bidA bid kept undisclosed until all the bids submitted are opened and considered together.
- sealed contractA contract made binding by the parties' seal rather than by consideration.
- sealed instrumentAn instrument to which the party bound has fixed a personal seal, at common law and under some statutes treated as co…
- sealed testamentA will the testator keeps secret, signing it and handing it sealed to a notary before witnesses with a declaration th…
- sealed verdictA written verdict sealed in an envelope when the jury has agreed but the court is not sitting. The jurors may then se…
- sealed willA will made secretly, signed and handed over sealed so that its contents stay unknown until the testator's death.
- sealed-container ruleIn products-liability law, the rule that a seller is not liable for a defective product received from the maker and s…
- sealing recordsThe closing off of particular records, above all those of juvenile cases, so that no one may see them except by order…
- seamanA person who helps navigate and work a vessel at sea, above all one below officer rank. Injuries to seamen fall under…
- searchAn examination by a law-enforcement officer of a person's body, property, or anywhere else they would reasonably expe…
- search bookA lawbook that states no law itself but consists of tables and lists of cases and statutes to help a researcher find…
- search incident to arrestA search of an arrested person and the area within their reach, made to protect the officer from a hidden weapon and…
- search warrantA judge's written order allowing an officer to search a named place and seize evidence found there.
- search-and-seizure warrantA judge's written order allowing an officer to search a named place and seize what is found.
- seasonableDone within the time agreed, or within a reasonable time.
- seasonal employmentWork possible only during part of the year, such as a summer-camp counselor, a ballpark vendor, or a shopping-mall Sa…
- seatMembership in an organization, above all in a securities or commodities exchange; also the place where some activity…
- seat of governmentThe place where the chief offices of a government sit, whether a national or state capital or a county seat.
- seated landLand that is lived on, farmed, improved, or otherwise put to use, whether or not it is cultivated.
- seawardThe officer formerly charged with guarding the coast and the king's rights over the sea.
- seaworthyOf a vessel, properly equipped and strong and tight enough to meet the perils the voyage may reasonably bring. Unless…
- seaworthy vesselA vessel able to stand the ordinary wind, waves, and weather that a ship at sea may expect to meet.
- SECThe federal agency that regulates the issue and trading of securities so as to protect investors from fraud and unfai…
- secessionThe withdrawing of a member from a political or religious body.
- seckLacking any right to seize goods for non-payment; also yielding no profit, as a reversion with no rent or service att…
- Second AmendmentThe constitutional amendment, ratified with the Bill of Rights in 1791, guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms.…
- second chairA lawyer who assists the lead advocate at trial, often examining some witnesses, arguing some points of law, and taki…
- second cousinSomeone related to another by descent from the same great-grandparent.
- second deliveranceA second replevin remedy available after the claimant has been nonsuited and the distrained property has gone back to…
- second deliveryThe lawful handing over by an escrow holder of a deed placed with them in escrow.
- second distressA further distress allowed where the goods seized under the first were not enough to satisfy the claim.
- second lienA lien ranking immediately behind a first lien on the same property, and so next in line to be paid out of the sale p…
- second mortgageA mortgage ranking behind a first mortgage on the same property but ahead of any later one.
- second offenseAn offense committed after a conviction for a first one. It is the earlier conviction, not the earlier charge, that m…
- second surchargeA further charge added to what is already owed, above all where the first charge proved too small.
- second-collision doctrineIn products-liability law, the rule that a maker is strictly liable for injuries in a collision, even one caused by s…
- second-degree murderMurder without any of the aggravating features that make a killing first-degree murder.
- second-impact doctrineIn products-liability law, the rule that a maker is strictly liable so far as a defect in the product made the injuri…
- second-look doctrineA softening of the rule against perpetuities, under which a court asks whether a contingent interest actually vested…
- second-permittee doctrineIn insurance law, the rule that where a person the insured permitted to use the car lets a third person use it, that…
- secondaryComing second, or subordinate to something else.
- secondary activityA union's picketing or boycotting of a neutral business so as to press it into breaking off dealings with the employe…
- secondary affinityThe relationship between one spouse and the other spouse's relatives by marriage, such as that between a wife and her…
- secondary authorityMaterial that explains the law without itself making it, such as a treatise, annotation, or law-review article.
- secondary beneficiaryThe person named in a life policy to take the proceeds if the main beneficiary cannot.
- secondary boycottA boycott aimed at a business's customers or suppliers so that they in turn will stop dealing with it. A group might,…
- secondary conveyanceA conveyance following an earlier one, which does no more than enlarge, confirm, alter, restrain, restore, or transfe…
- secondary creditorA creditor whose claim ranks behind that of a preferred creditor.
- secondary distributionThe public sale of a large block of stock already issued; also, the sale of such a block after the exchange has closed.
- secondary easementAn easement attached to a main easement, giving the right to do whatever is necessary to enjoy that easement fully.
- secondary enforcementA right given by procedural law to enforce a substantive right, such as the right to damages for breach of contract.
- secondary evidenceEvidence of a lower order than the best available, which becomes admissible once the best evidence is lost or out of…
- secondary inventionIn patent law, an invention that puts known elements or combinations to work so as to reach a new and useful result.
- secondary lenderA wholesale buyer of mortgages, who takes first mortgages off banks and savings-and-loan associations so that they ca…
- secondary liabilityLiability that arises only if the party primarily liable fails to meet the obligation.
- secondary marketThe market for goods or securities already once sold, above all the securities market in which investors trade shares…
- secondary meaningIn intellectual-property law, the recognition a mark or name has come to carry in the public mind as identifying one…
- secondary mortgage marketThe national market in which existing mortgages are bought and sold, usually bundled into packages.
- secondary obligationA duty that goes with a primary obligation, above all the duty to make reparation once a contract is broken.
- secondary offeringAny offering by an issuer after its first public offering; also an offering of already-issued securities by someone o…
- secondary partyIn commercial law, a party not primarily liable on an instrument, such as a drawer or an indorser, who must pay only…
- secondary picketingThe picketing of a business the union has no dispute with, done to put pressure on the business it does have a disput…
- secondary reserve ratioThe ratio between a bank's holdings of government securities and its demand and time deposits.
- secondary rightA right that procedural law gives to enforce a substantive right, such as the right to damages for a breach of contract.
- secondary strikeA strike against a neutral employer, called not over any dispute with that employer but to bring pressure on another…
- secondary tradingThe buying and selling of securities among members of the public, with neither the issuer nor the underwriter involved.
- secondary useA use that springs up when a stated event happens and puts an end to the use before it, as where land is held to one…
- secondary-line competitionCompetition among the customers of the same seller, who compete with one another at the same level of distribution.
- secondary-line injuryIn antitrust law, the harm the Robinson-Patman Act aims at when a seller charges one customer, or a favored group, be…
- secondhand evidenceTestimony repeating what someone else said rather than what the witness knows personally, so that its value depends o…
- secrecyThe state of being kept hidden, above all from those the concealment affects.
- secretSomething kept from others or shared only with those concerned; in the law of lawyering, information learned in actin…
- secret ballotA vote cast in a way that keeps the voter's identity unknown.
- secret diplomacyDiplomacy carried on behind closed doors.
- secret equityAn equitable claim or right known only to the parties for and against whom it exists, or one hidden from someone with…
- secret lienA lien that does not appear in the public records and is unknown to buyers, above all one the seller keeps back and h…
- secret partnerA partner whose connection with the firm is kept from the public.
- Secret ServiceThe federal law-enforcement agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security since 2003, responsible for suppressi…
- secret testamentA will the testator keeps secret, signing it and handing it sealed to a notary before witnesses with a declaration th…
- secret trustA gift by will to someone who has privately promised to hold it for another, the promise appearing nowhere in the will.
- secret willA will whose contents are kept unknown until the testator's death.
- secretariusAn ambassador or messenger, such as a papal legate; also an officer who laid church matters before the emperor and ca…
- secretaryThe officer of a company responsible for its official correspondence, the minutes of board meetings, and the records…
- Secretary GeneralThe chief administrative officer of the United Nations, nominated by the Security Council and elected by the General…
- secretary of embassyA diplomatic officer appointed as secretary or assistant, usually to an ambassador or minister.
- secretary of legationAn officer attached to a foreign mission to perform clerical duties.
- secretary of stateThe cabinet member who heads the State Department and conducts foreign policy, and who stands fourth in line of succe…
- secreteTo hide property, or move it secretly, above all so that officials or creditors cannot find it.
- sectaIn Roman law, a body of followers, as of a school of philosophy or a religion. Formerly, the people a claimant had to…
- secta ad molendinumA writ to compel a tenant to bring grain to be ground at the lord's mill, as custom required.
- secta curiaeAttendance at court, above all by feudal tenants bound to attend the lord's court as jurors or parties.
- secta facienda per illam quae habet eniciam partemFormerly, a writ ordering the eldest heir or coparcener to perform suit and services on behalf of all the others.
- secta unica tantum facienda pro pluribus haereditatibusFormerly, a writ excusing the eldest heir, distrained by a lord to perform several services for the coheirs, from per…
- sectarianOf or relating to a particular religious sect.
- sectatoresIn Roman law, the supporters who accompanied a candidate for office during a campaign, chiefly to impress the voters.
- sectionA distinct part or division of a writing, above all of a statute or other legal document.
- section 8(f) agreementIn labor law, a construction-industry contract made with a union that cannot yet show it represents a majority of the…
- section of landA piece of land one mile square, containing 640 acres, being one thirty-sixth of a township under the public-land sur…
- sectis non faciendisA writ excusing a person from performing suit of court.
- secularWorldly, as opposed to spiritual.
- secular clergyClergy who live among the people in their parishes and minister there, as opposed to regular clergy, who live under a…
- secundumAccording to, or in favor of, as in secundum actorem, in favor of the claimant.
- secundum artemAccording to the art or trade.
- secundum bonos moresFormerly, according to good usage.
- secundum consuetudinem maneriiFormerly, according to the custom of the manor.
- secundum regulamFormerly, according to the rule.
- secundum subjectam materiamFormerly, according to the subject matter.
- securedOf a debt, backed by collateral; of a creditor, protected by a pledge, mortgage, or other charge on property.
- secured bondA bond backed by some form of security.
- secured claimA claim held by a creditor with a lien on the debtor's property, or a right to set the debt off against what they owe…
- secured creditorA creditor entitled, if the debtor defaults, to take the collateral and apply it toward the debt.
- secured debtA debt backed by collateral, so that the creditor may look to specific property if it is not paid.
- secured loanA loan backed by property or securities pledged as collateral.
- secured noteA note backed by a pledge of real or personal property as collateral.
- secured partyA creditor entitled, if the debtor defaults, to take the collateral and apply it to the debt.
- secured transactionAn arrangement by which a buyer or borrower gives the seller or lender collateral to secure payment of what is owed.
- securitasIn Roman law, security, or freedom from liability; in civil law, a release.
- securitatem inveniendiFormerly, a writ requiring a person to find security, as for keeping the peace or for appearing in court.
- securities actA federal or state statute protecting the public by regulating the registration, offering, and trading of securities.
- Securities Act of 1933The federal statute governing the registration and first public offering of securities, resting above all on full dis…
- Securities and Exchange CommissionThe federal agency that regulates the issue and trading of securities so as to protect investors from fraud and unfai…
- securities brokerA broker engaged to buy or sell securities for a customer, as opposed to a dealer, who trades as principal before sel…
- securities exchangeA marketplace organized for the buying and selling of securities, above all stocks; also the body of people who organ…
- Securities Exchange Act of 1934The federal statute governing the public trading of securities. It provides for the registration and oversight of exc…
- Securities Investor Protection ActThe federal statute of 1970 that created the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which, though not a governme…
- Securities Investor Protection CorporationThe body created under the Securities Investor Protection Act to protect the customers of brokers and dealers who get…
- securities-offering distributionAn issuer's public offering of securities through a formal underwriting agreement with a broker-dealer; also, such an…
- securitizeTo turn assets into negotiable securities that can be sold on, letting the institution take them off its books, impro…
- securityCollateral pledged to guarantee that an obligation will be met, above all that a creditor will be repaid; also a pers…
- security agreementAn agreement creating an interest in named property to secure the performance of an obligation.
- Security CouncilThe body of the United Nations charged with keeping international peace, made up of five permanent members - China, F…
- security depositMoney a tenant or customer leaves with another as security for performance, to be returned if the terms are kept.
- security for costsMoney, property, or a bond a claimant or appellant gives the court to secure the costs if they lose.
- security gradeThe grading of a security by financial strength, stability, or risk, as firms such as Standard & Poor's and Moody's d…
- security interestAn interest in property, created by agreement or by law, securing the performance of an obligation, above all the rep…
- security ratingThe grading of a security by financial strength, stability, or risk; also the grade a particular security receives.
- sed non allocaturBut it is not allowed: the words formerly entered to show that the court rejected counsel's argument.
- sed per curiamBut by the court: words introducing either a statement by the court rejecting counsel's argument, or the view of the…
- sed quaereBut inquire further: a note marking a statement whose correctness is doubted.
- sed videBut see: a note before a citation pointing the reader to authority that conflicts with what has just been said.
- sedentary workWork involving light lifting and only occasional walking or standing. Under the Social Security rules it means liftin…
- sedesIn Roman law, a private residence; also judicial office, or the bench. Formerly, a bishop's see.
- sedge flatA tract of land lying below the high-water mark.
- seditionAgreement or advocacy aimed at stirring up rebellion against public authority, where it is likely to bring about immi…
- seditiousStirring up or tending to stir up rebellion against public authority.
- seditious conspiracyA conspiracy to use force to overthrow or destroy the U.S. government, resist its authority, prevent its laws from be…
- seditious libelLibel published to stir up sedition. Like other forms of criminal libel, it is no longer prosecuted.
- seditious speechSpeech urging rebellion against public authority, punishable only where it is directed to inciting imminent lawless a…
- seductionThe offense, once recognized, of persuading a woman of previously chaste character into intercourse by promises, soli…
- seeThe district over which a bishop has jurisdiction.
- seed moneyThe first money put into a new business venture.
- segregationThe separating of things or people; above all the unconstitutional policy of separating people by race, nationality,…
- seigniorThe lord of a fee or manor.
- seignior in grossA lord who holds no manor but has the other rights of lordship.
- seigniorageFormerly, the relation between lord and vassal; also a Crown prerogative, above all the charge made for coining bulli…
- seignioryThe rights and powers of a lord, above all a grantor's reserved right to services from the grantee in return for the…
- seigniory in grossA lordship held apart from any manor, the rights of lordship surviving though the land itself has gone.
- seignoryThe rights and powers of a lord, above all a grantor's reserved right to services from the grantee in return for the…
- seiseTo put a person in possession of a freehold estate.
- seisinPossession of a freehold estate in land.
- seisin in deedActual possession of a freehold estate, whether held in person or through a tenant or agent, as opposed to possession…
- seisin in factActual possession of a freehold estate, as opposed to possession the law merely recognizes.
- seisin in lawThe right to immediate possession of a freehold estate, as where an heir has inherited land but not yet entered on it.
- seisina habendaA writ to put a person in possession of land they are entitled to hold.
- seizeTo take possession of a person or property by force; also to put someone in possession, or to be in possession.
- seizureThe taking of a person or property by legal right or process, above all, in constitutional law, an arrest or confisca…
- select committeeA temporary legislative committee appointed for a particular non-legislative task, such as settling an election dispu…
- select councilIn some states, the upper chamber of a city council.
- selective disclosureThe disclosing of part of a privileged communication, or of one of several, usually because that part helps the party…
- selective enforcementThe practice of law-enforcement officers exercising wide or unchecked discretion over when and where to enforce parti…
- selective incorporationApplying particular provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states, one at a time, rather than all at once. Justice B…
- selective prosecutionThe singling out of a person for prosecution, above all because they belong to a protected group or have exercised a…
- selective prospectivityA court's applying a new rule to the very case in which it announces the rule, while leaving the old rule to govern o…
- Selective Service SystemThe executive agency that keeps the records of those eligible for military service and would run any future draft.
- selectmanA municipal officer elected each year in some New England towns to conduct town business and perform certain executiv…
- self-applyingOf a statute, needing nothing for its interpretation beyond the ordinary meaning of the words.
- self-authenticationAuthentication needing no outside proof of genuineness. In federal courts certain documents, such as notarized instru…
- self-criminationThe exposing of oneself to prosecution by showing one's own part in a crime, above all by making a statement.
- self-critical-analysis privilegeA privilege protecting a person or organization from having to disclose a candid internal assessment of its own compl…
- self-dealTo deal with oneself, or with an entity one owes a fiduciary duty to, after disclosing fully to everyone concerned th…
- self-dealingTaking part in a transaction that benefits oneself at the expense of someone to whom one owes a fiduciary duty, as wh…
- self-defenseThe use of force to protect oneself, one's family, or one's property from an attack or the threat of one. A person ma…
- self-destructionThe taking of one's own life.
- self-determination contractUnder the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, an agreement under which the federal government fun…
- self-determination electionThe vote by which a group of employees decides whether to be represented as a unit of their own or as part of a large…
- self-employed retirement planA tax-deferred retirement plan for the self-employed, also called an H.R. 10 plan after the bill that created it.
- self-employment taxThe social-security tax charged on the net earnings of a self-employed person.
- self-executingOf an instrument, taking effect at once without anything further being done. A treaty, for example, is self-executing…
- self-helpAn attempt to right a wrong by one's own action rather than through the courts.
- self-help remedyA remedy a party takes without going to court, such as repossessing goods.
- self-incriminationThe exposing of oneself to prosecution by showing one's own part in a crime, above all by making a statement.
- Self-Incrimination ClauseThe clause of the Fifth Amendment forbidding the government to compel a person to give evidence against themselves.
- self-induced frustrationA breach of contract brought about by one party's own act, which then makes performance impossible. The name misleads…
- self-induced intoxicationDeliberately drinking or taking drugs to the point of impairment, knowing that it will impair one's body and mind. Su…
- self-insuranceAn arrangement under which a business sets money aside to meet its own losses rather than buying cover from an insurer.
- self-insured retentionIn insurance law, the part of an otherwise covered loss that the policy does not meet and that the insured must usual…
- self-killingThe taking of one's own life.
- self-liquidating mortgageA mortgage whose regular payments cover interest and part of the principal, so that the loan is paid off in full by t…
- self-murderThe taking of one's own life.
- self-policing privilegeA privilege protecting a person or company from having to reveal a candid internal assessment of their own compliance…
- self-proved willA will proved by the testator's own sworn statement rather than by the live evidence of the attesting witnesses.
- self-proving affidavitAn affidavit attached to a will and signed by the witnesses, stating that the testator was of sound mind and under no…
- self-redressAn attempt to right a wrong by one's own action rather than through the courts.
- self-serving declarationAn out-of-court statement made to serve the speaker's own interest.
- self-settled trustA trust the settlor sets up for their own benefit, usually to put the assets beyond the reach of creditors. In most s…
- self-slaughterThe taking of one's own life.
- self-stultificationThe giving of evidence about one's own incapacity or shortcomings.
- sellTo transfer property by sale.
- sell orderAn investor's instruction to sell shares.
- sell-offA spell in which heavy selling pressure drives stock prices down.
- sellerA person who sells or agrees to sell goods; generally, anyone who sells, and the party who transfers property under a…
- selling agentThe estate agent who finds the buyer, as opposed to the one who took the property onto the books.
- selling priceThe whole amount for which property is sold, often including the cost of services forming part of the sale.
- sembleIt seems: a word used above all to mark an obiter remark in a judgment, or to introduce a thought held tentatively.
- semestriaThe decisions of the Roman emperors, collected and issued every six months.
- semi-matrimoniumA half-marriage: a union short of full lawful marriage.
- semi-skilled workWork needing some alertness and close attention, such as inspecting goods or machinery for faults or guarding propert…
- seminaryA place of education, such as a college or academy, and the building it occupies.
- seminaufragiumFormerly, a half-shipwreck: as where goods are thrown overboard in a storm, or a damaged ship would cost more to repa…
- semperAlways. The word opens several Latin maxims, such as the rule that in doubtful cases the more favorable reading is al…
- senageMoney paid as synodals, or tribute money.
- senateThe upper chamber of a two-chamber legislature; in Congress, the house of one hundred members, two from each state, e…
- senate billA bill introduced in the Senate, which must also pass the other chamber before it can become law.
- senatoresMembers of the Roman senate, and of the municipal councils.
- senatorial courtesyThe custom that the President should fill a senior federal post, such as a judgeship, with someone acceptable to the…
- senatusThe senate: the great council of Roman statesmen; also its meeting place.
- senatus consultaAdvice given by the Roman Senate, which carried no legal force, though it was generally followed, until the end of th…
- senatus consultum ultimae necessitatisA decree of the senate in the last extremity, which usually preceded the appointment of a leader with absolute power…
- sending stateThe country that sends a diplomat or consul abroad.
- senescallusA French office answering to the English steward, originally the lieutenant of a duke or other great person; also the…
- seneschalA French office answering to the English steward, originally the lieutenant of a duke or other great person; also the…
- senilityMental decline brought on by old age. A person senile in the legal sense cannot make a binding contract or a valid will.
- seniorOf a debt, ranking ahead of junior obligations; of a person, older, or higher in rank or length of service; of a man,…
- senior counselThe senior lawyer on a case; in England and other Commonwealth countries, a barrister appointed King's Counsel or Que…
- senior interestAn interest ranking ahead of others, above all a debt security or preferred share with a prior claim on a company's a…
- senior judgeThe judge who has served longest on a court; also a federal judge who qualifies for senior status and takes it rather…
- senior lienA lien ranking ahead of the other liens on the same property.
- senior mortgageA mortgage ranking ahead of another on the same property.
- senior partnerA high-ranking partner, as in a law firm.
- senior securityA security of a class ranking ahead of another for dividends or for assets on a winding-up.
- senior statusThe position of a judge who has taken semi-retirement but continues to hear such cases as they are willing and able t…
- seniorityThe preference an employee earns by length of service, which may bring better benefits and an advantage in promotions…
- seniority systemAny arrangement that takes length of service into account in deciding layoffs, promotions, and other advancement.
- sensitivity trainingTraining for managers and staff meant to check callous treatment of others at work, above all of women and members of…
- sensusSense or meaning, as in the phrases malo sensu, in an evil sense, and mitiori sensu, in a milder sense.
- sentenceThe judgment a court pronounces after a criminal defendant is found guilty, and the punishment it imposes.
- sentence capIn military law, a pretrial agreement in a court-martial putting a ceiling on the punishment that may be imposed.
- sentence-factor manipulationThe luring of a defendant who was ready to commit a lesser offense into committing a graver one that carries a heavie…
- sentence-package ruleIn criminal procedure, the rule that where several counts were sentenced together as a package, a court setting aside…
- sentencing councilA panel of three or more judges who confer to settle a criminal sentence. Sentencing by a council is far less common…
- sentencing entrapmentEntrapment of a defendant who was ready to commit a lesser offense but was unlawfully induced to commit a more seriou…
- sentencing guidelinesStandards for fixing the punishment a convicted offender should receive, based on the offense and the offender's reco…
- sententiaSense or meaning; also an opinion, above all a judicial one.
- SEPA retirement account set up for an employee and funded by the employee's own deferred pay and by whatever the employe…
- separability clauseA clause keeping the rest of a contract or statute in force if part of it is held void or unconstitutional.
- separableCapable of being separated.
- separable controversyA claim standing apart from the other claims in a suit. The phrase belongs above all to the statute allowing a whole…
- separaliterSeparately: a word once used in an indictment to make plain that several defendants were charged with separate offens…
- separateIndividual and distinct, standing apart from others.
- separate actionAn action brought alone by each of several claimants involved in the same transaction who cannot lawfully join togeth…
- separate and apartOf a married couple, living away from each other, at least one of them meaning to end the marriage.
- separate caucusA confidential mediation session between the mediator and one side alone, used to draw out what that side will offer…
- separate countOne of two or more criminal charges in a single indictment, each treated as a separate charge on which the accused ma…
- separate covenantA covenant binding two or more covenantors each on their own.
- separate demiseIn an ejectment action, a demise made by the lessor alone.
- separate estateProperty belonging to one of two people who stand in a marital or business relationship, held separately from what th…
- separate examinationThe questioning of a witness apart from the others in the case; also, formerly, the questioning of a wife away from h…
- separate maintenanceMoney one spouse pays the other for support once they have stopped living together as a couple, often under a court o…
- separate offenseAn offense arising from the same event as another but requiring proof of something different, so that a person may be…
- separate propertyIn a community-property state, property a spouse owned before marriage, or acquired during it by inheritance or gift,…
- separate returnA tax return each spouse files alone, showing their own income and tax. Unlike a joint return, it leaves each spouse…
- separate supportMoney one spouse pays the other for support while they live apart without divorcing.
- separate trialIn criminal procedure, the separate trial of each of several people jointly accused. In civil procedure, a distinct t…
- separate useA holding of property for a married woman's own benefit, which kept her husband from taking anything under the deed.
- separate verdictA verdict returned separately for each party or for each claim, rather than a single verdict covering the whole case.
- separate-but-equal doctrineThe now-discredited doctrine that segregating black Americans was lawful so long as they were given equal facilities…
- separate-sovereigns ruleIn criminal procedure, the rule that a person may be tried twice for the same conduct without offending the double-je…
- separatimSeverally: a word once used to mark several separate covenants in a deed.
- separationAn arrangement by which a married couple live apart while remaining married, whether by agreement or by court order;…
- separation a mensa et thoroA separation from bed and board: a court-ordered separation that leaves the marriage itself standing.
- separation agreementAn agreement between spouses who are separating or divorcing, dealing with maintenance, the division of property, and…
- separation from bed and boardA court-ordered separation that relieves the spouses of the duty to live together but leaves the marriage itself stan…
- separation of patrimonyThe setting apart of a dead person's property from the heirs' own, so that the estate's creditors can be paid out of…
- separation of powersThe division of governmental authority among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, each with its own dut…
- separation of witnessesThe keeping of witnesses out of the courtroom, apart from the parties, so that they do not hear one another's evidence.
- separation orderA court order settling the terms on which spouses are to live apart, dealing with maintenance, property, and the chil…
- separation payMoney, apart from wages owed, that an employer pays a dismissed employee, often in return for giving up any claims ag…
- sequatur sub suo periculoFormerly, a writ issued where the sheriff had returned nothing to several successive summonses.
- sequelaSuit or process, as in sequela curiae, a suit of court, and sequela causae, the process of a cause.
- sequela villanorumFormerly, a villein's family and belongings, which lay at the lord's disposal.
- sequential journalA notary public's running record of official acts, usually a bound book giving the date, time, and kind of each act,…
- sequesterTo take property out of a possessor's hands and hold it until a dispute over it is settled; also, of government spend…
- sequestered accountAn account, such as a joint bank account, that a court has ordered to be separated, frozen, and held.
- sequestererAn officer appointed to carry out a writ of sequestration, or a person who holds property under one.
- sequestrari faciasFormerly, in church law, a process for enforcing a judgment against a clergyman holding a benefice, by which the bish…
- sequestrateTo take property out of a possessor's hands and hold it until a dispute over it is settled.
- sequestratioThe placing of a disputed object in a third person's hands, whether by agreement or by court order.
- sequestrationThe taking of property out of the possessor's hands and holding it while two or more parties fight over it.
- sequestratorAn officer appointed to carry out a writ of sequestration, or a person who holds property under one.
- serendipity doctrineIn criminal procedure, the rule that anything found during a lawful search may be used in evidence, even if the offic…
- serfA person bound in feudal servitude to work at a lord's will. Serfs differed from slaves in being bound to the land ra…
- sergeantFormerly, a man holding land by military service without being a knight; also a municipal officer acting for the Crow…
- Sergeant Schultz defenseA defense in which the accused claims to have taken no active part in the scheme and to have known nothing, seen noth…
- sergeant-at-armsFormerly, an armed officer attending a sovereign, or one assigned to attend a sitting of Parliament; now an officer a…
- serial bondA bond issued at the same time as others in the same issue but maturing on different dates.
- serial murderA pattern of killing in which one person murders several victims on separate occasions, chosen at random or because t…
- serial noteA note payable at regular intervals.
- serial rightThe right to publish, above all a right kept back in a publishing contract allowing the work to appear in installment…
- serial violationIn civil-rights law, an employer's committing of a series of discriminatory acts against an employee, all springing f…
- seriatimOne after another, in turn.
- seriatim opinionsA series of opinions written separately by each judge, rather than one opinion speaking for the whole court.
- series bondsA group of bonds issued under the same indenture but offered to the public at different times, with different maturit…
- seriousOf conduct, weighty or important; of an injury or illness, dangerous, and liable to end in death or lasting harm.
- serious and willful misconductIn workers'-compensation law, a deliberate act done knowing that serious injury is likely, or in reckless disregard o…
- serious crimeAn offense heavier than a petty offense, usually carrying at least six months' imprisonment.
- serious illnessIn insurance law, a disorder that has permanently or materially damaged the health of the insured or applicant, or is…
- serious offenseAn offense that is more than petty, usually carrying a possible sentence of six months or more.
- serjeantFormerly, a man holding land by military service without being a knight; also a municipal officer acting for the Crow…
- serjeant-at-armsFormerly, an armed officer attending a sovereign, or one assigned to attend a sitting of Parliament; now an officer a…
- serjeant-at-lawIn English law, a barrister of the highest rank, who until 1846 alone might practice in the Court of Common Pleas. Ev…
- serjeantyA feudal tenure by service owed to the king alone.
- serological testA blood test some states once required of couples applying for a marriage license, to check for venereal disease.
- serva alienaAnother person's slave.
- servageA feudal service under which the tenant, besides paying rent, had to furnish one or more workers to the lord.
- servantA person employed by another to work under the employer's control and direction.
- serveTo deliver a notice or process formally, in the manner the law requires.
- serviceThe formal delivery of a writ, summons, or other legal process, or of some other legal notice such as a pleading.
- service by publicationService of process on an absent or non-resident defendant by publishing notice in a newspaper or other public medium.
- service chargeA charge made for performing a service, such as the sum a bank charges for keeping a customer's checking account.
- service contractA contract to perform a service, especially a written agreement to maintain or repair a consumer product for a set pe…
- service establishmentUnder the Fair Labor Standards Act, a business that looks like a retail store but chiefly supplies services to the pu…
- service lifeThe period over which an asset is expected to remain useful, which may differ from the period over which it may be de…
- service of processThe formal delivery of a writ, summons, or other legal process to the party it is meant for.
- service of summons upon himSubmitting oneself to a court's authority, which in early practice required some positive step by the defendant, such…
- service-occupation taxA tax on those who sell services, usually reckoned as a percentage of the cost of any goods handed over as part of th…
- servicemarkA name or other mark used to identify and distinguish one provider's services. Servicemarks protect services, as trad…
- serviens narratorIn English law, a barrister of the highest rank, who until 1846 alone might practice in the Court of Common Pleas.
- servientOf an estate, burdened by a servitude or easement.
- servient estateAn estate burdened by an easement held by someone else.
- servient propertyAn estate burdened by an easement.
- servient tenantThe person holding the burdened estate, over which the easement runs.
- servient tenementAn estate burdened by an easement.
- servitiumThe duty of service, above all a tenant's duty of performance and obedience to the lord.
- servitium feodale et praedialeFormerly, a service owed only by reason of holding land in fee.
- servitium regaleFormerly, the right of the lord of a royal manor to settle disputes, levy assessments, coin money, and the like.
- servitium scutiFormerly, knight service.
- servitium socaeFormerly, socage: the service of the plow.
- servitor of billsA messenger of the marshal of the King's Bench, sent out to summon people to court.
- servitudeA burden on land giving someone a limited right to use it without possessing it. Easements, licenses, and profits are…
- servitude appurtenantA servitude that does not merely burden one piece of land but belongs to another piece as an advantage attached to it.
- servitude in grossA servitude that belongs to no dominant land but is simply a burden on the land it affects.
- servitusA servitude: a burden on one piece of land for the benefit of another or of a person.
- servitus altius non tollendiA servitude forbidding a neighbor to build any higher, so as to preserve light or a view.
- servitus aquae educendaeIn Roman law, a servitude entitling a person to discharge water onto a neighbor's land.
- servitus fluminisIn Roman law, the right to discharge rainwater onto a neighbor's land in a stream, as through a gutter, as opposed to…
- servitus fumi immittendiA servitude allowing a person's chimney smoke to be carried over a neighbor's land.
- servitus itinerisIn Roman law, a servitude allowing a person to walk or ride over another's land, but not to drive animals across it.
- servitus luminumIn Roman law, a servitude entitling a person to light from a neighbor's land, as by opening windows in a shared wall.
- servitus ne prospectui officiaturA servitude entitling a person to a view that is not blocked.
- servitus oneris ferendiIn Roman law, a servitude allowing a person's building to rest on a neighbor's building, wall, or pillar.
- servitus pascendiIn Roman law, a servitude allowing a person to pasture cattle on a neighbor's land.
- servitus pecoris ad aquam adpulsumIn Roman law, a servitude allowing a person to drive cattle across a neighbor's land to water.
- servitus praedii rusticiIn Roman law, a servitude attached to rural land, such as a right of way or a right to water cattle.
- servitus praedii urbaniIn Roman law, a servitude attached to a town property, such as a right to light or to rest a beam on a neighbor's wall.
- servusIn Roman law, a slave; formerly, a bondman or servant.
- sessIn English law, an assessment or tax; in Scots law, a land tax.
- sessioA session or sitting, as in sessio parliamenti, the sitting of Parliament.
- sessionA meeting of a court, legislature, or other body to do business; also the stretch of any day during which it sits.
- session lawsThe statutes a legislature passes in a particular sitting, and the volumes in which they are published.
- set asideOf a court, to annul or vacate a judgment or order.
- set downTo fix a case for trial or hearing, usually by an entry on the docket.
- set forthTo state or recite facts in a document.
- set of exchangeIn commercial law, a bill of exchange drawn in several parts, each valid only so long as none of the others has been…
- set offA demand the defendant sets up against the claimant to cancel out or reduce what is owed, arising from a transaction…
- set outTo state or recite facts in a document.
- set overTo transfer or convey property.
- set upTo raise a defense.
- set-asideSomething reserved for a particular purpose, such as a share of funds.
- setbackIn real-estate law, the least space allowed between a lot line and a building. Zoning rules and deed restrictions imp…
- setoffA demand the defendant sets up against the claimant, arising from a transaction other than the one sued on; also a de…
- settingThe date and time a court fixes for a trial or hearing.
- settle upTo collect and pay the debts and hand over the property of a dead person or a failed business.
- settled estateAn estate created under a settlement, in which the settlement's terms restrain the ordinary powers to sell, devise, a…
- settlementThe settling of property on beneficiaries, usually the settlor's family, in a way that differs from what they would t…
- settlement classA group of similarly placed people for whom a representative claimant and the opposing party propose a settlement cov…
- settlement creditIn civil procedure, a court's reduction of a jury's award, or of its effect on defendants who did not settle, to allo…
- settlement dateThe day by which an investor must pay the broker for securities bought, or by which a seller must hand over the certi…
- settlement of accountsThe settling of accounts between parties so that what each owes the other is worked out and the balance struck.
- settlement optionA clause in a life-insurance policy offering choices in how the benefit is paid, whether as a lump sum or by installm…
- settlement sheetA written breakdown of the costs in a particular property transaction, usually prepared by the lender or the escrow a…
- settlement statementA written breakdown of the costs in a particular property transaction, usually prepared by the lender or the escrow a…
- settlement valueWhat a claim is worth if settled now rather than fought on through litigation.
- settlement-first methodA way of applying a settlement credit in which the verdict is first cut by the settlements the claimant has already r…
- settlerA person who occupies land meaning to make a home there, above all an early resident of a region.
- settlorA person who settles property on others, above all one who sets up a trust.
- seven-years'-absence ruleThe rule that a person missing without explanation for at least seven years is presumed dead.
- Seventeenth AmendmentThe constitutional amendment, ratified in 1913, which moved the election of senators from the state legislatures to t…
- Seventh AmendmentThe constitutional amendment, ratified with the Bill of Rights in 1791, guaranteeing a jury trial in federal civil ca…
- severabilityWhether the objectionable part of a contract or statute can be struck out and the rest left standing. Courts will do…
- severability clauseA clause keeping the rest of a contract or statute in force if part of it is held void or unconstitutional.
- severable contractA contract containing two or more promises, each enforceable on its own, so that failing to perform one does not nece…
- severable statuteA statute whose invalid parts can be struck out while the rest continues in force.
- severalMore than one but not many; of liability, separate and distinct though not necessarily independent; of things, various.
- several actionAn action brought alone by each of several claimants involved in the same transaction who cannot lawfully join togeth…
- several contractA contract containing two or more promises each enforceable on its own, so that failing to keep one does not necessar…
- several countOne of two or more counts in a pleading, each setting out a different cause of action.
- several covenantA covenant that binds each of two or more covenantors separately.
- several demiseFormerly, in an ejectment action, a list of leases alleged as made by everyone who might own the land, so that the cl…
- several demisesIn an ejectment action, leases alleged as made by several different people, so that the claimant could prove one from…
- several fisheryAn exclusive right to fish in a stretch of water that is neither the holder's own land nor the land of whoever grante…
- several inheritanceAn inheritance that descends to two people separately, each taking a share.
- several liabilityLiability that falls on each of two or more people separately, so that the injured party may sue any one of them for…
- several obligationAn obligation binding two or more debtors to separate performances for one creditor, or one debtor to separate perfor…
- several tenancyA tenancy held alone rather than jointly with anyone else.
- several-remedies ruleA rule that stops the limitation period running against a claimant who has more than one forum open to them, such as…
- severallySeparately, each on their own.
- severaltyThe holding of property alone, without any other person sharing in it.
- severanceThe cutting off of something; also a court's separation of the claims of several parties so that each may be tried on…
- severance damagesIn a condemnation case, compensation to a landowner for the fall in market value of the land left behind after part o…
- severance of actionsA court's separation of the claims of several parties so that each may be tried on its own.
- severance of claimsA court's separation of the claims of several parties so that each may be tried on its own.
- severance payMoney, apart from wages owed, that an employer pays a dismissed employee, often in return for giving up any claims ag…
- severance taxA tax on the value of oil, gas, timber, or other natural resources taken from the ground.
- sewardThe officer formerly charged with guarding the coast and the king's rights over the sea.
- sewer serviceThe false service of process on a debtor by a creditor who wants a judgment by default, the papers never in fact reac…
- sexThe set of bodily differences that mark a male from a female; also sexual intercourse and other sexual activity.
- sex discriminationDiscrimination on grounds of sex, especially against women.
- sexual abuseAn unlawful sexual act, especially one committed by an adult against a child; also, sexual activity with someone with…
- sexual activitySexual intercourse and other physical sexual activity short of intercourse, such as the touching of another's genital…
- sexual assaultSexual intercourse with someone without their consent. Several states have replaced the offense of rape with this one…
- sexual batteryForced penetration of, or contact with, the sexual organs of another or of the person committing the act.
- sexual harassmentEmployment discrimination consisting in verbal or physical abuse of a sexual nature.
- sexual offenseAn offense involving unlawful sexual conduct.
- sexual orientationA person's enduring attraction to people of the other sex, the same sex, or both. Statutes increasingly protect it, a…
- sexual relationsSexual intercourse and other physical sexual activity short of intercourse.
- sexually transmitted diseaseA disease passed on chiefly by sexual contact with an infected person, such as syphilis or gonorrhea.
- SFA fund built up by regular deposits, with interest, to pay off a long-term corporate or public debt when it falls due.
- SGThe second-ranking legal officer of a government after the attorney general, who argues the executive's cases in the…
- shackThe straying of cattle off their owner's land onto other unenclosed ground, where several people's beasts graze toget…
- shadow juryA group of mock jurors paid to sit through a trial and report their reactions to a consultant working for one side. C…
- shadow stock planA long-term benefit plan giving an employee units that track the value of the employer's shares without being shares…
- shakedownExtortion of money by threats of violence, or, where a police officer does it, by threats of arrest.
- shakedown searchA usually random search, made without a warrant, of a prisoner's cell for contraband such as weapons or drugs.
- shakeoutThe dying away of weak or unproductive businesses in an industry, above all during fierce competition or falling prices.
- shallHas a duty to. Courts have also read the word as meaning “should,” “may,” “will,” or “is entitled to,” but only the f…
- shamSomething that is not what it appears to be; also a person who pretends to be what they are not.
- sham affidavitAn affidavit contradicting clear evidence the same witness gave earlier, usually put in to manufacture a disputed fac…
- sham defenseA false defense put forward in bad faith.
- sham exceptionAn exception to the rule that petitioning the government is protected, under which a company gets neither First Amend…
- sham litigationLitigation brought not to win but to burden a competitor, which loses the protection normally given to those who peti…
- sham marriageA marriage a U.S. citizen enters into with a foreign national purely to let that person settle permanently in the Uni…
- sham petitioningPetitioning the government not to obtain any real government action but to harm a competitor, which forfeits the usua…
- sham pleaA plainly frivolous or absurd pleading put in only to vex the other side or cause delay.
- sham pleadingAn obviously frivolous or absurd pleading, put in only to vex the other side or gain delay.
- sham prosecutionA prosecution dressed up as one by a separate sovereign so as to evade the bar on double jeopardy, when in truth the…
- sham transactionA transaction with no economic point beyond the tax advantage it creates, such as a manufactured business loss. The t…
- shame sanctionA punishment meant to shame the offender and often to warn the public, as by requiring a sign in the offender's yard…
- shaming sentenceA sentence meant to shame the offender publicly and often to warn others of the conviction.
- shanghaiingThe forcing or tricking of a person into doing something, above all the old practice of drugging or deceiving someone…
- shareA portion belonging to someone; also one of the equal parts into which a company's capital is divided, each represent…
- share accountAn account a member keeps at a credit union, drawn on by share drafts payable to third parties, much as a checking ac…
- share acquisitionThe taking over of a company by buying all or most of its shares directly from the shareholders.
- share and share alikeTo divide assets in equal shares, each person taking a like portion.
- share certificateAn instrument showing ownership of shares or of a bond.
- share draftA demand a credit-union member draws on their share account in favor of a third party, working much like a check draw…
- share splitThe issuing of two or more new shares for each old one, leaving every shareholder's proportion untouched. A three-for…
- share-draft accountAn account a member holds at a credit union, drawn on by share drafts payable to third parties. It works much like a…
- share-warrant to bearerA warrant entitling whoever holds it to a stated number of fully paid shares, the shares passing by delivery of the w…
- sharecroppingA farming arrangement in which a landowner lets land and equipment to a tenant who pays rent with a share of the crop.
- shared custodyAn arrangement in which both parents share responsibility for and authority over the child at all times.
- shared-appreciation mortgageA mortgage giving the lender the right to take an agreed share of any rise in the property's value, as contingent int…
- shared-equity mortgageA mortgage under which the lender shares the profit when the property is resold. The lender usually has to buy that s…
- shareholderA person who owns shares in a company.
- shareholder derivative suitA suit brought by a shareholder on the company's behalf against someone, usually an officer, whom the company itself…
- shareholder oppressionConduct by those in control of a company that unfairly defeats the reasonable expectations of a minority shareholder,…
- shareholder proposalA proposal by one or more shareholders to change company policy or procedure. The company ordinarily circulates it to…
- shareholder resolutionA resolution passed by the shareholders, usually approving what the board has done.
- shareholder voting agreementAn agreement among shareholders that their shares will be voted together as one block.
- shareholder-control agreementAn agreement among shareholders that their shares will be voted together as one block.
- shareownerA person who owns shares in a company.
- shares outstandingShares held by investors and not bought back by the issuing company.
- shark repellentA step a company takes to make itself unattractive to a hostile bidder, such as issuing new shares, buying costly ass…
- sharpOf a clause in a mortgage or deed, allowing the creditor to act at once and without formality on the debtor's default.
- sharp practiceUnethical trickery, above all by a lawyer.
- shaveTo buy a negotiable instrument at a steeper discount than usual; also to cut a price.
- sheet actsThe statutes a legislature passes in a particular sitting, and the volumes in which they are published.
- shelf issueAn issue of securities registered earlier but held back and released later, when market conditions suit.
- shelf registrationRegistration with the SEC of securities to be sold gradually over time, which spares the issuer the delay and market…
- shelf securityA security set aside for release under a shelf registration.
- shell corporationA corporation with no real business of its own, existing chiefly in name as a vehicle for another company's operations.
- shelterAn arrangement, often an investment, whose chief purpose is to reduce or postpone the tax the owner would otherwise pay.
- shelter doctrineIn commercial law, the rule that anyone who takes commercial paper from a holder in due course, and anyone who takes…
- shepardizeTo trace what has happened to a case since it was decided, using a citator, and so to judge how far it is still good…
- sheriffA county's chief peace officer, usually elected, who in most places keeps the county jail, executes civil and crimina…
- sheriff's deedA deed giving ownership of property bought at a sheriff's sale.
- sheriff’s juryFormerly, a jury the sheriff summoned to hold inquests, as to assess damages where the defendant put up no defense or…
- Sherman Antitrust ActThe federal statute of 1890 forbidding direct or indirect interference with free competition in the production and di…
- shield lawA statute allowing journalists to refuse to name their confidential sources; also a statute restricting the use in a…
- shiftingChanging or passing from one to another.
- shifting clauseAt common law, a clause under the Statute of Uses laying down a different course of devolution in the settlement of a…
- shifting incomeA device by which a taxpayer in a high bracket moves income to someone taxed less heavily, usually a spouse or child.
- shifting riskIn insurance law, the changing risk covered by a policy on a stock of goods whose amount and make-up alter as trade g…
- shifting stock of merchandiseA stock of goods that changes as items are bought and sold in the ordinary course of trade.
- shifting the burden of proofThe passing of the duty to produce evidence from one side to the other as a case goes on, once the first side has mad…
- shifting trustA trust providing that on a stated event it may operate in favor of a further or substituted beneficiary.
- shifting useA use that springs up when a stated event happens and puts an end to the use before it, as where land is held to one…
- shillA person who poses as an ordinary bystander at a confidence trick but is in fact a decoy for those running it.
- shin plasterA banknote that has lost most of its value, above all the paper money of the Republic of Texas against the dollar; al…
- shingle theoryIn securities law, the idea that a broker-dealer who hangs out a shingle and holds themselves out as a professional m…
- shipA vessel used, or meant to be used, in navigation.
- ship brokerThe business agent of a shipowner or charterer, standing between them and the shipper; also a person who arranges the…
- Ship Mortgage ActThe federal statute governing mortgages on ships registered in the United States, which among other things provides f…
- ship’s husbandIn maritime law, the person appointed to act as general agent for all the co-owners of a ship, contracting for the se…
- ship’s papersIn maritime law, the documents a vessel must carry as the primary proof of her nationality, ownership, cargo and dest…
- shipmasterThe commander of a merchant vessel, responsible for her navigation and for the safety of crew and cargo.
- shipmentThe carrying of goods, above all their delivery to a carrier and the issue of a bill of lading; also the goods so sent.
- shipment contractA contract under which the seller bears the risk of damage only until the goods reach the place of shipment. Where a…
- shipowner-negligence doctrineThe rule that a shipowner is liable when a crew member is assaulted by a superior in the course of the ship's busines…
- shipperA person who sends goods to another, or who hands them to a carrier for transport.
- shipping articlesThe document a shipmaster gives the crew setting out the terms of the voyage, its length, the number of hands, and th…
- shipping documentAny paper covering a shipment in trade, such as a bill of lading or a letter of credit.
- shipping lawThe body of law governing shipping, the carriage of goods and passengers by sea, and the rights and duties of those e…
- shipping orderA copy of the shipper's instructions to the carrier about what is to be done with the goods.
- shipwreckThe wreck of a ship; also the loss or destruction of a vessel through causes beyond the owner's control, leaving her…
- shireA county in Britain, originally made up of many hundreds and later of larger divisions marked out by boundaries.
- shire-reeveThe reeve of a shire, the forerunner of the sheriff.
- Shively presumptionThe rule that a grant of public land made before statehood does not pass the tidelands unless it says so expressly.
- shockA sudden and profound disturbance of the body or mind, as where an injury or a violent impression depresses the body'…
- shock incarcerationImprisonment in a military-style camp, usually for three to six months, with strict discipline, physical training, an…
- shock probationProbation granted after a short spell in jail or prison, meant to bring home to the defendant what confinement means…
- shopA place of business or employment, such as a factory or office.
- shop booksThe books of first entry a trader or other businessperson keeps in the ordinary course of business.
- shop committeeA union committee that deals with employees' complaints within a union shop.
- shop stewardA union officer who represents the workers on the shop floor and sees that the union contract is kept.
- shop-book ruleIn the law of evidence, an exception to the hearsay rule letting original business books be put in evidence if the en…
- shop-right doctrineThe rule that an employer may use, free and without exclusivity, an invention an employee made in the course of the e…
- shopliftingThe stealing of goods from a shop, by taking and concealing them meaning to keep them without paying.
- shoreThe land between the high- and low-water marks; more broadly, the land next to a body of water, whether above or belo…
- shortOf a seller, not owning at the time of sale the security or commodity being sold, in the expectation that its price w…
- short interestIn a short sale, the number of borrowed shares that have not yet been bought back and returned to the lender.
- short leaseA lease running for a short period, often less than six months.
- short positionThe position of an investor who has borrowed stock to sell short and has not yet bought stock to repay the lender.
- short saleThe sale of a security the seller does not own and must borrow to deliver, made in the expectation that its price wil…
- short sale against the boxA short sale by a seller who owns enough of the security to cover it but borrows shares anyway, whether to keep the h…
- short summonsA summons giving the defendant a shorter time than usual to appear and answer.
- short titleThe short title by which a statute is commonly known.
- short tonTwo thousand pounds, or about 0.907 metric tons.
- short-form agreementA contract, usually taken by a small independent contractor, agreeing to be bound by a collective-bargaining agreemen…
- short-form mergerA merger cheaper and quicker than the ordinary statutory kind, usually allowed where a subsidiary merges into a paren…
- short-swing profitsProfits an insider makes by buying and selling, or selling and buying, the company's stock within six months. They mu…
- short-term capital gainThe profit from selling or exchanging a capital asset held less than a set period, usually a year. Federal tax law tr…
- short-term debtAll debts and other liabilities payable within a year.
- short-term loanA loan due in less than a year, usually recorded in a promissory note.
- short-term securityA bond or note maturing within a short period, often a year.
- short-term tradingBuying securities only to hold them long enough to profit from short-run movements in price.
- short-term trustAn irrevocable trust set up for at least ten years and a day, whose income goes to the beneficiary while the property…
- shortened to supersedeasA writ or order staying proceedings, or the bond given to obtain one pending appeal.
- shotgun instructionIn criminal procedure, a further direction the judge gives a deadlocked jury after long deliberation, urging them to…
- shotgun pleadingA pleading that throws in a wide range of contentions, usually on vague factual allegations.
- showTo make something clear by evidence.
- show trialA trial staged mainly for propaganda, usually in a country without free courts, whose outcome is settled in advance.
- show-cause orderAn order requiring a party to appear and explain why they did or failed to do something, or why the court should not…
- show-cause proceedingA usually expedited hearing on an order requiring a party to show why the court should not act.
- showerA person a court appoints to take the jurors to a place so that they can see it for themselves.
- showingThe establishing of something by evidence and argument.
- showupA pretrial identification in which a witness or victim is shown a single suspect, rather than a row of people, and as…
- shrink-wrap licenseA licence printed on the outside of a software package telling the buyer that opening the package binds them to its t…
- shrinkageThe loss of stock through theft, breakage, or waste.
- shut-in royaltyIn oil-and-gas law, a payment the lessee makes to keep the lease alive where a well could produce but is not being us…
- shutdownA stopping of work or production, above all at a factory.
- shuttle diplomacyNegotiation conducted through go-betweens who travel back and forth between the parties. In legal settings it usually…
- shysterA person, above all a lawyer, whose dealings are unscrupulous or dishonest.
- si actioThe closing words of a defendant's plea, demanding judgment.
- si constet de personaIf it is certain who is meant.
- si contingatIf it happens: words once used to introduce a condition in a conveyance.
- si fecerit te securumFormerly, the opening words of a writ ordering the sheriff, once the claimant had given security, to compel the defen…
- si priusIf before: words used in a writ summoning a jury.
- si quisIf anyone.
- si recognoscatFormerly, a writ by which a creditor recovered a sum the debtor had acknowledged owing in the county court.
- sicSo written. The word, always bracketed and usually in italics, marks a word or phrase in a quotation as reproduced ex…
- sick leaveA benefit allowing an employee time off when ill, paid or unpaid, without loss of seniority or other benefits; also t…
- sickness and accident insuranceInsurance that pays the medical costs of illness or injury and, in many policies, income while the insured cannot work.
- sicut aliasFormerly, a second writ issued where the first was not executed.
- sideThe position taken by one person or group against another; either party to a transaction or dispute; in older usage,…
- side judgeA judge of lower rank, or one of two, who sits with a judge of higher rank to make up the court.
- side linesThe margins of something, such as a property; also a line of goods a trader deals in besides the main one. In mining…
- side reportsUnofficial volumes of law reports, or collections of cases left out of the official series.
- sidebarThe place beside the judge's bench where counsel may confer out of the jury's hearing; also such a conference, usuall…
- sidebar commentAn unnecessary and often argumentative remark by a lawyer or witness, above all at a trial or deposition.
- sidebar conferenceA discussion among the judge and counsel out of the jury's hearing, usually about an objection to evidence; also a pr…
- sidebar remarkAn unnecessary and often argumentative remark by a lawyer or witness.
- sidebar ruleIn English law, an order the court allows without a formal application, such as one to plead within a set time. The n…
- sidenoteA short note in the margin of a printed statute, in the nature of a subheading, to help the reader find their way. Ma…
- sidesmanA church officer who originally reported to the bishop on misconduct among clergy and congregation, and whose duties…
- Sierra-Mobile doctrineThe rule that the federal energy regulator may not allow a gas producer a rate increase unless the contract permits o…
- sightA drawee's acceptance of a draft. The phrase “after sight” means after acceptance.
- sight draftA draft payable when the holder asks for payment, or on proper presentation to the drawer.
- sigilA seal, or an abbreviated signature used as one, above all by civil-law notaries.
- siglaThe abbreviations and signs used in writing.
- signTo put one's name, mark, or other symbol on a record meaning to adopt it as one's own act.
- signalA means of communication, above all between ships or between ship and shore, the international code assigning fixed m…
- signatoryA party that signs a document, in person or through an agent, and so becomes bound by it.
- signatureA person's name or mark, written by them or at their direction, to authenticate a document.
- signature cardA record a bank keeps of a customer's signature and other details, against which signatures on checks and withdrawal…
- signature crimeA crime so distinctive in its pattern or method, and so like earlier ones, that the method itself points to a particu…
- signature evidenceEvidence of a person's earlier misconduct which, though normally inadmissible, is let in where it shows that two crim…
- signature loanAn unsecured loan resting on nothing but the borrower's promise and signature. Only a borrower with strong credit wil…
- signed, sealed, and deliveredIn a certificate of acknowledgment, the statement that the person acknowledging the instrument did execute it.
- signetIn civil law, an elaborate hand-drawn symbol, usually a cross with the notary's initials, once placed at the foot of…
- significant-relationship theoryIn the conflict of laws, the rule that a case is governed by the law of the place having the most significant connect…
- significavitA bishop's certificate that a person has stood excommunicated for more than forty days; also the notice given to the…
- silenceThe keeping of silence. In criminal law it takes in an arrested person's saying that they do not wish to speak and wa…
- silent confirmationA bank's confirmation of a letter of credit given at the request of the beneficiary rather than of the issuing bank.
- silent partnerA partner who shares in the profits but takes no part in running the firm and whose connection with it is not disclos…
- silent recordIn criminal procedure, a record that fails to show whether the defendant pleaded knowingly and voluntarily, gave up t…
- silent-witness theoryIn the law of evidence, a way of admitting something such as a photograph without a witness to vouch for it, by showi…
- silentiaryIn Roman law, an official who kept order in the imperial palace and council. Formerly, an officer sworn to keep state…
- silk gownThe silk robe worn by King's Counsel, and hence a barrister of that rank.
- silver certificatesUnited States paper money, no longer in circulation, that could once be redeemed for silver. Federal Reserve notes, w…
- silver parachuteA term in an employment contract giving an employee below executive level severance benefits if the company is taken…
- silver-platter doctrineIn criminal procedure, the now-rejected rule that a federal court could admit evidence a state officer had seized unl…
- similar happeningsIn the law of evidence, events happening at some other time than the one in dispute, usually inadmissible except so f…
- similar salesIn eminent-domain law, sales of like property in the same area and at about the same time, which may be put in eviden…
- similiterIn common-law pleading, a party's written acceptance of the issue the other side has tendered, in a set form of words.
- simonyFormerly, in church law, the buying or selling of spiritual office or promotion, above all the right to present a cle…
- simpleOf a crime, unaccompanied by aggravating circumstances; of an estate, inheritable by the owner's heirs without condit…
- simple agreementAn agreement needing nothing more to take effect than some sign that the parties have consented.
- simple assaultThe threatening or use of force that puts another in reasonable fear of immediate harmful or offensive contact, witho…
- simple averageA partial loss or damage happening by accident, borne wholly by the person whose property suffered it.
- simple batteryA criminal battery unaccompanied by aggravating circumstances and causing no serious bodily harm.
- simple bondA bond carrying no penalty; also, a bond payable to a named obligee on demand or on a fixed date.
- simple contractAt common law, a contract not under seal, though it could still be in writing.
- simple interestInterest charged on the principal alone, not on interest already added.
- simple kidnappingKidnapping with none of the aggravating factors that would make it a graver offense.
- simple larcenyLarceny with no aggravating circumstance, such as violence or a taking from a dwelling.
- simple listingA listing that lets several agents have selling rights at once, obliges the owner to pay a commission if the named br…
- simple majorityA majority of those who actually vote in a particular election.
- simple mortgage clauseA mortgage clause that leaves the lender unprotected if the borrower does something, such as committing fraud, that v…
- simple negligenceNegligence in which the actor does not realize the unreasonable risk being created but should have foreseen and avoid…
- simple obligationAn obligation that depends on no outside event: an unconditional one.
- simple resolutionA resolution passed by one house alone. It states that house's opinion or governs its own affairs and does not have t…
- simple robberyRobbery without any aggravating circumstance.
- simple stateA state not made up of territorial divisions that are themselves states.
- simple trustA trust that must pay out all its income as it arises.
- simple-contract debtA debt resting on an agreement, spoken or written, that is neither of record nor under seal.
- simple-tool ruleThe rule that an employer need not warn employees of dangers obvious to everyone, nor inspect a tool in an employee's…
- simplex dictumA bare assertion, offered without proof or reasoning.
- simpliciterSimply, or in a summary way; also absolutely and without condition.
- simplified employee pension planAn individual retirement account or annuity set up for an employee and funded by the employee's own contributions and…
- simplumThe single value of a thing, as opposed to a multiple of it.
- simul cumTogether with: words once used in an indictment to show that the defendant acted jointly with others unknown.
- simul et semelTogether and at one time.
- simulated contractA contract that has all the outward form of an agreement but no reality behind it; a sham. An interested party, inclu…
- simulated factA fact made up to mislead.
- simulated judgmentA judgment resting on a real debt and meant to be collected in the ordinary way, but which the parties arrange betwee…
- simulated saleA sale in which no price is paid or meant to be paid and no ownership is really meant to pass, usually done to put pr…
- simulated transactionA transaction in which nothing is really paid and no ownership is meant to pass, usually done to put property beyond…
- simulatio latensA hidden pretense: a concealed simulation of something that does not exist.
- simulationThe putting on of a false appearance; in civil law, a pretended act done to mislead.
- simultaneous deathThe death of two or more people in the same accident, in circumstances making it impossible to say who died first.
- simultaneous-death actA statute providing that where two people die in circumstances leaving the order of their deaths unknown, each is tre…
- simultaneous-death clauseA clause in a will saying how property is to pass if the testator and a beneficiary die together.
- sin taxAn excise tax on goods or activities thought harmful or immoral, such as cigarettes, liquor, or gambling.
- sineWithout.
- sine animo revertendiWithout meaning to return.
- sine assensu capituliFormerly, a writ by which a successor recovered land that a bishop, abbot, or prior had made away with without the ch…
- sine consideratione curiaeWithout the judgment of the court.
- sine decretoWithout a judge's authority.
- sine dieWithout a day being appointed, so that a matter ends or is adjourned with no date fixed for resuming it.
- sine hoc quodWithout this, that: words introducing a special denial in pleading.
- sine numeroWithout number or limit.
- sine proleWithout issue: a phrase used above all in genealogical tables.
- sine qua nonA condition without which the thing could not be: something on which something else necessarily depends.
- sinecuralOf or relating to a sinecure: carrying pay but no duties.
- sinecureAn office or benefice that carries pay but no duties.
- singleUnmarried; also consisting of one alone.
- single adulteryAdultery in which only one of the two is married to someone else.
- single billA written promise to pay that is not under seal and carries no penalty for failing to pay.
- single bondA written promise to pay, made under seal.
- single combatA fight arranged beforehand between two people with deadly weapons, fought under agreed rules and usually before witn…
- single conditionA condition requiring one particular thing to be done.
- single creditorIn the marshaling of assets, a creditor with a lien on only one fund.
- single demiseIn an ejectment action, a declaration containing a single demise.
- single obligationAn obligation carrying no penalty for failing to perform, as where one party simply promises to pay another a sum of…
- single originalAn instrument executed as a single document rather than in duplicate.
- single-act statuteA statute giving the courts jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant who has had dealings within the state. Most su…
- single-controversy doctrineThe rule that a party who fails to raise all claims or defenses arising out of a controversy in one proceeding cannot…
- single-criminal-intent doctrineThe rule that taking several items at the same time and place is one larceny where it forms part of a single plan, wh…
- single-date-of-removal doctrineIn civil procedure, the rule that the thirty days for removing a case to federal court run from the day any defendant…
- single-entry bookkeepingA method of bookkeeping in which each transaction goes into a single record, such as a cash or credit account.
- single-filing ruleIn civil-rights law, the rule that an administrative charge filed by one claimant satisfies the filing requirement fo…
- single-impulse planThe rule that taking several items at the same time and place is one larceny where the theft forms part of a single p…
- single-juror instructionAn instruction that the jury cannot find for the plaintiff if any one juror is not reasonably satisfied by the plaint…
- single-larceny doctrineThe rule that taking several items at the same time and place is one larceny where the theft forms part of a single p…
- single-name paperA negotiable instrument signed by one maker alone, with no surety behind it.
- single-premium insuranceLife insurance bought with one lump-sum payment rather than premiums paid over time.
- single-publication ruleThe rule that a claimant suing a publisher for libel has one claim for each mass publication, not a separate claim fo…
- single-purpose projectA facility built and used for one purpose only, such as generating electricity. The phrase covers large and costly wo…
- single-recovery ruleThe rule that a claimant may recover only once for a given harm, and must elect between remedies if the jury has awar…
- singularIndividual, taken one at a time; in civil law, concerning separate items of property rather than the estate as a whole.
- singular successorA person who succeeds to particular property or rights rather than to the whole of another's estate.
- singular titleThe title by which a person takes particular property as a singular successor.
- sinking fundA fund built from regular deposits that grow with interest until they are large enough to pay off a long-term corpora…
- sinking-fund bondA bond backed by a sinking fund set aside to redeem it.
- sinking-fund debentureA debenture secured by regular payments into a fund set up to pay off long-term debt.
- sinking-fund depreciation methodA depreciation method that allows for the time value of money by setting up a depreciation reserve that earns interes…
- sinking-fund reserveA reserve set aside to pay off long-term debt.
- sinking-fund taxA tax raised to pay off a public loan.
- SIPAThe federal statute of 1970 that created the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which, though not a governme…
- SIPCThe body created under the Securities Investor Protection Act to protect the customers of brokers and dealers who get…
- SIRIn insurance law, the part of an otherwise covered loss that the policy does not meet and that the insured must usual…
- sisterA female with the same parents as another.
- sister corporationOne of two or more corporations controlled by the same, or substantially the same, owners.
- sister-in-lawThe sister of one's spouse, the wife of one's brother, or the wife of one's spouse's brother.
- sistership exclusionA clause in some commercial general liability policies excluding cover for damages arising from withdrawing, inspecti…
- sistrenSisters, above all women regarded as colleagues, as on a court.
- sitOf a judge, to occupy the bench, hold court, or perform official duties; of a court or legislature, to be in session.
- sit si non omnesIf not all: words in a commission allowing some of those named to act if the rest cannot.
- sit-down strikeA strike in which the workers stop work but stay on the employer's premises, so that no one else can be put in their…
- siteA place or piece of ground set aside for a particular use.
- site planA proposal for developing or using a particular piece of land. Some zoning ordinances require a developer to lay a si…
- sittingA session of a court, above all of an appellate court.
- situationA person's condition or position in relation to their circumstances; also the place where someone or something is.
- situation of dangerUnder the last-clear-chance doctrine, a position a claimant has reached, such as the path of an oncoming train, from…
- situsThe place where something is situated for legal purposes, as in lex situs, the law of the place where the thing lies.
- Six ClerksThe clerks of the English Court of Chancery who received pleadings and other papers. The office was abolished in 1842…
- Sixteenth AmendmentThe constitutional amendment, ratified in 1913, allowing Congress to tax income.
- Sixth AmendmentThe constitutional amendment, ratified with the Bill of Rights in 1791, guaranteeing in criminal cases a speedy and p…
- sixth-sentence remandIn a social-security benefits claim, a court's order sending the case back to the Commissioner because new evidence h…
- sixty clerksOfficers of the Court of Chancery who helped the six principal clerks with clerical work, keeping records and copying…
- sixty-day noticeUnder the Taft-Hartley Act, the sixty days' notice either side must give to reopen or end a collective-bargaining agr…
- skeleton billA bill drawn, indorsed, or accepted with blanks left to be filled in.
- skeleton bill of exceptionsA bill of exceptions containing, besides the formal parts, only the court's directions to the clerk to copy or insert…
- skillPractical knowledge of the principles and methods of an art, science, or trade, together with the ability to apply it…
- skilled witnessA witness qualified by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education to give a scientific, technical, or other…
- skilled workWork calling for judgment, dealing with the public, analyzing figures, or handling abstract ideas of some complexity.
- skip bailOf an accused person, to fail to appear in court at the appointed time after being released on bail.
- skip personIn tax law, a beneficiary more than one generation below the transferor, to whom property passes in a generation-skip…
- skiptracing agencyA service that traces people, such as absconding debtors, missing heirs, or witnesses, or tracks down missing assets…
- slammingThe switching of a telephone customer's service to another carrier without proper authority, often through a transfer…
- slanderA defamatory statement made in a passing form, above all by speech, as opposed to libel, which is written or otherwis…
- slander of goodsA false statement disparaging the quality of another's goods, which is actionable if it causes others to withhold bus…
- slander of titleA false statement, spoken or written, casting doubt on another's ownership of property.
- slander per quodSlander that is not actionable in itself, so that the claimant must prove actual money loss.
- slander per seSlander so damaging that loss need not be proved, because it charges the claimant with a serious crime, a loathsome d…
- SLAPPA strategic lawsuit against public participation: a suit brought by a developer, executive, or official to silence pe…
- slateA list of candidates, above all for political office or for a company's board.
- slaveryThe holding of one person in the absolute power of another, over their life, property, and liberty; also the practice…
- slavery, badge ofStrictly, a legal disability suffered by a slave, such as being unable to vote or own property; broadly, any act of r…
- slayTo kill a person, above all in battle.
- slayer’s ruleThe rule that a person who kills another, and that killer’s heirs, may take no share of the victim’s estate.
- SLCIn corporate law, a committee of independent directors appointed to look into the merits of a shareholder's derivativ…
- sleeperA security with real prospects that is underpriced because investors have not yet noticed it.
- sleeping partnerA partner whose connection with the firm is kept from the public.
- sliding scaleA way of setting prices according to what each customer can afford to pay.
- slight careThe degree of care a person gives to matters of little importance; the care to be expected of someone held to a low s…
- slight diligenceThe small degree of care that a person of less than ordinary prudence takes with their own affairs.
- slight evidenceA very small quantity of evidence, in particular the little that is enough for a rational fact-finder to conclude tha…
- slight negligenceA failure to use the very high care an extraordinarily prudent person would use, which creates liability in special s…
- slip decisionA court opinion published on its own soon after it is given, then in advance sheets, before it appears in a bound rep…
- slip lawA pamphlet containing a single statute, printed as soon as it is passed and before it appears in the collected laws.
- slip opinionA court opinion published on its own soon after it is given, and then collected in advance sheets before final public…
- slip-and-fall caseA suit for injuries from slipping and falling, usually on the defendant's premises; loosely, any small tort case.
- sloughAn arm of a river separate from the main channel; also a bog or place of deep mud.
- slowdownA concerted effort by workers to cut production so as to press the employer into acting as they wish.
- slumpA temporary downturn in the economy, and above all in the stock market, marked by falling prices.
- slush fundMoney set aside for unspecified purposes, often corrupt ones, and kept outside the ordinary controls that would accou…
- Small Business AdministrationThe federal agency that assists small businesses, often by making low-interest loans.
- Small Business Investment ActThe federal statute of 1958 under which investment companies may be formed and licensed to supply long-term equity ca…
- small claimA claim for damages at or below a set amount of money.
- small-business concernA business qualifying for certain exemptions because it is independently owned and run, is not dominant in its field,…
- small-business corporationA corporation with few enough shareholders, and otherwise meeting the Internal Revenue Code's conditions, to elect Su…
- small-business investment companyA company formed under state law to supply long-term equity capital to small businesses, licensed under the Small Bus…
- small-claims courtA court that decides small claims quickly and informally, usually claims to collect modest debts or accounts below a…
- small-debts courtA court that decides claims below a set money limit quickly and without formality.
- small-estate probateAn informal procedure for administering a small estate, less elaborate than the ordinary process and usually needing…
- small-loan actA state statute fixing the highest lawful rate of interest and the other terms on small short-term loans by banks and…
- small-loan companyA finance company that lends directly to consumers.
- smart moneyMoney in the hands of experienced, usually large investors, thought to be well placed to keep risk down and returns up.
- Smith ActThe federal statute of 1940 making it a crime to advocate overthrowing the government by force.
- smoking gunA piece of evidence that settles the point conclusively against the other side or destroys their credibility.
- smuggleTo bring goods into or out of a country secretly, in breach of the law or without paying the duty.
- smugglingThe crime of bringing goods into or out of a country unlawfully, whether because the goods are forbidden or because t…
- so help me GodThe closing words of the common oath, translating the older Latin formula “so help you God.”
- soberNot drunk, or habitually moderate in drink; also serious, unexaggerated, and self-possessed.
- sobrestadiaA delay in a voyage or in the delivery of cargo caused by the charterer or consignee, for which demurrage must be pai…
- sobriety checkpointA place on a road where the police stop motorists to check whether any of them is driving under the influence.
- sobriety testA way of finding out whether a person is intoxicated, whether by tests of coordination or by a device that measures t…
- sobriniSecond cousins: the children of first cousins.
- socaA lordship carrying the right to hold a court for the tenants.
- socageA tenure under which the tenant held land in return for agricultural rather than military service. It was the great r…
- social contractThe agreement, express or implied, by which people give up certain freedoms to their government in return for its pro…
- social costWhat a particular practice or rule costs society as a whole.
- social guestA person entertained at another's home as a guest, without paying for the hospitality.
- social harmThe injury a crime does to the interests the law protects, as opposed to the harm suffered by any individual victim.
- social insuranceInsurance a government provides to people facing particular risks, such as unemployment or disability, or holding a p…
- social justiceJustice measured against a moral principle applying to everyone, such as that all people are equal.
- Social Security ActThe federal statute of 1935, passed in answer to the Great Depression, which created a system of benefits including o…
- Social Security AdministrationThe federal agency created by the Social Security Act to run a national system of social insurance.
- social-service stateA state that takes responsibility for the welfare of its people, providing pensions, health care, and similar services.
- socidaIn civil law, a bailment in which the bailee bears the risk of loss, above all one where animals are handed over for…
- societasIn Roman law, a partnership in which two or more people agree to share profits and losses; also the partnership contr…
- societas leoninaIn Roman law, an unlawful partnership in which the profits go to some partners and not others: one takes the lion's s…
- societyA community of people sharing a culture, traditions, and interests.
- sociological jurisprudenceAn approach to law that stresses the actual social effects of legal institutions, doctrines, and practices. Roscoe Po…
- sociology of lawThe study of law as a social institution, examining how legal rules actually work in society.
- sociopathA person with a persistent disregard for others' rights and feelings, who shows no remorse and forms no lasting attac…
- sociusA business partner; also an accomplice, or a political ally.
- socius criminisAn associate in crime.
- sockmanA person holding land by socage tenure.
- socmanA person holding land by socage tenure.
- socmanryFree tenure by socage; also land held by simple services, or land freed by the sovereign from ancient demesne, whose…
- Socratic methodA method of teaching by question and answer, in which the questioner builds on each answer with a further question, o…
- SODDI defenseInformally, the “some other dude did it” defense: a claim that someone else committed the crime, usually made by a de…
- sodomiticOf or relating to sodomy.
- sodomyOral or anal copulation between people, above all of the same sex; also such an act between a person and an animal. L…
- SOFThe statute requiring certain kinds of contract to be evidenced in writing and signed before they can be enforced.
- soft currencyCurrency with no reserves behind it, and so liable to swing sharply in value.
- soft dollarsIn securities law, credits a broker gives a client in return for the client's trading business; also the part of an e…
- soft goodsMerchandise such as textiles and clothing, which wears out and is replaced, as opposed to durable goods.
- soft lawRules that neither bind strictly nor lack legal significance altogether; in international law, guidelines, policy dec…
- soft marketA market, above all a stock market, in which prices drift or fall and trading is light.
- soft sellA low-key way of selling, relying on sincerity and professionalism rather than pressure.
- soil bankA federal farm program paying farmers not to grow crops, or to grow non-commercial cover, so as to protect the soil a…
- soitBe it so: words used in older English formulas, above all in expressing the sovereign's will in formal communications…
- soit baile aux commonsLet it be sent to the commons: the indorsement on a bill sent to the House of Commons.
- soit baile aux seigneursLet it be sent to the lords: the indorsement on a bill sent to the House of Lords.
- soit droit fait al partieLet right be done to the party: the words the Crown subscribed on a petition of right.
- soit fait comme il est desireLet it be as is desired: the words by which the sovereign assented to a private act of Parliament.
- sojournA temporary stay by someone who is more than passing through but is not settling permanently.
- sokemanA person holding land by socage tenure.
- solar dayThe 24 hours from noon to noon.
- solar easementAn easement protecting the benefited land's access to direct sunlight, often created to stop the burdened owner putti…
- solar monthOne of the twelve months of the calendar, or any period of about thirty days.
- solariumRent paid for building on public land.
- solatiumIn Scots law, compensation for hurt feelings or grief, as distinct from damages for physical injury.
- sold noteA written record of a sale that the broker who made it gives to the seller, usually setting out the terms.
- soldier’s willA soldier’s informal will, spoken or written, which is usually valid despite not meeting the ordinary statutory forma…
- sole and separate useA holding of property for a married woman's own benefit. Used in a trust deed, the phrase kept her husband from takin…
- sole and unconditional ownerIn insurance law, an owner holding the whole equitable title to the insured property and no interest short of that.
- sole causeThe only cause the law treats as producing an event or injury. Where it comes between the defendant's act and the har…
- sole corporationA corporation that has, or acts through, only one member.
- sole custodyAn arrangement giving one parent full control of and responsibility for the child, to the exclusion of the other.
- sole practitionerA lawyer who practices without partners or associates.
- sole proprietorshipA business owned by one person, who holds all the assets, owes all the liabilities, and trades in their own name.
- sole useA holding of property for a married woman's own benefit, which kept her husband from taking anything under the deed.
- sole-actor doctrineThe rule that a principal is fixed with knowledge of what their agent knows and does, even where the agent was acting…
- sole-source ruleIn a common-law false-advertising claim, the rule that the claimant cannot recover unless they alone sell goods with…
- solemn admissionA formal waiver of proof, which frees the other side from having to prove the admitted fact and stops the party who m…
- solemn occasionIn some states, the serious and unusual circumstance in which the supreme court may give an advisory opinion to the o…
- solemn warA war formally declared by one country against another.
- solemnityA formality, such as a ceremony, that the law requires to make an agreement or act valid; also seriousness of manner.
- solemnity of contractThe idea that people may make whatever contract they wish, and that it binds them if the formalities are observed and…
- solemnizationThe performance of a formal marriage ceremony before witnesses, as opposed to a clandestine or common-law marriage.
- solemnizeTo enter into a marriage or contract by a formal act, usually before witnesses.
- solicitationThe asking for something. In criminal law, the offense of urging, advising, or commanding another to commit a crime,…
- solicitation for bidsA request for offers, usually a first step toward making a contract.
- solicitation of bribeThe offense of asking or enticing another to commit bribery.
- soliciteeA person who is solicited.
- soliciting agentIn insurance, an agent with limited authority to seek out and pass on applications to an insurer, usually without pow…
- solicitorA person who seeks business or contributions from others; also one who acts on another's behalf, and the chief law of…
- solicitor generalThe second-ranking legal officer of a government after the attorney general, who argues the executive's cases in the…
- solidarityThe state of being jointly and severally liable, as for a debt.
- solidaryOf a liability, joint and several.
- solidary liabilityLiability under which each of several debtors may be made to answer for the whole, the creditor choosing whom to pursue.
- solidary obligationIn Roman and civil law, an obligation binding each of two or more debtors for the whole performance, much as joint an…
- solidumA whole, or an undivided thing.
- solinumSlightly less than two and a half plowlands; also a single plowland.
- solitary confinementConfinement that keeps a prisoner apart from everyone else, with severely limited contact or none at all.
- soloA lawyer who practices without partners or associates.
- solo practitionerA lawyer who practices without partners or associates.
- solum provincialeProvincial land held ultimately by the emperor or the state, the private holder having only possession and no power t…
- solutusIn Roman law, set free or released from confinement; in Scots law, purged.
- solvabilitéIn French law, solvency.
- solvencyThe ability to pay one's debts as they fall due.
- solventAble to pay one's debts as they fall due.
- solvereTo pay a debt, or to release a person from an obligation.
- solvit ad diemIn an action of debt, a plea that the defendant paid the money on or before the day it fell due.
- solvit post diemIn an action of debt, a plea that the defendant paid the money after the day it fell due.
- somnambulismSleepwalking. A person is generally not criminally responsible for what they do in this state.
- somnolentiaDrowsiness; also a half-waking state resembling drunkenness, in which some faculties are abnormally excited while oth…
- sonA person's male child, or an immediate male descendant, including an adopted one.
- son assault demesneThe plea of self-defense in a tort action, by which the defendant says the claimant struck first and that no more for…
- son-in-lawThe husband of one's daughter.
- Son-of-Sam lawA state statute stopping a convicted criminal from profiting by selling the story of the crime to a publisher or film…
- sonticusSerious, more than trifling. The Twelve Tables used the word of an illness grave enough to excuse a defendant from ap…
- sororA sister.
- sororicideThe killing of one's own sister, and the person who does it.
- sorsIn Roman law, a lot or a chance; in Scots law, a partnership's capital; formerly, the principal of a debt as opposed…
- sortitionThe drawing of lots, used for instance in choosing judges for a criminal trial.
- soundOf health or mind, whole and free from disorder; of property, marketable; of discretion, exercised fairly in the circ…
- sound healthWholeness of body and mind, and freedom from pain or sickness.
- sourceThe originator of an act or of a result.
- source of lawSomething, such as a constitution, treaty, statute, or custom, that gives authority for legislation and for judicial…
- South Eastern ReporterA set of regional law reports, part of the National Reporter System, containing the published decisions of Georgia, N…
- South Western ReporterA set of regional law reports, part of the National Reporter System, containing the published decisions of Arkansas,…
- Southern ReporterA set of regional law reports, part of the National Reporter System, containing the published decisions of Alabama, F…
- sovereignA person, body, or state holding independent and supreme authority; also the ruler of an independent state.
- sovereign immunityA government's protection from being sued in its own courts without its consent. Congress has given up most of the fe…
- sovereign peopleThe whole body of citizens and qualified voters, in whom sovereignty rests and who exercise it through the representa…
- sovereign political powerPower that is absolute within its own sphere, so that within those limits its exercise depends on no other power and…
- sovereign powerThe power to make and enforce laws.
- sovereign rightA right belonging to a state or its agencies alone, enabling it to carry out its public functions, as opposed to the…
- sovereign stateA state that exists in its own right and is not merely part of a larger whole to whose government it is subject.
- sovereigntySupreme authority; the highest political power of an independent state, and the state itself considered as holding it.
- sovranA person, body, or state holding independent and supreme authority.
- space arbitrageThe buying and selling of the same security at the same time in different markets, to profit from the difference in p…
- spadoA eunuch; also a person unable to have sexual intercourse.
- sparsimScattered, or here and there. The word was used, for instance, of waste that was partial or scattered over land rathe…
- spatae placitumThe plea of the sword: the old jurisdiction a count exercised by virtue of his military office.
- SPEA company set up to do nothing but build, own, and run one large project, so as to keep the number of creditors claim…
- speakerA person who speaks; also the presiding officer of a legislative chamber, above all of the House of Representatives.
- speaking demurrerA demurrer that cannot succeed because it brings in new facts not found in the complaint itself.
- speaking motionA motion that raises matters not appearing in the pleadings.
- speaking objectionAn objection carrying more information, often in the form of argument, than the judge needs in order to rule on it. M…
- speaking statuteA statute that declares what it means by its own terms, as by defining the words it uses or stating its purpose.
- specialOf or relating to a particular kind or instance; of a statute or rule, made for a particular purpose; of powers, out…
- special acceptanceAn acceptance that departs from the terms of a bill, or adds terms the bill does not contain, such as accepting a dra…
- special actA statute directed at a particular person, place, or thing rather than at the public at large.
- special administrationAn administration covering only some of a deceased person's property rather than the whole estate.
- special administratorSomeone appointed to administer only part of the estate of a person who died without a will; also, someone appointed…
- special agencyAn agency in which the agent may handle only a single transaction, or a series of transactions not amounting to conti…
- special agentAn agent engaged to carry out one particular transaction or to do a specified act.
- special agreementIn international law, an agreement between countries to submit an existing dispute to an arbitrator, an arbitral trib…
- special allocaturThe allowance of a writ, such as a writ of error, where the law requires one in the particular case.
- special appearanceA defendant's pleading arguing that the court has no personal jurisdiction over them, or objecting to the way process…
- special assessmentA charge levied on property that gains some significant benefit from a public improvement.
- special assumpsitAn action for breach of an express contract.
- special attorneyA lawyer engaged by a state or local government to help with a particular case where the public interest requires it.
- special authorityAuthority confined to one particular transaction.
- special bailA surety for a civil defendant arrested on a process issued during the lawsuit. If the defendant lost, the surety had…
- special bailiffA deputy sheriff appointed at a litigant's request to serve or execute a particular writ or process in the case.
- special benefitIn eminent-domain law, a benefit accruing to the owner of the land in question and to nobody else. Such a benefit jus…
- special calendarA calendar listing cases that have been given a hearing date ahead of the ordinary queue.
- special caseA written statement of the facts proved at trial, agreed and signed by the parties, so that particular points of law…
- special chargeA direction to the jury on some particular point in the case, usually given at counsel's request.
- special committeeA temporary legislative committee set up for a purpose other than making law, such as drafting memorials, appointing…
- special contractA contract containing unusual provisions not normally found in contracts on the same subject.
- special counselA lawyer the state or a local authority engages to help with a particular case where the public interest calls for it.
- special countA part of a pleading setting out the claim in close detail, used where the pleading rules require that degree of part…
- special court-martialThe middle level of court-martial, presided over by a military judge with at least three members sitting as jurors. I…
- special covenant against encumbrancesA promise by the seller that the property carries no burdens created by the seller, saying nothing about burdens crea…
- special customA custom holding good only in a defined place, such as a city or county, and forming law for that place alone.
- special damagesDamages said to have been suffered in the particular circumstances of a given wrong. To be awarded, they must be spec…
- special demurrerAn objection to the form of a pleading that states exactly what is wrong with it, such as a breach of the rules of pl…
- special depositA bank deposit made for a particular purpose, kept separate from other funds, and to be returned to the depositor. Th…
- special deputyA deputy appointed for a particular purpose, such as keeping order during a riot.
- special deterrenceThe aim of a particular conviction and sentence to discourage that offender from committing further crimes.
- special diligenceThe care expected of someone practicing in a particular specialty in circumstances like those in question.
- special districtA political subdivision created to get around ordinary borrowing limits, to keep certain activities clear of everyday…
- special dividendA dividend paid on top of the regular one, usually because profits in that period were unusually high.
- special electionAn election held between general elections, usually to fill a vacancy that has arisen suddenly.
- special employeeAn employee whose services are lent, with their consent, to another employer who takes temporary control of the work.…
- special employerAn employer who has borrowed an employee for a limited period and has temporary control of and responsibility for the…
- special exceptionAn objection to the form rather than the substance of an opponent's claim, such as that it is vague or ambiguous; als…
- special executionAn execution directing that a judgment be satisfied out of specified property.
- special executorAn executor whose power extends only to part of the estate.
- special findingA finding that sets out the necessary and ultimate facts supporting a judgment for one party. In military law, a mili…
- special franchiseA right the government grants, usually to a public utility, to use streets or other public property for a public purp…
- special grand juryA guaranty addressed to a particular person, which only that person may accept and act on.
- special guarantyA guardian appointed for a particular purpose or for part of the ward's affairs, rather than for everything.
- special guardianA guardian appointed for a particular purpose or for part of the ward's affairs, rather than for everything.
- special imparlanceTime granted with a saving only of objections to the writ, bill, or count, and not of any challenge to the court's ju…
- special indorsementAn indorsement naming the person who is to be paid, or to whom the goods covered by the document must be delivered.
- special injunctionAn injunction where stopping the act is the only relief ultimately sought, as in preventing waste or a nuisance.
- special instructionAn instruction on a particular point in the case, usually given at counsel's request.
- special interrogatoryA written question put to the jury whose answer supplements a general verdict. Federal practice allows interrogatorie…
- special issueAt common law, an issue arising out of a specific allegation in a pleading. Most jurisdictions no longer use them.
- special judgeA judge appointed or chosen to sit, usually in one case, where the regular judge is absent or disqualified, or as a s…
- special jurisdictionJurisdiction confined to a particular kind of case, or exercisable only within statutory limits.
- special juryA jury drawn from a panel summoned for that case alone, usually at a party's request in an unusually important or com…
- special lawA law aimed at one particular case, person, place, or thing rather than at the public at large.
- special legacyA gift by will of property distinguishable from the rest of the testator's estate.
- special letter of creditA letter of credit addressed to one named person, firm, or company.
- special lienA possessory lien entitling the holder to keep particular goods until a debt connected with those goods is paid.
- special limitationA restriction that ends an estate automatically and returns it to the grantor as soon as a stated event happens.
- special litigation committeeIn corporate law, a committee of independent directors appointed to look into the merits of a shareholder's derivativ…
- special maliceIll will aimed at a particular person.
- special masterA master appointed to help the court with one particular matter or case.
- special matterIn common-law pleading, unusual evidence a defendant was allowed to bring in under a plea of the general issue, after…
- special meaningThe recognition a mark or name has come to carry in the public mind as identifying one trader's goods, which makes it…
- special meetingA meeting called by the directors, an officer, or a group of shareholders for some extraordinary purpose, such as vot…
- special messageA message from the President or a governor about one particular matter.
- special mortgageA mortgage charging particular named property, as opposed to a general mortgage covering all the borrower's property.
- special motionA motion the court must exercise its discretion on after a hearing, as opposed to one granted as a matter of course.
- special occupantThe heir of a tenant holding for another's life, who takes the land in the gap between the tenant's death and the dea…
- special offeringAn offering of a large block of stock which, because of its size and the state of the market in that issue, is handle…
- special ownerA person, such as a bailee, holding a limited interest in property that belongs to someone else.
- special partnerA partner who takes a share of the profits but no part in management, and who risks no more than what they put in.
- special partnershipA partnership formed for a single venture, which ends when that venture is complete.
- special permitA zoning board's authorization to use property in a way the ordinance identifies as a special exception. Unlike a var…
- special pleaA plea that raises some particular matter rather than simply denying the charge, such as autrefois acquit or a pardon.
- special plea in barA plea that, instead of denying the facts, sets up some outside fact showing why the defendant cannot be tried for th…
- special plea in errorAt common law, a plea setting up some outside matter to defeat a writ of error, such as a release or the expiry of th…
- special pleaderA party who puts forward a particular pleading; also a person who pleads on another's behalf, and, formerly, someone…
- special pleadingThe common-law system under which the parties exchanged a series of papers, each answering the last, according to hig…
- special powerA power that either does not allow the whole estate to be conveyed or limits who may take it; also an agent's authori…
- special power of appointmentA power of appointment under which the donee may appoint only to the person or class the creating instrument names.
- special power of attorneyA power of attorney confining the agent's authority to one specified matter.
- special prayerA request in a pleading for the particular relief the claimant says they are entitled to.
- special privilegeA privilege granted to one person or class to the exclusion of others, cutting across the common right.
- special proceedingA proceeding that may be begun independently of any pending action and from which a final order can be appealed at on…
- special propertyProperty in which the holder has only a limited or temporary interest, as a bailee has in goods entrusted to them.
- special prosecutorA lawyer appointed to investigate a particular matter and, if the evidence warrants, to seek indictments.
- special referenceA court's sending of a case to a referee to decide particular questions of fact. The referee reports findings to the…
- special registrationRegistration to vote in one particular election only.
- special relationshipA relationship short of a fiduciary one but carrying an element of trust, arising where one person relies on another…
- special replicationIn equity pleading, a reply raising a new fact to meet new matter in the defendant's plea or answer.
- special reprisalA reprisal in which a country authorizes an aggrieved citizen to right a wrong done by another country, as by permitt…
- special retainerA retainer for one particular case or piece of work.
- special ruleA rule that applies only to a particular case or set of circumstances.
- special sessionA legislative sitting outside the ordinary term, usually called by the executive to deal with a particular matter or…
- special settingA place on the court's calendar ahead of the ordinary queue, usually given to older cases or to cases the law gives p…
- special statuteA statute directed at a particular person, place, or thing rather than at the public at large.
- special tailAn entail limited to specified heirs of the donee's body.
- special taxA tax raised for one particular purpose, or one laid on top of a general tax, such as an inheritance tax.
- special termA term of court held outside the general term, usually for extraordinary business.
- special traverseA denial of one material fact in the other side's pleading, coupled with an explanation qualifying the denial. It con…
- special trial settingA preferential place on the court's calendar, usually kept for older cases or those the law gives priority.
- special trustA trust in which the trustee has some active duty of management beyond simply handing the property to the beneficiary.
- special useAn allowance in a zoning ordinance for particular uses treated as essential and not fundamentally at odds with the zo…
- special verdictA verdict giving a written finding on each issue and leaving the judge to apply the law.
- special warrantyA warranty against claims made by or through the grantor or the grantor's heirs, but not against claims arising earlier.
- special warranty deedA deed in which the seller undertakes to defend the title only against claims made by the seller or by anyone claimin…
- special-assessment bondA municipal bond secured by taxes raised for one particular public purpose, usually improvements.
- special-circumstances ruleIn corporate law, the rule that a director or officer must disclose material inside information to a shareholder when…
- special-contract debtA debt owed, or admitted to be owed, under a sealed document such as a deed of covenant or sale, a lease reserving re…
- special-duty doctrineIn tort law, the rule that a public body may be liable to an individual claimant where it owed a duty to that claiman…
- special-duty exceptionIn tort law, the rule that a public body may be liable where it owed a duty to the particular claimant rather than to…
- special-errand doctrineThe rule that workers' compensation covers an employee hurt while on a journey or special task for the employer away…
- special-facts ruleIn corporate law, the rule that a director or officer must disclose material inside information to a shareholder when…
- special-hazard ruleThe rule that workers' compensation covers an employee injured going to or from work where the route carries unusual…
- special-interest groupAn organization that works, above all by lobbying, to bend legislation or government policy toward a particular inter…
- special-mission exceptionThe rule that workers' compensation covers an employee hurt while on a journey or special task for the employer away…
- special-needs analysisIn criminal procedure, the balancing the Supreme Court uses to decide whether searches serving needs beyond ordinary…
- special-purpose entityA company set up to do nothing but build, own, and run one large project, so as to keep the number of creditors claim…
- special-purpose vehicleA company set up to do nothing but build, own, and run one large project, so as to keep the number of creditors claim…
- special-relationship doctrineThe rule that where a state has taken enough control over a person to owe them an affirmative duty of protection, as…
- special-sensitivity ruleIn tort law, the rule that a wrongdoer answers for the whole of the harm even where the victim's reaction is unusual…
- special-tax bondA municipal bond secured by taxes raised for a specific governmental purpose, usually public improvements.
- special-use permitA zoning board's authorization to use property in a way the ordinance identifies as a special exception. Unlike a var…
- special-use valuationAn executor's option of valuing land in an estate, above all farmland, at its actual present use rather than at the h…
- specialistA lawyer certified in a particular field of law; in securities law, an exchange member who makes a market in one or m…
- specialtyIn eminent-domain law, property such as a church or cemetery that is effectively unsaleable, whose value on condemnat…
- specialty barA voluntary bar association for lawyers sharing a particular interest, background, or field of practice.
- specialty contractA contract made binding by being written and sealed rather than by consideration.
- specialty debtA debt owed, or acknowledged to be owed, under an instrument made under seal, such as a deed, a lease reserving rent,…
- specialty doctrineIn international law, the rule found in most extradition treaties that a person handed over to stand trial for named…
- specialty propertyIn eminent-domain law, property such as a church or cemetery that is effectively unsaleable, whose value on condemnat…
- specieIn its own form: coin as opposed to paper money, or the very thing itself rather than its money value.
- speciesA class of organisms marked off from others by shared characteristics and usually unable to breed with them.
- specificRelating to one particular thing, and stated explicitly rather than in general terms.
- specific bequestA gift by will of a particular item or a stated sum of money.
- specific denialA separate answer directed at one or more particular allegations in a complaint.
- specific depositA bank deposit made for a particular purpose, kept separate and to be returned to the depositor. The bank holds it as…
- specific deviseA gift by will of one identified piece of property.
- specific enforcementThe enforcement of a primary right, that is, a right given by the substantive law itself, such as the right not to be…
- specific guarantyA guaranty limited to one particular debt or transaction, as opposed to a continuing guaranty covering a course of de…
- specific intentThe intent to bring about the precise criminal result charged. At common law the specific-intent crimes were robbery,…
- specific jurisdictionJurisdiction resting on the defendant's minimum contacts with the forum state, which lets the court hear a case whose…
- specific legacyA gift by will of a particular item that can be told apart from the rest of the estate.
- specific legateeThe person to whom a will leaves a particular identified item, which passes on the owner's death.
- specific lienA lien fastened on one particular thing, whether by contract or by a judgment, execution, attachment, or other legal…
- specific objectionAn objection stating one or more grounds in support of it.
- specific performanceA court-ordered remedy requiring exact performance of an obligation, granted where money damages would be inadequate,…
- specific remedyA remedy for breach of contract that gives the injured party the very performance promised, as where the court orders…
- specific taxA tax of a fixed sum on each article or item of a given class, regardless of what it is worth.
- specific traverseA traverse that tenders an issue: a denial, coupled with a formal offer to have the point decided, which contradicts…
- specificatioIn Roman and civil law, the making of a new thing out of another's materials, which raises the question who owns the…
- specificationA detailed statement, above all of the measurements, quality, or materials to be supplied under a contract, and the s…
- spectrographA machine that analyzes sound, above all a human voice, by separating it into frequency, duration, and intensity and…
- speculationThe buying or selling of something in the hope of profiting from movements in its price; also theorizing about matter…
- speculative damagesDamages so uncertain that a court will not award them.
- speculative riskA risk that may end in either a loss or a gain.
- speculative securityA security carrying more risk of loss than usual, above all one whose value rests on some promised future development…
- speculatorAn experienced and aggressive investor who trades to profit from swings in market prices.
- speechThe expressing of thoughts or opinions in spoken words, and the words themselves.
- Speech or Debate ClauseThe clause of the Constitution giving members of Congress immunity for what they say in debate in either chamber. The…
- speech-plusSpeech combined with conduct, such as picketing or marching. Because it is more than words alone, the state may regul…
- speedy executionAn execution issued quickly after a trial, especially by judges sitting at nisi prius.
- speedy remedyA remedy, such as a restraining order, that can be obtained quickly enough to prevent serious harm to the aggrieved p…
- speedy trialA trial the prosecution begins promptly and conducts without undue delay. The Sixth Amendment guarantees it, and in d…
- Speedy Trial Act of 1974The federal statute setting time limits for the main steps in a federal criminal prosecution, from charge and arraign…
- spending powerThe power of a government body to spend public money, above all Congress's power to spend for paying the debts and pr…
- spendthriftA person who spends lavishly and wastefully.
- spendthrift trustA trust that bars the beneficiary from assigning their interest and keeps creditors from reaching it.
- sperateOf a debt, recoverable rather than hopeless. In old accounting a debt was reckoned either sperate or desperate.
- spes accrescendiThe hope of taking an extra share of a legacy or inheritance by outliving another beneficiary.
- spes recuperandiThe hope of recovering a prize, as from a captured vessel.
- spes successionisThe hope of succeeding to a right, which is not itself a right and cannot be dealt with as property.
- Spielberg doctrineThe labor board's policy of deferring to an arbitrator's decision on a contract dispute where the decision does not o…
- spigurnelAn early officer of the Chancery, answering to the later Sealer of the king's writs.
- spilloverA cost or benefit that falls on someone outside a transaction, which the parties to it therefore take no account of.
- spillover theoryThe rule that a defendant is entitled to a separate trial only on showing that being tried with a codefendant would s…
- spin-offA divestiture in which a division of a company becomes an independent company, shares in it being handed to the paren…
- spirit of the lawThe general purpose behind a law, as opposed to its literal words.
- spiritualOf or relating to church rather than secular matters.
- spiritual corporationA corporation whose members are clergy, such as bishops, rectors, and abbots.
- spiritual courtA religious court hearing matters concerning a particular faith. In England it means a court dealing with matters con…
- spiritual lordAn archbishop or bishop holding a seat in the House of Lords.
- spiritual tenureA tenure carrying some religious obligation, such as frankalmoign or tenure by divine service.
- spite fenceA fence put up for no purpose but to annoy a neighbor, as by blocking a view or heading off an easement of light.
- spittleA hospital, above all one for the poor or for people with infectious disease.
- splitTo divide a cause of action into parts; also to issue two or more shares for each old one without changing anyone's p…
- split fundA closed-end mutual fund holding two classes of stock: shares paying dividends and shares meant to grow in value with…
- split incomeAn even division between spouses of the earnings reported on a joint return, so that couples in common-law states are…
- split orderAn order directing a broker to sell part of a holding at one price and the rest at another.
- split sentenceA sentence of which part is served in confinement, to bring home to the offender what prison is like, and the rest on…
- split verdictA verdict in which each party wins on some claims and loses on others; in criminal cases, one convicting a defendant…
- split-dollar insuranceAn arrangement between two people, often an employer and an employee, under which life insurance is written on one li…
- split-funded planA retirement plan combining features of life insurance with those of an investment plan.
- split-interest trustA trust whose assets are destined for charity but pass to it only after a life or other intermediate interest has run…
- split-level statuteA statute that treats different classes of people or cases differently, imposing one rule on some and another on others.
- split-offThe creating of a new company by an existing one, which gives its shareholders shares in the new company in exchange…
- split-upThe division of a company into two or more new companies. The original shareholders usually receive shares in the new…
- splitting a cause of actionThe dividing up of a single demand and suing on it piece by piece, putting only part of the claim before the court in…
- spoils of warIn international law, movable property taken from the enemy in the course of hostilities.
- spoils systemThe practice of handing out government jobs to the supporters of the winning party.
- spoliationThe deliberate destroying, altering, or hiding of evidence, usually a document. If proved, it may be treated as showi…
- spoliumSomething taken from another by violence and without right.
- sponsaliaA betrothal.
- sponsalia per verba de futuroFormerly, a promise to marry at some future time.
- sponsioIn Roman law, an undertaking given by answering a formal question, above all as a surety.
- sponsio ludicraIn civil law, an informal understanding that cannot be enforced; in Scots law, an obligation the courts will not enfo…
- sponsionThe formal pledge by which a person becomes a surety; in international law, an official agent's promise made beyond t…
- sponsorA person who acts as surety for another; also a legislator who introduces a bill, and, in civil law, a person who ste…
- spontaneous declarationIn the law of evidence, a statement made under the stress of an event, with no time to reflect or invent, and relatin…
- sports eventsGambling that involves taking and recording bets on an event, such as a horse race.
- sports franchiseA right a professional sports league grants to field a team in the league; also the team itself.
- sportulaA gift, as to the poor; also a fee paid to certain officers for performing judicial duties.
- spotMade, paid, or delivered at once.
- spot marketA market, above all in commodities, where payment and delivery happen at once.
- spot priceThe price at which a commodity sells for immediate delivery.
- spot zoningZoning that singles out one parcel for treatment different from that of the land around it, to the benefit or detrime…
- spousal abusePhysical, sexual, or psychological abuse inflicted by one spouse on the other.
- spousal allowanceA share of a deceased person's estate set aside by statute for the surviving spouse, whatever the will says and ahead…
- spousal consortiumThe society, affection, and companionship one spouse gives the other.
- spousal privilegeThe right of a spouse to refuse to testify, and to stop anyone else testifying, about confidential communications mad…
- spousal supportAn allowance one spouse is ordered to pay the other for maintenance, whether during separation, during proceedings, o…
- spouseA person's husband or wife by lawful marriage.
- spouse-breachAdultery: voluntary intercourse between a married person and someone other than their spouse.
- spray trustA trust in which the trustee decides how much each beneficiary is to receive.
- spreadIn banking, the gap between what an institution must pay to attract deposits and what it can charge on loans. In secu…
- spread eagleIn securities and commodities trading, holding contracts both to buy and to sell the same thing, so that a loss on on…
- spreadsheetA multi-columned worksheet used above all by accountants to set out and analyze financial transactions.
- spring tideA tide higher, or lower, than average, occurring at the new and full moon.
- springing useA use that arises when a future event happens, as in a grant to one person for the use of another when that other mar…
- sprinkling trustA trust in which the trustee decides how much each beneficiary is to receive.
- spuriousFalsely suggesting an origin it does not have; also of doubtful quality, and, in older usage, born outside marriage.
- spurious bank billA banknote printed from a genuine plate but bearing forged signatures, or the names of officers who do not exist; als…
- spurious banknoteA banknote properly printed from a genuine plate but bearing forged signatures of the issuing officers, or the names…
- spurious class actionA former kind of class action in which the members' interests were separate rather than bound up together, and joinin…
- spuriusA child born outside marriage.
- SPVA company set up to do nothing but build, own, and run one large project, so as to keep the number of creditors claim…
- spyA person who secretly gathers information about what another government or company is doing.
- squareA portion of land within a city; also ground set apart for public use, and, in a government survey, an area of twenty…
- squatterA person who settles on land with no legal claim to it; also one who settles on public land under a rule allowing the…
- squatter’s rightsThe right to gain title to land by adverse possession, or by taking up public land under a preemption statute.
- squeeze-outThe forcing out of minority shareholders, or of a partner, from a business, as by cutting off their share of the prof…
- SSIMonthly income paid under a program the Social Security Administration runs to a person who qualifies, such as someon…
- SSSThe executive agency that keeps the records of those eligible for military service and would run any future draft.
- stabilizeTo make firm, or to hold at a particular level.
- stable standIn forest law, a person found standing in the forest with a bow drawn ready to shoot a deer, or waiting by a tree wit…
- stackingIn insurance law, the claiming of benefits under a second policy on the same loss where what the first policy pays is…
- staff attorneyA lawyer employed by a court, usually permanently, to review motions, screen filings, prepare scheduling orders, and…
- staff judge advocateA qualified military lawyer on the staff of an authority that convenes or supervises general courts-martial.
- stagflationA stretch of slow growth or recession combined with high inflation, weak demand, and high unemployment.
- staggered board of directorsA board on which only a fraction of the directors comes up for election each year, each serving a term of two or thre…
- stagiariusIn church law, a resident canon bound to keep terms of residence; also a law student keeping terms before being calle…
- stakeProperty deposited with a third party while two or more others dispute the right to it, and so the subject matter of…
- stakeholderA disinterested third party who holds money or property while others dispute who is entitled to it, and who hands it…
- stale checkA check presented for payment more than six months after its date, which a bank may refuse to pay.
- stale claimA claim barred by the limitation period or by delay amounting to laches.
- stalkingThe offense of repeatedly following or watching another, often secretly, so as to harass them or to commit some furth…
- stallageThe right to set up a stall in a public market, and the charge made for it.
- stampAn official mark placed on a document, above all to show that a required tax has been paid.
- stamp actsEnglish statutes requiring stamps on deeds, contracts, bills, and other legal papers.
- stamp dutyA tax collected by requiring government stamps to be fixed to specified documents.
- stamp taxA tax collected by requiring a revenue stamp to be bought and fixed to a legal document, such as a deed or note, befo…
- stand muteOf a defendant, to refuse to plead to a criminal charge, which the court treats as a plea of not guilty; of any party…
- stand trialTo submit to a legal proceeding, above all a criminal prosecution.
- standardA model accepted as correct by custom, agreement, or authority, against which quality or accuracy is measured.
- standard deductionA set sum a taxpayer may deduct from adjusted gross income, in place of itemizing deductions, in working out taxable…
- standard instructionA jury instruction regularly used in the jurisdiction.
- standard mortgage clauseA mortgage clause protecting the lender's interest even if the borrower does something that would void the policy. In…
- standard of careIn the law of negligence, the degree of care a reasonable person would use in the circumstances.
- standard of needIn public-assistance law, the total resources a state reckons a person or family needs to subsist, so that falling sh…
- standard of proofHow convincing the proof must be in a given case, whether beyond a reasonable doubt or on the balance of probabilities.
- standard policyA policy providing the cover a state's law recommends or requires, usually overseen by a state agency; also a policy…
- standard-form contractA pre-printed contract with set clauses, used over and over by a business or throughout an industry, with only small…
- standby commitmentAn arrangement by which an underwriter agrees, for a fee, to buy whatever shares are left unsold after a public offer…
- standby counselA lawyer appointed to be ready to take over if a defendant conducting their own defense stops doing so, and who may a…
- standby letter of creditA letter of credit used to guarantee an obligation, whether to pay money or to do something such as finish constructi…
- standby underwritingUnderwriting in which the underwriter agrees, for a fee, to buy whatever shares are left unsold after a public offering.
- standby underwriting agreementAn arrangement by which an underwriter agrees, for a fee, to buy whatever shares are left unsold after a public offer…
- standingA party's right to bring a claim before a court. In federal court a claimant must show that the conduct complained of…
- standing aside a jurorThe prosecution's practice of setting a juror aside provisionally, without giving a reason, until the panel is exhaus…
- standing byWaiting ready to act; also staying silent or inactive when there is a duty to speak, above all where a person knows s…
- standing committeeA permanent legislative committee dealing with a particular field of law. It usually considers questions of policy, h…
- standing masterA master appointed to help the court on a continuing basis.
- standing mortgageA mortgage on which the borrower pays only interest and must then repay the whole principal in one sum when the loan…
- standing offerAn offer that stands as a whole series of offers, each of which a separate acceptance turns into a contract.
- standing orderA general order applying to every case before a court. Some judges issue one where no local rule covers the point, of…
- standing seised to usesHolding title for the benefit of another, such as a relative, in consideration of blood or marriage. A covenant to st…
- standing to sueA party's right to bring a claim before a court, resting on actual injury from the conduct complained of and on an in…
- standstill agreementAn agreement to hold off from further action, above all one by which a would-be bidder promises not to pursue a takeo…
- stapleA key commodity such as wool, leather, tin, or cheese; also a town the Crown appointed as the sole market for such go…
- Star ChamberFormerly, an English court with wide civil and criminal jurisdiction exercised at the king's pleasure, notorious for…
- star pagingA way of citing a page of an earlier edition of a book within a later one, by marking in the text where each old page…
- stare decisisThe doctrine of precedent: a court must follow the earlier decisions of itself and of higher courts when the same poi…
- stashTo hide money or property away.
- stateA body of people politically organized under a single government, and the system of rules by which authority is exerc…
- state actionAnything done by government; in constitutional law, an interference with a person's rights either by a public body or…
- state auditorThe state officer, elected or appointed, who oversees the state's finances and audits the accounts of its agencies.
- state bankA bank chartered by a state and supervised by the state banking department. To have federal deposit insurance, such a…
- state bar associationAn association of the lawyers admitted to practice in a given state. Such bodies are usually created by statute and m…
- state bondA bond issued by a state to borrow money, repayable out of its revenues.
- state courtA court of a state's own judicial system, as opposed to a federal court.
- state criminalSomeone who has committed a crime against the state itself, such as treason; also, someone who has committed a crime…
- State DepartmentThe executive department, headed by the Secretary of State, responsible for the nation's foreign relations.
- state governmentThe government of a state, made up of its legislature, executive, and courts, exercising the powers the state constit…
- state lawThe law of a particular state: its constitution, statutes, regulations, and judge-made law.
- state of artIn products-liability law, the scientific and technical knowledge available when the product was made, and the best t…
- state of mindThe condition of a person's mind; also, loosely, their reasons or motives for acting.
- state of natureThe absence of any organized political society, imagined as the condition of humanity before government.
- state of the artIn products-liability law, the scientific and technical knowledge available when the product was made, and the best t…
- state of the caseThe posture a case has reached, whether in discovery, at trial, or on appeal.
- State of the UnionThe President's report to Congress on the condition of the nation, above all on matters calling for legislation.
- state of warA situation in which war has been declared or armed conflict is under way.
- state officerAn officer whose authority runs to the state as a whole, rather than being confined to one political subdivision; als…
- state paperA document prepared by or concerning a government and bearing on its political or international affairs; also a newsp…
- state paper officeAn office established in London in 1578, under the Clerk of the Papers, to keep custody of state documents.
- state policeThe state agency charged with keeping order, investigating and preventing crime, and making arrests.
- state police powerA state's power to make laws for the health, welfare, morals, and safety of its people, valid so long as the means ch…
- state sealThe official seal of a state, used to authenticate documents issued in its name.
- state secretA government matter whose disclosure would endanger national defense or foreign relations, and which a witness may th…
- state sovereigntyA state's right to govern itself, and the supreme authority each state exercises within its own sphere.
- state taxA tax, usually on sales or income, raised for state rather than federal or local purposes; also any tax imposed under…
- state trialA trial for a political offense.
- state-action doctrineIn antitrust law, the rule that the antitrust laws do not reach a state's own anticompetitive acts, or acts private p…
- state-compulsion testIn civil-rights law, the rule that a state answers for discrimination a private party commits while doing what state…
- state-of-mind exceptionIn the law of evidence, the rule that an out-of-court statement of the speaker's then-existing state of mind or motiv…
- state-secrets privilegeA privilege the government may claim to keep back material whose disclosure would harm national security.
- state’s evidenceEvidence given by one defendant against another, under a promise of immunity or a lighter sentence.
- statedFixed or settled; also expressly declared.
- stated accountA balance the parties to a transaction agree on, expressly or by implication; also the agreement itself.
- stated capitalA corporation's total equity as shown on its balance sheet.
- stated interest rateThe rate of interest a loan agreement or bond names, with no adjustment for inflation.
- stated meetingA yearly gathering of a company's shareholders to elect directors and handle other routine business.
- stated rateThe interest rate stated in a loan agreement or on a bond, with no allowance for inflation.
- stated termA regular term of court: the period during which a court ordinarily sits.
- stated valueThe value shown on the face of an instrument, such as the sum assigned to a share by the corporate charter or the pri…
- stateless personIn international law, a person whom no country regards as its national. The Stateless Persons Convention of 1954 give…
- statementIn the law of evidence, an assertion, whether in words or by conduct meant as an assertion; also a formal recital of…
- Statement and Account ClauseThe clause of the Constitution requiring the receipts and expenditures of the federal government to be published from…
- statement of accountA report a bank sends a customer, usually monthly, showing the checks paid, deposits made, charges debited, and the b…
- statement of affairsIn bankruptcy, the document a debtor must file answering questions about their past and present finances, including a…
- statement of claimThe first pleading in a civil action, setting out the ground of the court's jurisdiction, the basis of the claim, and…
- statement of conditionA statement of what an entity now owns, owes, and is worth to its owners.
- statement of confessionA person's agreement that judgment may be entered against them if something happens or fails to happen, such as a mis…
- statement of defenseA defendant's answer to the claimant's statement of claim, above all in England.
- statement of factsA party's written account of the facts leading to the dispute, usually set out near the start of a brief.
- statement of financial affairsIn bankruptcy, the document a debtor must file answering questions about their past and present finances.
- statement of financial conditionA statement of what an entity now owns, owes, and is worth to its owners.
- statement of financial positionA statement of what an entity now owns, owes, and is worth to its owners.
- statement of incomeA statement of all the revenue, expenses, gains, and losses of a business over a given period.
- statement of intentionIn bankruptcy, a preliminary statement a Chapter 7 debtor files saying whether property securing a consumer debt will…
- statement of particularsA detailed statement of the claims or charges brought, usually filed in answer to a demand that the complaint be made…
- states’ rightsUnder the Tenth Amendment, the powers that the Constitution neither gives to the federal government nor denies to the…
- statewayA government policy or law, the word being formed on the model of folkway.
- statimImmediately: as soon as the act could lawfully be done.
- stationSocial position; also a place where military duties are done or supplies kept, a headquarters such as a police statio…
- Stationery OfficeIn English law, the government office established in 1786 under the Treasury to supply government offices and Parliam…
- stationhouseA police station, and the lockup within it.
- stationhouse bailMoney posted at the police station, rather than a surety bond, to obtain a prisoner's release.
- statistIn older usage, a statesman or politician; also a statistician.
- statistical-decision theoryA method of testing whether a jury panel was drawn from a fair cross-section of the community, by working out how lik…
- statuliberIn Roman law, a person whose freedom under a will is postponed or made conditional, so that they become free at a set…
- statusA person's legal condition: the whole of their rights, duties, and liabilities, or any particular group of them. The…
- status crimeA crime of which a person is guilty because of the condition they are in rather than anything they have done, such as…
- status de manerioThe state or condition of a manor.
- status of irremovabilityA pauper's right not to be removed from a parish once they had lived there a year.
- status offenderA young person whose conduct, though it would not be criminal in an adult, is thought serious enough to bring them be…
- status offenseA minor's breach of the juvenile code by doing something that would not be an offense in an adult but shows the minor…
- status, law ofThe branch of law dealing with personal rather than proprietary rights, one of the three divisions of the civil law.
- statutablePrescribed by statute; also conforming to what a statute requires as to quality, size, or amount, and, of an offense,…
- statuteA law passed by a legislature.
- statute bookA bound collection of statutes, usually part of a larger set making up a complete body of statutory law.
- statute fairA fair at which fixed rates of pay were announced and laborers of both sexes offered themselves for hire.
- statute lawThe body of law made by statute, as opposed to constitutions or judicial decisions.
- statute merchantOne of two thirteenth-century statutes giving creditors a swifter means of recovering debts, by providing a commercia…
- statute mileA distance of 5,280 feet.
- Statute of AccumulationsThe English statute of 1800 forbidding property settled by deed or will to be accumulated beyond a stated period.
- Statute of Allegiance de FactoA statute requiring subjects to give their allegiance to whoever actually held the throne, and protecting them for do…
- Statute of Amendments and JeofailsOne of several fifteenth- and sixteenth-century statutes allowing a party who admits an error in pleading to put it r…
- Statute of AnneThe Copyright Act of 1709, the first to give authors copyright in their books; also the statute of 1705 that moderniz…
- statute of bread and aleThe medieval assize fixing the price, weight, and quality of bread and ale sold to the public.
- statute of distributionA state statute governing how the estate of someone who dies without a will is divided among the heirs.
- Statute of ElizabethThe Elizabethan statute of 1571 avoiding conveyances made to defraud creditors.
- statute of fraudsThe statute requiring certain kinds of contract, such as those for the sale of land or those not to be performed with…
- Statute of Frauds and PerjuriesThe English statute of 1677 requiring certain contracts to be evidenced in writing and signed, from which the modern…
- Statute of GloucesterA statute of 1278 providing for the award of costs in legal actions.
- statute of limitationsA statute fixing the time within which a civil action must be brought, running from when the claim arose or the injur…
- statute of mortmainA law limiting gifts of land to corporations, above all charitable ones, and forbidding them to hold land forever. In…
- statute of reposeA statute barring suit a set number of years after the defendant acted, as by designing or making a product, even if…
- Statute of UsesThe English statute of 1535 that turned the beneficiary's equitable interest in land into a legal one, so that the be…
- Statute of Westminster the FirstAn English statute of 1275 in fifty-one chapters, protecting church property from seizure by Crown and nobles, provid…
- statute of willsThe English statute of 1540 establishing the right to leave real property by will; also a state statute, usually deri…
- Statute of WinchesterA statute of Edward I requiring every man to keep armor for keeping the peace, recognizing and regulating the offices…
- Statute of YorkAn English statute passed at York in the twelfth year of Edward II, dealing with attorneys, witnesses, and the taking…
- statute rollThe roll on which a statute was formally entered once it had received the royal assent.
- statute stapleA statute of 1353 setting up a procedure for settling disputes among merchants trading in the staple towns, which let…
- Statutes at LargeThe official chronological collection of the acts and resolutions Congress passes in each session.
- statuto mercatorioA writ founded on a merchant's statute bond, for seizing the debtor's lands, goods, and person on default.
- statuto stapulaeA writ founded on a statute staple, for seizing the debtor's lands, goods, and person on default.
- statutoryOf or relating to legislation.
- statutory actionAn action governed by statute rather than by equity, civil law, or the common law.
- statutory agentAn agent designated by law to receive court papers and other legal notices for a company based out of state. In most…
- statutory arsonThe burning of property that a statute makes arson although it was not arson at common law, such as burning one's own…
- statutory bondA bond that meets, in terms or in substance, what a statute requires.
- statutory burglaryThe modern statutory offense of breaking and entering any building - not only a dwelling, and not only by night - mea…
- statutory constructionThe reading of a statute to find its meaning, and the body of principles the courts have developed for doing so.
- statutory crimeA crime created and punishable by statute rather than at common law.
- statutory damagesDamages a statute provides for, such as under a wrongful-death or survival act, as opposed to damages the common law…
- statutory dedicationA dedication for which a statute lays down the necessary steps, all of which must be substantially followed for it to…
- statutory deedA form of warranty deed laid down by state law, which carries certain warranties and covenants even though the printe…
- statutory employeeIn workers' compensation law, an employee who is covered, or required to be covered, by the employer's workers'-compe…
- statutory employerSomeone whom a statute treats as an employer for a particular purpose, such as workers' compensation, even though the…
- statutory exceptionA provision in a statute taking certain people or conduct outside its operation.
- statutory expositionA statute's own interpretation of ambiguous words in an earlier statute.
- statutory extortionThe offense of a public officer who unlawfully obtains property under color of office, above all by collecting a fee…
- statutory forced shareIn the law of wills, the share of a dead spouse's estate that a statute allows the survivor, or sometimes a child, to…
- statutory foreclosureA foreclosure carried out without going to court, under a power of sale in the mortgage and the state statute, the pr…
- statutory guardianA guardian whom a statute appoints or authorizes, as opposed to one named by a will or chosen by a court.
- statutory instrumentA British administrative regulation or order made under authority a statute confers.
- statutory interpretationThe reading of a statute to find its meaning, and the body of principles the courts have developed for doing so.
- statutory lawThe body of law made by statute, as opposed to constitutions or judicial decisions.
- statutory lienA lien arising by force of statute alone rather than by agreement, such as a federal tax lien or a mechanic's lien. I…
- statutory memorandumA note bearing a statement that a required formality was carried out under a particular statute.
- statutory mergerA merger carried out under, and in accordance with, the requirements of a statute.
- statutory noticeNotice a statute or rule requires to be given in a particular form and within a particular time.
- statutory obligationAn obligation to pay money, do certain acts, or discharge duties, created by a statute rather than arising from a con…
- statutory omnibus clauseIn insurance law, an omnibus clause that a statute requires a policy to contain.
- statutory partnership associationA business form combining features of a limited partnership and a close corporation, recognized by statute in only a…
- statutory penaltyA penalty a statute imposes for breaking it, above all one that fixes liability automatically without regard to the l…
- statutory presumptionA presumption a statute creates, whether it may be rebutted or is conclusive.
- statutory rapeSexual intercourse with a person below the age the statute fixes for consent, whether or not they agreed. Only someon…
- statutory redemptionA defaulting borrower's statutory right to get the property back within a set period after a foreclosure or tax sale…
- statutory releaseA form of conveyance created by an English statute of 1841, which did away with the need for the older two-step trans…
- statutory right of redemptionA defaulting borrower's right to recover the property after a foreclosure sale by paying the principal, interest, and…
- statutory shareIn the law of wills, the share of a dead spouse's estate that a statute allows the survivor, or sometimes a child, to…
- statutory stapleA writ to seize the lands, goods, and person of a debtor who has forfeited a statute staple.
- statutory successorThe person to whom all a company's assets pass when it is dissolved, under the law of the state of incorporation in f…
- statutumFormerly, an act of Parliament, above all one the monarch has approved.
- stayThe halting or postponing of a proceeding or judgment, and the order that does it.
- stay of executionAn order postponing the carrying out of a judgment, so that the successful party cannot enforce it for the time being.
- stay-put ruleIn education law, the rule that a child must stay in their present school placement while an administrative claim und…
- STBThe federal board that oversees railroad rates, mergers, and line abandonments, and certain other surface transportat…
- STDA disease passed on chiefly by sexual contact with an infected person, such as syphilis or gonorrhea.
- steady courseA ship's course that others can readily work out, either because she is holding a straight heading or because her fut…
- stealTo take another's property unlawfully, meaning to keep it.
- stealthFormerly, theft: the noun answering to the verb steal.
- stellionatusIn Roman and Scots law, conduct that is fraudulent but falls into no recognized class of offense, used above all of f…
- step-in-the-dark ruleIn tort law, the rule that a person who walks into a wholly unfamiliar dark place must, absent some pressing reason,…
- step-rate-premium insuranceInsurance whose premiums rise at times the policy specifies.
- step-transaction doctrineA method the tax authorities use to work out liability by looking at a transaction as a whole and disregarding interm…
- stepchildThe child of one's spouse by an earlier marriage.
- stepfatherThe husband of one's mother by a later marriage.
- stepmotherThe wife of one's father by a later marriage.
- stepped-up basisThe basis of property acquired by inheritance, equal to its market value at the date of death or at the alternate val…
- sterlingConforming to a standard of value, above all of English money or metal; also, of an opinion or a person, thoroughly s…
- stetAn order staying proceedings, as where a prosecutor decides not to go on with an indictment and puts the case on a st…
- stet processusAn entry on the record, like a nolle prosequi, by which the parties agree that proceedings shall be stayed, and the a…
- stevedoreA person employed in loading and unloading ships.
- stewardA person appointed to act in another's place; also the union officer who represents the workers and sees that the uni…
- steward of a manorThe officer who handled the business of a manor, keeping the court rolls and admitting tenants to copyhold land.
- steward of all EnglandAn officer holding various powers, including that of presiding at the trial of peers.
- Steward of Chiltern HundredsFormerly, a royal officer charged with protecting the people of the Chiltern Hundreds from robbers hiding in the wood…
- stickeringIn securities law, the updating of a prospectus by attaching stickers carrying the new information, which avoids repr…
- stickupAn armed robbery in which the victim is threatened with a weapon.
- stifling of a prosecutionAn agreement, made for money or some other advantage, not to prosecute a person.
- stigma-plus doctrineThe rule that defamation by a government official is not actionable as a civil-rights violation unless the victim los…
- stillicidiumA servitude entitling the owner of a house hemmed in by other buildings to let rainwater run off onto the neighboring…
- stingAn undercover operation in which officers pose as criminals to catch people in the act of offending.
- stintIn English law, a limited number or amount; also a day's allotted task.
- stipendA regular periodic payment; also a payment in money or grain for the support of the clergy.
- stipendiary estateFormerly, an estate granted in return for services, usually military ones.
- stipendiary magistrateIn England, a salaried professional magistrate, drawn from barristers and solicitors of some years' standing, who sit…
- stipitalOf or relating to distribution per stirpes, by branches of the family.
- stipulated authorityAuthority given to an agent by explicit agreement, whether spoken or written.
- stipulated damagesA sum the parties agree in the contract as a reasonable estimate of the loss one will suffer if the other breaks it.…
- stipulated judgmentA settlement that becomes a judgment of the court once the judge approves it.
- stipulatioIn Roman law, an oral contract made by formal question and answer, binding the answerer to do what was asked. Both pa…
- stipulatio jurisThe parties' agreement about a question of law or how it applies. A court need not accept it if it is wrong, though t…
- stipulationA term or condition in an agreement; also, in litigation, the parties' agreement about some matter, so that it need n…
- stipulation pour autruiIn civil law, a promise made for the benefit of a third person, who may enforce it although they were no party to the…
- stipulative definitionA definition that, for the purposes of the document it appears in, settles the meaning of a term whose edges are uncl…
- stipulatorA person who makes a stipulation; in civil law, the promisee who accepts a promise made for a third party's benefit.
- stirpalOf or relating to distribution per stirpes, by branches of the family.
- stirpitalOf or relating to distribution per stirpes, by branches of the family.
- stirpsA branch of a family; a line of descent from a common ancestor.
- stockA merchant's goods held for sale; also the capital a company raises from its subscribers, and a proportional part of…
- stock acquisitionThe taking over of a company by buying its shares from the shareholders, as opposed to buying its assets.
- stock associationA business owned by its members and divided into transferable shares, having features of both a partnership and a cor…
- stock attributionThe process, set out in the tax code, by which one person's or company's shareholding is treated as belonging to a re…
- stock bailoutA redemption of stock made in the form of a preferred-stock dividend, so as to take profits out at capital-gains rates.
- stock bonus planA kind of profit-sharing plan in which the benefits are paid out in the employer's own shares.
- stock certificateAn instrument showing ownership of shares or of a bond.
- stock clearingThe actual exchange of money and stock between buyer and seller, usually carried out by a clearing corporation.
- stock clearing corporationA subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange acting as the central agency for delivering securities and settling payme…
- stock controlA system of inventory management under which a business keeps continuous records of what it holds.
- stock corporationA corporation whose capital comes from its shareholders and is divided into shares represented by certificates.
- stock dividendA dividend paid in shares, expressed as a percentage of the shares the shareholder already holds.
- stock exchangeA marketplace organized for the buying and selling of securities, above all stocks; also the body of people who organ…
- stock in tradeThe goods a retailer keeps for sale in the ordinary course of business; also the tools and equipment a tradesperson u…
- stock insurance companyAn insurance company run as a private corporation and owned by shareholders, who take its profits and bear its losses.
- stock life-insurance companyA stock insurance company that writes life insurance.
- stock manipulationIn securities law, the unlawful raising or lowering of a security's price by creating a false appearance of active tr…
- stock marketThe market in which shares are bought and sold, taken as a whole.
- stock mergerA merger in which one company buys another's capital stock.
- stock noteA note secured by securities such as stocks or bonds.
- stock optionAn option to buy or sell a stated quantity of stock at a fixed price within a set period, whatever the market does in…
- stock powerA power of attorney allowing someone other than the owner to transfer a security to a third party.
- stock redemptionA company's buying back of its own shares from the holders, cancelling them or holding them as treasury stock.
- stock repurchaseA company's buying back of its own shares from the holders.
- stock rightA certificate showing a shareholder's right to buy newly issued shares before they are offered to the public. Such ri…
- stock splitThe issuing of two or more new shares for each old one, leaving every shareholder's proportion untouched. A three-for…
- stock subscriptionA written contract to buy newly issued shares or bonds.
- stock swapAn exchange of one security for another; also an arrangement, usually through a dealer, under which two parties excha…
- stock warrantAn instrument giving the holder a long option, usually of five to ten years, to buy shares at a fixed price. It is co…
- stock-appreciation rightA right, usually granted alongside a stock option, to be paid the option’s value in cash when it is exercised, the op…
- stock-law districtA district in which cattle and other livestock may not run loose.
- stock-option contractA transferable instrument giving the holder the right to buy or sell a set number of a company's shares at a stated p…
- stock-parkingThe selling of securities under an agreement that the seller will buy them back later at about the same price. It is…
- stock-purchase planAn arrangement by which a company lets its employees buy its shares.
- stock-repurchase planA program under which a company buys its own shares back on the open market, usually because it thinks they are under…
- stock-transfer agentAn organization that oversees and keeps the records of share transfers for a company.
- stock-transfer taxA tax on the transfer or sale of shares, levied federally and in some states.
- stockbrokerA person who buys or sells stock as agent for another.
- stockholderA person who owns shares in a company.
- stockholder derivative suitA suit brought by a shareholder on the company's behalf against someone, usually an officer, whom the company itself…
- stockholder of recordThe person the issuer's books show as owning the shares on the record date.
- stockholder's liabilityA shareholder’s liability for the company’s debts beyond the price of the shares, imposed by statute in some states,…
- stockjobberA middleman who deals in securities between brokers.
- stockjobbingThe business of dealing in stocks and shares, above all buying and selling them on one's own account.
- stocksA wooden frame with holes for the ankles, in which offenders were confined in public as a punishment.
- stolen propertyGoods obtained by larceny, robbery, or theft.
- stopUnder the Fourth Amendment, a brief restraint that keeps a person from walking away, short of an arrest.
- stop and friskA police officer's brief detention of a person, with questioning and a pat-down for weapons, where the officer reason…
- stop orderAn order to buy or sell once the security reaches a stated price. Fixing that price in advance protects the investor…
- stop-limit orderAn order to buy or sell once the security reaches a set price, but only at or better than a further price the investo…
- stop-listIn antitrust law, an unlawful means of enforcing resale prices, by which suppliers agree among themselves not to supp…
- stop-loss insuranceInsurance protecting a self-insured employer against catastrophic or unusually large claims. The employer and the ins…
- stop-loss orderAn order to sell once the security falls to a set price, so as to cap the loss if the market keeps falling.
- stop-notice statuteA statute giving a contractor, supplier, or worker an alternative to a mechanic's lien, by allowing a claim against t…
- stop-payment orderA customer's instruction to a bank not to pay a particular check the customer has written.
- stopgap zoningTemporary zoning put in place while a permanent scheme is being prepared, to keep development from outrunning the plan.
- stoppageAn obstruction or hindrance to something being done.
- stoppage in transituThe right of a seller of goods, in certain circumstances, to take them back although they have already been parted wi…
- storeA place where goods are kept for sale; also the supplies provided for a ship's crew and passengers, and a warehouse w…
- stowageThe packing and arranging of cargo aboard a vessel so as to protect it from rubbing, crushing, or water damage during…
- stowawayA person who hides aboard a ship or aircraft to travel without paying.
- STRA report a financial institution formerly filed to flag a transaction it suspected of involving a crime, now replaced…
- straddleIn securities and commodities trading, holding contracts both to buy and to sell the same thing, so that a loss on on…
- straight annuityAn annuity paying fixed amounts at regular intervals.
- straight bankruptcyThe chapter of the Bankruptcy Code under which a trustee gathers and sells the debtor's property to pay the creditors…
- straight bill of ladingA non-negotiable bill of lading naming a consignee to whom the carrier is contractually bound to deliver the goods.
- straight deductibleA deductible fixed at a set amount.
- straight letter of creditA letter of credit requiring that drafts drawn under it be presented to a named party.
- straight life annuityAn annuity guaranteeing payments for the annuitant's life, with nothing refunded to anyone on death.
- straight life insuranceLife insurance covering the insured for life, with fixed premiums, part of which builds up savings, and a guaranteed…
- straight mortgageA mortgage under which the borrower pays interest through the term and the whole principal at the end.
- straight sentenceA sentence of a fixed length rather than one of uncertain duration.
- straight votingA voting system in which a shareholder may cast, for any one candidate, no more shares than they hold. The result is…
- straight-line depreciation methodA depreciation method that takes the asset's cost, subtracts the expected salvage value, and divides the difference e…
- straight-line interestInterest charged on the principal alone, not on interest already added.
- straight-term mortgageA mortgage on which the borrower pays only interest and must then repay the whole principal in one sum when the loan…
- strandThe shore or bank of an ocean, lake, or river.
- strandingA ship's running aground on a shore or shoal.
- strangerA person who is no party to a transaction, or who stands in none of the relations the context implies.
- stranger in bloodA person not related by blood, such as a relative by marriage; more broadly, anyone outside the natural affection tha…
- stratagemA trick used to gain an advantage, above all in war.
- strategic allianceAn alliance between two or more businesses in the same or complementary lines, formed for long-term financial, operat…
- straw bailA fictitious surety filed by a defendant in a civil action, usually a minor one.
- straw bondA bond, usually a bail bond, given in a false name or in the name of someone unable to pay the sum guaranteed; a wort…
- straw manA weak or distorted version of an argument, put up only so that it can be knocked down; also a person used as a tempo…
- stray remarksIn employment law, offensive remarks about an employee's race, sex, age, or the like made by a colleague or superviso…
- streamA current of water with a bed, banks, and a course, usually running into some larger body of water and keeping its ch…
- stream-of-commerce theoryThe rule that a state may exercise jurisdiction over a defendant who puts a product into the general market and it ca…
- streetA public road in a town or city, taking in the roadway, shoulders, gutters, curbs, and everything else between the st…
- street crimeCrime committed against people in public places, such as mugging, theft, or robbery.
- street gangA group who go about together or act in concert, above all for antisocial or criminal purposes. Many, especially amon…
- street nameA brokerage firm's own name, in which securities belonging to a customer are registered. Holding securities this way…
- strictNarrow or restricted; also rigid, severe, or absolute, requiring no proof of fault.
- strict constructionReading a document by its words alone, taking them narrowly and often in their historical sense.
- strict constructionismThe view that a judge should read a document or statute, above all a penal one, according to its literal words, witho…
- strict foreclosureA rarely used procedure that hands the lender title to the mortgaged property outright, with no sale, once a defaulti…
- strict interpretationReading a text as meaning only what the writer must have had in mind at the time and nothing further, which usually g…
- strict liabilityLiability that does not turn on negligence or intent to harm, but on breaking an absolute duty to make something safe…
- strict products liabilityLiability arising where a buyer shows that goods were unreasonably dangerous and that the seller was in the business…
- strict scrutinyThe most demanding standard of constitutional review, applied to classifications such as race and to fundamental righ…
- strict settlementA family settlement designed to keep an estate in the family, by creating a succession of entailed interests and prot…
- strict testIn the law of evidence, the rule that disclosing a privileged document waives the privilege even if the disclosure wa…
- strict underwritingAn underwriting on terms that bind the underwriter to take the whole issue, whether or not it can be placed with inve…
- strict-liability crimeA crime that needs no guilty state of mind, such as speeding or trying to carry a weapon onto an aircraft.
- strictly ministerial dutyA duty that is absolute and must simply be carried out, calling for no exercise of official discretion or judgment.
- strictum jusLaw in its strict letter, applied rigidly and without the softening equity would give.
- strikeA concerted stopping or slowing of work by employees to force the employer to meet their demands.
- strike downTo hold a statute invalid.
- strike fundA union fund that pays benefits to members on strike, chiefly to keep them going while no wages are coming in.
- strike offOf a court, to order a case removed from the docket; of an auctioneer, to announce by the fall of the hammer that an…
- strike priceThe price at which a security will be bought or sold under an option if the option is exercised.
- strike suitA suit brought not on its merits but to force a settlement, above all a shareholder's derivative action brought in th…
- strikebreakerA worker who works on terms contrary to a union contract, above all one who crosses a picket line to take a striker's…
- striking a juryThe choosing of a jury from among all those available, above all in selecting a special jury.
- striking off the rollThe expelling of a lawyer from the profession, usually for a disciplinary offense.
- striking priceThe price at which a security may be bought or sold under an option if the option is exercised.
- stripThe separating of a bond's coupons from its principal so that each may be sold on its own; also the act of a tenant h…
- strip searchA search made after a person's clothes have been removed, usually to find contraband hidden on the body.
- STRIPSTreasury securities sold in stripped form, so that the right to the principal and the right to each interest payment…
- strong markA trademark that is inherently distinctive - invented, arbitrary, or fanciful rather than descriptive - and which the…
- strong marketA securities market in which prices climb over a long stretch on heavy demand.
- strong trademarkAn inherently distinctive trademark, used in a fanciful or arbitrary way and usually by its owner alone, which the tr…
- strong-arm clauseThe provision of the Bankruptcy Code allowing a trustee to set aside a security interest that was never perfected.
- strongly corroboratedOf testimony, supported by independent facts and circumstances that the court and jury find powerful, satisfactory, a…
- struck juryA jury chosen by having the parties strike names in turn from a list until the required number, traditionally twelve,…
- structural alterationA change to a building or other structure significant enough that it amounts to a different structure.
- structural unemploymentUnemployment caused by a lasting shift in demand for a particular product or service, rather than by the ordinary ups…
- structureAnything built or put together out of parts joined for a purpose; also the arrangement of the parts themselves.
- structured securityA security whose return depends on one or more indexes, or which carries an embedded option or forward, so that what…
- structured settlementA settlement under which the defendant pays the claimant by installments over a set period rather than in one sum.
- study releaseA program allowing a prisoner out for a few hours at a time to attend classes at a nearby college or technical school.
- stuff gownThe plain robe worn by junior barristers who have not been made King's Counsel, and hence a junior barrister.
- stultifyTo make someone look foolish; also to give evidence of one's own want of mental capacity, or to contradict what one h…
- stultiloquiumA frivolous pleading, once punishable by fine.
- stumpageThe timber standing on land; also its value, the license to cut it, and the fee paid for the right.
- stuprumIn Roman and civil law, unlawful sexual intercourse, above all with an unmarried woman or a widow.
- styleThe name by which a case is known; in Scots law, a form of writ or deed used in conveyancing, collected in books of s…
- sua sponteOf a court's own motion, without either party asking.
- suabilityThe quality of being liable to be sued.
- suableCapable of being sued, or of being enforced by suit.
- suapte naturaIn its own nature, as in the phrase barren of its own nature.
- subUnder.
- sub nomineUnder the name. The phrase, usually abbreviated, marks a change of case name between stages, as where a decision is r…
- sub suo periculoFormerly, at his own risk.
- subagentSomeone an agent appoints to carry out part of the work of the agency.
- subchapter-C corporationAn ordinary corporation, taxed on its own income under Subchapter C of the Internal Revenue Code, so that its profits…
- subchapter-S corporationA corporation whose income is taxed in the hands of its shareholders rather than the company itself, under Subchapter…
- subcommitteeA subdivision of a committee, which does work for the parent committee and reports back to it.
- subcontractA contract one party to an existing contract makes with someone else to carry out that contract, or part of it.
- subcontractorSomeone given part of an existing contract by a contractor, usually the general contractor. A housebuilder, for insta…
- subditusA person under another's power; a vassal.
- subdivisionThe dividing of something into smaller parts; also a plot within a larger development.
- subdivision exactionA charge a community lays on a developer as the price of registering the subdivision map and selling off the lots.
- subdivision mapA map showing how a parcel is to be divided into lots, with the layout and services marked.
- subinfeudateOf a vassal, to grant land to another to hold as their own vassal.
- subinfeudationThe system under which feudal tenants granted smaller estates to tenants of their own, who could do the same again do…
- subinfeudatoryA tenant holding land by subinfeudation.
- subjacentLying underneath.
- subjacent supportA landowner's right to have the ground beneath their land left in place, so that it does not collapse because of what…
- subjectA person who owes allegiance to a sovereign and lives under that sovereign's laws.
- subject matterThe thing in dispute: the matter in which a right or duty is asserted.
- subject of a rightThe person in whom a legal right is vested, as opposed to the thing the right is over.
- subject to openOf a future interest given to a class, liable to change as the class grows or shrinks.
- subject-matter jurisdictionA court's power over the kind of case before it and the kind of relief sought: how far the court may rule on people's…
- subject-matter testA test for deciding whether an employee's communication with the company's lawyer is privileged, asking whether the e…
- subjectionThe subjecting of a person to something; also the condition and obligations of a subject in a monarchy, and the state…
- subjectiveResting on a person's own perceptions, feelings, or intentions rather than on anything outwardly verifiable.
- subjective ethicsThe view that there are no fixed or absolute standards of right and wrong.
- subjective meaningThe meaning one party to a document attaches to it when it is written, signed, or adopted.
- subjective novationA novation that puts a new debtor in place of the old one, who is thereby released by the creditor.
- subjective standardA standard measured by the particular person's own views and experience. Premeditation in criminal law is judged this…
- subjective theory of contractThe now largely abandoned doctrine that a contract requires a genuine meeting of the parties' minds rather than merel…
- subjugationIn international law, the ending of a war by so complete a defeat that the victor alone decides the fate of the beate…
- subleaseA lease granted by a tenant to a third party, passing some or all of the leased property for a shorter term than the…
- sublesseeA third party who takes part or all of leased premises from the tenant.
- sublessorA tenant who leases part or all of the premises on to a third party.
- sublicenseA license granting some or all of the rights the licensee holds under the original license.
- submissionA yielding to another's authority; also an agreement to refer a dispute to a third party for decision, and, in argume…
- submission bondA bond given by a litigant who agrees to refer a dispute to arbitration and to be bound by the award.
- submission dateThe day on which a case is to be handed to the court for decision.
- submission to a findingAn admission of facts sufficient to support a finding of guilt.
- submission to the juryThe handing of a case to the jury for its verdict, once the evidence is in, the arguments are finished, and the direc…
- submortgageA mortgage created where someone holding a mortgage as security borrows in turn and pledges that mortgage as security…
- subordinateOf lower rank or position; also subject to another's authority.
- subordinate debentureA debenture that ranks for payment only after ordinary debentures and other debts have been met.
- subordinate debtA debt ranking behind other kinds or classes of debt for repayment.
- subordinate legislationLegislation made under authority delegated by the sovereign power, which therefore stays valid only so long as that s…
- subordinate officerAn officer ranking below another and acting under their direction; also an officer independent of any superior but su…
- subordinate political powerPower that within its own sphere is still subject in some degree to outside control, because a higher constitutional…
- subordinated bondA bond ranking behind another in priority.
- subordinationThe moving of a right or claim to a lower rank than it would otherwise hold.
- subordination agreementAn agreement by which someone holding a senior interest agrees to let a normally lesser interest rank ahead of it, ty…
- subordination clauseA clause in a junior mortgage allowing the first lien to keep its priority even if it is renewed or refinanced.
- subornTo induce a person to do something unlawful, above all to commit perjury, or to obtain perjured evidence from them.
- subornation of perjuryThe crime of persuading another to commit perjury.
- subpartnershipAn arrangement between a partner and an outsider to share that partner's profits and losses in the firm, without maki…
- subpoenaA writ commanding a person to appear before a court or tribunal, on pain of penalty if they do not.
- subpoena ad testificandumA subpoena ordering a witness to appear and give evidence.
- subpoena duces tecumA subpoena ordering a witness to appear and to bring specified documents or records.
- subpoenalRequired or done on pain of penalty, above all in obedience to a subpoena.
- subreptioTheft; also the obtaining of a grant from the emperor by false pretenses.
- subrogateTo put one person in another's place as regards a legal right or claim.
- subrogationThe stepping of one party into another's shoes on paying that other's debt, so that they take over the creditor's rig…
- subrogativeOf or relating to subrogation.
- subrogeeA person substituted for another in a right or claim. An insurer commonly becomes one on paying a claim, and may then…
- subrogorA person who allows another to be substituted for them as creditor, passing over the rights and duties.
- subscribed capitalThe total value of shares that people have contracted to buy.
- subscribed stockAn equity account showing the capital that will come in when the subscription price is collected.
- subscribing witnessA person who witnesses a signature on a document and signs at the foot to that effect.
- subscriptioA signature, above all a name written at the foot of a document to authenticate it; also the signature to a will wher…
- subscriptionThe signing of one's name to a document, and the signature itself; also a written contract to buy newly issued shares…
- subscription contractAn agreement, spoken or written, to give a sum of money or property to a particular person or for a particular purpos…
- subscription listA list of those who have subscribed to an agreement, a periodical, or a service.
- subscription priceThe price at which existing investors may buy shares in a new issue before it is offered to the public.
- subscription privilegeA shareholder's right to buy newly issued shares, before they go to the public, in proportion to their existing holdi…
- subscription rightA certificate showing a shareholder's right to buy newly issued shares before they are offered to the public. Such ri…
- subscription warrantAn instrument giving the holder a long option, usually of five to ten years, to buy shares at a fixed price.
- subselliaThe lower seats in a courtroom, where the parties and witnesses sat, as distinct from the bench.
- subsequentComing after something else.
- subsequent creditorA creditor whose claim arises after some given event, such as the recording of a deed or the making of a voluntary co…
- subsequent negligenceThe defendant's negligence where, after their own initial negligence and the claimant's contributory negligence, they…
- subsequent remedial measureA step taken after an accident which, had it been taken before, would have made the accident less likely. Evidence of…
- subsequent-advance ruleIn bankruptcy, the rule that a preferential transfer will not be set aside if the creditor afterward gave the debtor…
- subsequent-negligence doctrineThe rule that a defendant who has the last clear chance to avoid an accident is liable despite the claimant's own ear…
- subservantA servant engaged by another servant to help with the master's work, for whom the master may still be answerable.
- subsidiarySubordinate, or under another's control.
- subsidiary corporationA corporation in which a parent corporation holds a controlling share.
- subsidiary mergerA merger in which the target is absorbed into a subsidiary of the buyer, the target's shareholders taking shares in t…
- subsidyA grant, usually from government, to an enterprise whose encouragement is thought to serve the public interest; in tr…
- subsistenceThe means of supporting life.
- substanceWhat a thing essentially is, as opposed to its outward form; also any material, above all an addictive drug.
- substantial damagesA sizeable sum awarded to make good a real loss or injury.
- substantial equivalentIn patent law, something that is in essence the same as the patented thing: if two devices do the same work in substa…
- substantial evidenceEvidence a reasonable mind would accept as enough to support a conclusion; more than a mere trace.
- substantial justiceJustice fairly administered under the rules of substantive law, whatever procedural slips occurred, so long as they d…
- substantial performancePerformance of the essential terms of an agreement, close enough that the other side must perform in turn, subject to…
- substantial rightA right important enough that its denial could change the outcome of a case.
- substantial similarityIn copyright law, a likeness between a copyrighted work and the alleged infringement close enough to suggest copying.…
- substantial-capacity testThe Model Penal Code's test of insanity: a person is not criminally responsible if, because of a mental disease or de…
- substantial-certainty testIn copyright law, the test of whether one work was copied from another: whether a reasonable observer would conclude…
- substantial-compliance ruleThe equitable rule that a good-faith performance falling a little short of the contract's terms will still count as c…
- substantial-continuity doctrineA ground for holding a successor company liable for its predecessor's acts, where it carries on the same business wit…
- substantial-evidence ruleThe principle that a reviewing court should uphold an agency's ruling if there is evidence on which the agency could…
- substantial-factor testIn tort law, the rule that causation is made out where the defendant's conduct was an important contributor to the cl…
- substantial-performance doctrineThe equitable rule that a good-faith performance falling a little short of the contract's terms will still count as c…
- substantial-step testThe Model Penal Code's test for attempt, which asks whether the defendant took a substantial step toward the crime, j…
- substantiallyTo a substantial degree; in the main.
- substantially justifiedOf a position, having a reasonable basis in law and in fact. Under the Equal Access to Justice Act a party who beats…
- substantiateTo establish the truth of something, above all by proper evidence.
- substantive consolidationIn bankruptcy law, the merging of two or more cases, usually against the same debtor or related debtors, into a singl…
- substantive crimeA crime complete in itself, which does not depend on another crime for any of its elements.
- substantive due processThe doctrine that the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments require legislation to be fair and r…
- substantive evidenceEvidence offered to prove a fact in issue, as opposed to evidence offered to impeach or corroborate a witness.
- substantive lawThe part of the law that creates and defines rights, duties, and powers, as opposed to the rules of procedure by whic…
- substantive offenseA crime complete in itself, which does not depend on another crime for any of its elements.
- substantive rightA right the law protects and enforces in itself, as opposed to one that merely regulates procedure.
- substantive ruleA rule an agency makes under legislative power delegated to it, which has the force of law.
- substantive unconscionabilityUnconscionability lying in the contract's actual terms, which are unduly harsh, commercially unreasonable, and grossl…
- substituteA person who stands in another's place; in civil law, a person named in a will to take an estate after another named…
- substitute amendmentA legislative amendment seeking to replace provisions in a bill with different ones.
- substitute giftA gift by will to a second person, taking effect if the first-named beneficiary cannot take.
- substituted agreementA new agreement that the parties accept in place of an existing one, discharging the old obligation.
- substituted basisThe basis of property acquired in a tax-free exchange or other specified transaction, carried over from what it repla…
- substituted contractA new contract between the same parties that takes the place of an earlier one and discharges it. It differs from a n…
- substituted executorAn executor appointed to act in place of one who cannot or will not carry out the duties.
- substituted serviceAny method of serving process that the law allows in place of personal delivery, such as service by mail or by public…
- substituted-judgment doctrineThe rule allowing a family member, a conservator, or a court to make a medical decision for a person who is incompete…
- substitutio haeredisIn Roman law, the naming of a substitute heir to take the place of the first-named heir in stated circumstances, as w…
- substitutionThe naming of a person or thing to take another's place, and the process by which they do. In Roman law it covered th…
- substitution-of-judgment doctrineIn administrative law, the standard by which a court uses its own judgment in reading statutes and regulations, rathe…
- substitutionalAble to take another's place.
- substitutional giftA gift by will to a second person, taking effect if the first-named beneficiary cannot take.
- substitutional legacyA gift by will that takes the place of a different gift already made to the same person.
- substitutional remedyA remedy for breach of contract that gives the promisee something in place of the performance promised, as where the…
- substitutionaryAble to take another's place.
- substitutionary evidenceEvidence of a lower order than the best available, which becomes admissible once the best evidence is lost or out of…
- substractionThe secret taking of property, above all from a dead person's estate.
- subsumeTo treat a particular case as governed by a general rule, bringing it under that rule.
- subsuretyA surety whose undertaking is given as extra security, answerable only if both the principal and an earlier surety fa…
- subsuretyshipThe relation between two or more sureties in which one bears the whole burden of what is due, the other standing behi…
- subsurface rightA landowner's right to the minerals and water beneath the land; also the same right held by someone else who has boug…
- subtenancyA lease by a tenant to a third party of part or all of the premises for a shorter term than the tenant's own, the ten…
- subtenantA third party who takes part or all of leased premises from the tenant.
- subterfugeA clever device used to escape, avoid, or hide something.
- subterranean waterWater flowing, standing, or percolating beneath the surface of the ground.
- subtractionThe taking of one number from another; formerly, the neglect of a duty or service owed to another, above all one aris…
- subtraction of conjugal rightsFormerly, the withdrawal by one spouse from living with the other without lawful cause.
- subventionA grant of financial aid.
- subversionThe undermining or overthrowing of something, above all a government.
- Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950The federal statute of 1950 requiring members of the Communist party to register with the Attorney General and Commun…
- subversive activityA course of conduct designed to overthrow a government by force or other unlawful means.
- successful partyThe party in whose favor judgment is given, whatever the amount of damages awarded.
- successioIn Roman law, the succeeding to something, as to an estate under a will or on intestacy.
- successio in universum jusIn Roman law, succession on death to the whole of a person's assets and liabilities together.
- successionThe taking over of a predecessor's office, rank, or duties; also the acquiring of property by inheritance under the r…
- succession taxA tax on a person who inherits property, as opposed to an estate tax, which falls on the estate itself. There is no f…
- successionalOf or relating to the acquiring of property by inheritance under the rules of descent and distribution.
- successiveFollowing one after another; in older usage, of an estate, hereditary.
- successive tortfeasorsTwo or more wrongdoers whose negligence happens at different times and causes different injuries to the same person.
- successorA person who takes another's office, rights, or place; also a company that, by amalgamation or consolidation, takes o…
- successor fiduciaryA fiduciary appointed to take over from an earlier one.
- successor in interestA person who follows another in the ownership or control of property, taking the same rights the first owner had.
- successor trusteeA trustee who takes over from an earlier one, usually as the trust instrument provides.
- suchOf that kind; also referring to what has just been mentioned.
- sudden heat of passionRage, terror, or hatred suddenly roused by immediate provocation, usually another's words or acts. At common law it c…
- sudden passionRage, terror, or hatred suddenly roused by immediate provocation, which at common law could reduce murder to manslaug…
- sudden-and-accidental pollution exclusionA clause in some commercial liability policies excluding cover for injury or damage from the escape of chemicals, was…
- sudden-emergency doctrineThe rule excusing a person from the ordinary standard of care where they acted on instinct to meet a sudden and urgen…
- sudden-onset ruleThe rule that no medical evidence is needed to prove what caused obvious symptoms that appeared immediately after a k…
- sudden-peril doctrineThe rule excusing a person from the ordinary standard of care where they acted on instinct to meet a sudden and urgen…
- sueTo bring a lawsuit against someone.
- sue factsThe facts that decide whether a suit should be brought, above all whether a shareholder's derivative action should be…
- sue outTo apply to a court for the issue of an order or writ.
- sue-and-labor clauseIn marine insurance, a clause under which the insurer meets the costs the insured runs up in protecting the insured p…
- sufferTo undergo pain, distress, or injury; also to allow something to happen.
- sufferanceToleration or passive consent; also the position of a person who holds land without the owner's leave, and a license…
- sufferance wharvesIn English law, wharves the customs authorities designated for landing goods before duty is paid.
- sufferentia pacisA grant of peace, a truce, or an armistice.
- suffering a recoveryA conveyor's allowing a fictitious action to be brought by the person taking the land, so that judgment for it may be…
- sufficiency-of-evidence testThe test a grand jury applies in deciding whether to indict: whether the evidence, if left uncontradicted and unexpla…
- sufficientEnough in quality, number, or force for the purpose in hand.
- sufficient causeReasonable ground to suspect that a person has committed a crime, or that a place holds things connected with one. Th…
- sufficient considerationConsideration that the law regards as enough to support a contract.
- sufficient evidenceEvidence sufficient to satisfy an unprejudiced mind seeking the truth.
- suffraganA bishop ordained to help the bishop of a diocese, without a see of their own. Such bishops were at first appointed o…
- suffrageThe right to vote at a public election.
- suffragiumA vote, or the right to vote; also a recommendation of someone for an office or privilege.
- suggested retail priceThe retail price a manufacturer recommends to those selling its product.
- suggestibilityHow readily a person takes up what another suggests to them.
- suggestibleReadily influenced by what others suggest.
- suggestio falsiA false representation, or a suggestion meant to mislead.
- suggestionAn indirect way of putting an idea; in civil procedure, a statement of some fact that will materially affect how the…
- suggestion of bankruptcyA pleading telling the court that a party has filed for bankruptcy, so that the automatic stay bars the court from ta…
- suggestion of deathA pleading by which the court is told that a party to the suit has died.
- suggestion of errorAn objection by a party that the court has erred, or a request that a particular issue be heard again.
- suggestive interrogationA question that puts the answer into the mouth of the person questioned, above all one answerable by a simple yes or no.
- suggestive questionA question that puts the answer into the mouth of the person questioned.
- suggestive trademarkA trademark that hints at a product's qualities rather than describing them, so that the buyer must use some imaginat…
- suiIn Roman law, a person's own unemancipated descendants, who succeeded automatically on death.
- sui generisOf its own kind: unique, belonging to no established class.
- sui heredesIn Roman law, a person's own heirs: the descendants in their power at death.
- suicideThe taking of one's own life.
- suicide clauseIn insurance law, a clause in a life policy either excluding suicide altogether or limiting the insurer's liability i…
- suicide letter of creditA letter of credit payable simply on presentation, with no supporting documents required.
- suitA proceeding brought by one party against another in a court of law.
- suit at lawA suit conducted according to the common law or to equity, as opposed to one resting on statute. Under modern federal…
- suit for exonerationA suit in equity by a surety to compel the debtor to pay the creditor. Where the debtor has acted fraudulently and is…
- suit moneyLegal fees and costs a court allows a party, above all, in some places, a payment ordered so that a spouse can meet r…
- suit of a civil natureA civil action, as opposed to a criminal prosecution.
- suit papersAll the documents a party files with the court, including pleadings, motions, and notices.
- suit pro laesione fideiFormerly, a suit in the church courts for breach of faith, covering spiritual offenses, unpaid debts, and broken prom…
- suit to compel paymentA suit in equity by a surety to compel the debtor to pay the creditor.
- suitableFit for the purpose intended.
- suitasThe standing of a proper heir.
- suitorA party who brings a lawsuit; also a person or company seeking to take over another company.
- Suits in Admiralty ActThe federal statute allowing an injured party to sue the government in admiralty.
- sumA quantity of money; in older English usage, a summary or compendium, several treatises being called sums.
- sum certainAn amount that is fixed and exact; in commercial law, a sum stated in a negotiable instrument or one that can be work…
- sum payableThe amount due, above all the sum the maker of a negotiable instrument must tender to discharge it in full.
- sum-of-the-years'-digits depreciation methodA method of depreciation that multiplies the cost less salvage value by a fraction that shrinks each year: the years…
- summa potestasThe highest power: sovereignty in its fullest form.
- summaryAn abridgment or brief; also a short application to a court made without the formality of a full proceeding.
- summary adjudicationA summary judgment confined to certain issues, which disposes of part of the case only.
- summary convictionA conviction for a minor offense after a trial before a magistrate sitting without a jury.
- summary court-martialThe lowest level of court-martial, presided over by a single commissioned officer whose power to punish is limited.
- summary dispositionA judgment given on a claim where there is no genuine dispute about any material fact and the party asking is entitle…
- summary evictionAn eviction carried out by a simplified procedure, without the formalities of a full trial.
- summary judgmentA judgment given on a claim where no genuine dispute about any material fact exists and the party seeking it is entit…
- summary jurisdictionA court's jurisdiction in a summary proceeding, and its power to make an order, such as a finding of contempt, withou…
- summary jury trialA settlement technique in which the parties put their cases to a mock jury, whose non-binding verdict helps them judg…
- summary offenseAn offense, such as a petty misdemeanor, that may be prosecuted without an indictment.
- summary plan descriptionUnder the federal pension statute, an outline of an employee benefit plan setting out who administers it, who may joi…
- summary procedureA shortened procedure by which a matter is decided without the steps and delays of an ordinary action.
- summary proceedingA proceeding without a jury that settles a dispute promptly and simply.
- summary processProcess that issues and takes effect at once, without intervening applications or delay; also a procedure for resolvi…
- summary trialA trial without a jury that decides a case promptly and simply.
- summary-judgment motionA request that the court give judgment without a trial because there is no genuine issue of material fact - that is,…
- summationA lawyer's closing speech to the judge or jury before they retire, asking them to weigh the evidence and apply the la…
- summer associateA law student employed by a firm over the summer, doing research and other work and often being considered for a perm…
- summer clerkA law student employed by a firm or a judge over the summer, doing research and other legal work.
- summing upA lawyer's closing speech to the judge or jury before they retire, asking them to weigh the evidence and apply the la…
- summonTo command a person, by serving a summons, to appear in court.
- summoneasYou are to summon: the opening words of a writ directing the sheriff to summon a party.
- summonerA petty officer whose duty was to summon parties to court.
- summonsA writ commencing an action and requiring the defendant to appear and answer; also a notice requiring a person to att…
- sumnerA summoning officer, above all in a church court.
- sumptuary lawA law limiting what people may spend on personal indulgence or show. More broadly, any law regulating conduct thought…
- Sunday lawA statute regulating or forbidding trade on Sundays. Such laws were once common but have declined since the 1980s, ma…
- Sunday-closing lawA statute regulating or forbidding trade on Sundays, which survives constitutional challenge only where it rests on a…
- sundriesMiscellaneous items grouped together without being separately listed.
- sunk costA cost already incurred that cannot be recovered, and so should not weigh in deciding what to do next.
- sunset lawA statute under which an agency or program ends automatically at the end of a fixed period unless it is expressly ren…
- sunshine committeeA committee whose proceedings and papers are open to the public.
- sunshine lawA statute requiring a government body to open its meetings or its records to the public.
- suo nomineIn one's own name.
- suo periculoAt one's own risk.
- SUPA zoning board's authorization to use property in a way the ordinance identifies as a special exception.
- superAbove or over.
- super altum mareOn the high sea.
- super praerogativa regisFormerly, a writ against the widow of a king's tenant who married again without royal leave.
- super statutoFormerly, a writ against tenants-in-chief who parted with their land without the king's leave, contrary to the Statut…
- super statuto de articulis cleriFormerly, a writ founded on the statute Articuli Cleri, defining the boundary between the church courts and the king'…
- supercargoA person a cargo owner employs to travel with the goods and to manage their sale and the buying of a return cargo.
- superfeudationThe carving of one or more lesser feudal holdings out of a feudal estate.
- superficiariusIn Roman law, a person holding a heritable and transferable right to a building on another's land, subject to paying…
- superficiesThe surface of the ground; also anything standing on it, such as a building, and the right to hold such a building on…
- SuperfundThe federal program that pays for cleaning up hazardous-waste sites out of a trust fund, pending recovery from those…
- superinfeudationThe carving of one or more lesser feudal holdings out of a feudal estate.
- superinstitutionThe installing of a second person in an office that already has an incumbent, as where two people claim a benefice un…
- superintendentA person with power to direct the work of others.
- superintending controlThe general supervisory power a higher court has over the administrative running of the lower courts in its jurisdict…
- superiorHigher in rank or power; entitled to command another.
- superior agentAn agent of a company or other business with power to set policy or to supervise employees.
- superior commissioned officerA commissioned officer superior in command or in rank.
- superior courtIn some states, a trial court of general jurisdiction; in Pennsylvania, a court sitting between the trial court and t…
- superior fellow servantA worker with the power to direct or control a coworker.
- superior forceAn event that can be neither foreseen nor controlled, whether an act of nature such as a flood or hurricane, or an ac…
- superior knowledgeKnowledge greater than another person's, above all where the imbalance works to that person's disadvantage.
- superjurareFormerly, to overswear: to convict an obviously guilty person by producing an overwhelming weight of oaths against th…
- superlienA statutory lien ranking ahead of every other lien on the property, whether earlier or later. Several states give one…
- supermajorityA majority well above half, required for extraordinary steps such as ratifying a constitutional amendment or approvin…
- supernumerariiIn Roman law, advocates who were not enrolled at a particular bar, or who were beyond the permitted number.
- superoneratioThe putting of more cattle on a common than the right allows.
- superoneratione pasturaeA writ for overstocking a common, brought against a commoner who put more beasts on it than the right allowed.
- superplusagiumFormerly, a surplus or remainder.
- superpriorityIn bankruptcy, the special priority a court gives a creditor who extends credit to a debtor or trustee that cannot bo…
- supersedeTo set aside or replace by taking the place of; also to stay the execution of an award of damages.
- supersedeasA writ or bond that suspends a judgment creditor's power to enforce the judgment, usually while an appeal is pending.
- supersedeas bondAn appellant's bond staying execution of a judgment while the appeal is pending.
- superseding causeAn intervening act the law treats as strong enough to displace the original wrongdoer's responsibility, freeing them…
- superstitious useA gift or use of property for a religious purpose the law does not recognize, such as one supporting an unrecognized…
- supervening causeAn event coming between the first event in a sequence and the final result, changing the course that might otherwise…
- supervening negligenceThe negligence of a defendant who, after their own initial negligence and the claimant's contributory negligence, dis…
- supervening-negligence doctrineThe rule that a defendant who had the last clear chance to avoid the accident is liable despite the claimant's own ea…
- supervisionThe managing or overseeing of people or work.
- supervisorA person with authority over others. Under the National Labor Relations Act, anyone with power, exercising independen…
- supervisory authorityIn military law, an officer with general court-martial jurisdiction who reviews the records of summary and special co…
- supervisory controlThe control a higher court exercises over a lower one, as by forbidding it to act beyond its jurisdiction and reversi…
- supplementalAdding something further, or supplying what was lacking.
- supplemental affidavitAn affidavit made in addition to an earlier one, usually to add further facts.
- supplemental billA bill filed to add something to an original bill, usually because new facts have come to light or the facts are unde…
- supplemental claimA claim for further relief made after the original claim.
- supplemental complaintAn extra complaint that either cures a defect in the original or brings in relevant matters that happened after the c…
- supplemental jurisdictionA court's power over a claim forming part of the same case or controversy as a claim it already has original jurisdic…
- supplemental pleadingA pleading that corrects a defect in an earlier one or deals with facts arising since it was filed. Unlike an amended…
- supplemental security incomeMonthly income paid under a program the Social Security Administration runs to a person who qualifies, such as someon…
- supplemental suretyA surety who joins after the first, adding further security for the same obligation.
- supplementary proceedingA proceeding in aid of enforcing a judgment, held to find out what assets the debtor has to satisfy it; also any proc…
- suppletory oathIn civil law, an oath a party takes where a fact has been proved by only one witness, two being needed for full proof…
- suppliantA person who makes a humble request, above all the party who brings a petition of right.
- supplicatioA petition asking the emperor to decide a case himself, or sometimes to reopen one from which no appeal ordinarily lay.
- supplicavitA writ from the King's Bench or Chancery requiring sureties for the peace, binding a person to be of good behavior fo…
- suppliciumA punishment; the phrase ultimum supplicium meant the death penalty.
- supplierA person who, directly or indirectly, puts a product into the hands of consumers.
- suppliesProvisions or stores available for distribution; in Parliament, the yearly grant the Commons vote for the Crown and t…
- supplyThe quantity of goods produced or available at a given price.
- supply curveA line on a price-and-quantity graph showing how much of a good is offered at each price.
- supportMaintenance: the food, clothing, and other necessaries that keep a person in the manner they are accustomed to.
- support deedA deed by which one person, usually a parent, conveys land to another, usually a child, on the understanding that the…
- support obligationA secondary obligation, or a right under a letter of credit, that backs the payment or performance of an account, an…
- support orderA court order requiring a party in a divorce or paternity case to pay for the maintenance of a child or spouse, inclu…
- support priceA minimum price the federal government sets for a particular farm commodity.
- support trustA trust under which the trustee pays the beneficiary only so much income as the trustee thinks they need for support.…
- suppositionThe taking of something as true without proof.
- suppressTo put a stop to something, or to keep it from being seen, heard, or known.
- suppressio veriThe suppressing of the truth, which may amount to fraud where there was a duty to speak.
- suppression hearingA hearing held to decide whether evidence was obtained unlawfully and must therefore be kept from the jury.
- suppression of evidenceA ruling that evidence must be excluded because it was unlawfully obtained; also the destroying of evidence or refusa…
- supra riparianHigher up the stream: describing the estate and rights of a riparian owner whose land lies nearer the source than the…
- supralegalAbove or beyond the law.
- supranationalStanding above the political limits of individual nations.
- supremacyThe holding of the highest power or authority.
- Supremacy ClauseThe clause of Article VI declaring that the Constitution, the laws made under it, and treaties made under the authori…
- supremacy of lawThe supremacy of settled law over arbitrary power: the doctrine that everyone is subject to the ordinary law of the l…
- supremeHighest, or above all others.
- supreme courtThe highest court in a jurisdiction, hearing final appeals. In New York, confusingly, the trial court of general juri…
- Supreme Court of AppealsThe highest court in West Virginia.
- Supreme Court of ErrorsFormerly the court of last resort in Connecticut, now called the Supreme Court.
- Supreme Court of JudicatureThe body of senior courts in England and Wales, comprising the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Crown Court.…
- Supreme Court of the United StatesThe court of last resort in the federal system, whose members the President appoints and the Senate confirms, establi…
- Supreme Judicial CourtThe highest appellate court in Maine and in Massachusetts.
- supreme law of the landThe Constitution, the acts of Congress made under it, and the treaties of the United States, all of which bind the co…
- supreme legislationLegislation coming straight from the sovereign power of a state, which no other legislative body can repeal, annul, o…
- supreme powerPower that is absolute within its own sphere: within its limits it depends on no other power, and no other power reco…
- surUpon. The word appears in old phrases such as sur cognizance de droit, upon acknowledgment of right.
- sur cui ante divortiumA writ by which a divorced woman recovered land she had parted with during the marriage.
- sur cui in vitaA writ by which a woman recovered land she had parted with during her husband's lifetime.
- sur disclaimerA writ by which a lord recovered land from a tenant who had disclaimed holding it of them.
- surchargeAn extra charge, often an excessive one; also an added burden, an omission of a proper credit in an account, the sum…
- surcharge and falsifyTo go through an account showing both items that were left out of the credits and items wrongly put in. Chancery woul…
- surdusA deaf person. Before Justinian changed the law, a person wholly deaf or mute could not make a valid will.
- suretyA person who is directly liable for another's debt or the performance of another's obligation. A surety differs from…
- surety and fidelity insuranceAn agreement to indemnify an employer against loss caused by the dishonesty of an employee or of someone in a positio…
- surety bondA bond a surety gives to guarantee that a contract will be performed on time, or a third party's guarantee that a con…
- surety companyA company licensed to make guaranty and suretyship contracts and to stand as surety on bonds, especially bail, fideli…
- surety insuranceAn agreement to cover a loss caused by someone else's default, insolvency, or specified misconduct.
- surety of the peaceA surety who answers for a person's keeping the peace in future, required where there are reasonable grounds to expec…
- suretyshipThe relation arising where one person takes on liability for another's debt or default. Both are bound from the same…
- suretyship by operation of lawA suretyship the law creates where a third party promises the debtor to take over and pay what the debtor owes the cr…
- surfaceThe top layer of land. In mining law the word may take in the whole of the land, minerals and all, except what is spe…
- surface rightA landowner's right to the surface and to everything below it that does not count as minerals. It is subject to the m…
- Surface Transportation BoardThe federal board, part of the Department of Transportation, that since 1996 has regulated railroads and certain othe…
- surface waterWater such as rainfall runoff that gathers and flows over the ground without forming a watercourse. Different rules u…
- Surgeon GeneralThe chief medical officer of the Public Health Service or of a state health agency; also the chief officer of the med…
- surmiseA notion resting on weak evidence; a guess.
- surplice feesFees paid to clergy for occasional offices such as marriages, funerals, and baptisms.
- surplusWhat is left over; also the excess of receipts over payments, the funds remaining after a partnership is wound up and…
- surplus earningsThe excess of a company's assets over its liabilities within a given period, usually a year.
- surplus profitIn company law, the excess of revenue over expenditure. Some jurisdictions forbid declaring a dividend out of anythin…
- surplus revenueRetained earnings the board has set aside for a particular use, so that they are not available for dividends.
- surplus waterWater running off irrigated ground, which the irrigation has not consumed.
- surplus-lines insuranceInsurance written by an insurer not licensed in the state where the risk lies, resorted to when no licensed insurer w…
- surplusageRedundant words in a statute or other document that add nothing to its meaning; also matter in a pleading that has no…
- surpriseSomething for which a party had no fair warning. Trial procedure aims to keep it to a minimum: the parties may take d…
- surrebuttalThe answer to the other side's rebuttal.
- surrebutterIn common-law pleading, the claimant's answer of fact to the defendant's rebutter.
- surrejoinderIn common-law pleading, the claimant's answer to the defendant's rejoinder.
- surrenderThe yielding of something to another's power; also the giving up of a right, and the returning of an estate to the ho…
- surrender by bailA surety's delivering back into custody a prisoner who had been released on bail.
- surrender by operation of lawConduct amounting in law to a tenant's giving up the premises and the landlord's retaking them, as where the parties…
- surrender of a criminalAn officer's handing over of a prisoner to the authorities of the proper jurisdiction.
- surrender of a preferenceIn bankruptcy, a creditor's giving up to the trustee a transfer or charge that can be set aside, as the price of havi…
- surrender of charterThe dissolving of a company by formally yielding up its charter to the state that granted it, and the state's accepta…
- surrender of copyholdThe transfer of a copyhold estate by yielding it to the lord to hold in trust for the person taking it. In practice t…
- surrender to uses of willThe yielding up of a copyhold interest that a will disposed of, once required to give the will effect and abolished b…
- surrender valueIn insurance law, the sum payable when a policy with a cash value, such as a whole-life policy, is cashed in before i…
- surrendereeThe person to whom a surrender is made.
- surrendererA person who surrenders something, above all a copyhold estate given up for conveyance.
- surrenderorA person who surrenders something, above all a copyhold estate given up for conveyance.
- surreptitiousDone secretly and without authority, usually fraudulently.
- surreptitious-entry warrantA warrant allowing an officer to enter secretly and observe a criminal operation, such as an illegal drug laboratory,…
- surrogateA substitute appointed to act in another's place; in some states, the judge of the probate court.
- surrogate courtA court with power to prove wills, oversee the administration of estates, and, in some states, appoint guardians and…
- surrogate motherA woman who carries a child for another and then gives up her parental rights to the intended parents; also, more loo…
- surrogate parentA person who takes on a parent's role, whether by court appointment or by voluntarily assuming the responsibilities.
- surrogate-parenting agreementAn agreement under which a woman undertakes to carry a child for another and then to give up her parental rights to t…
- surrounding circumstancesThe facts surrounding an act, injury, or transaction, usually one in issue in a case.
- sursiseFormerly, neglect or omission.
- surtaxA further tax laid on top of something already taxed, or on the tax itself.
- surtax exemptionAn item or amount left out of a surtax.
- surveillanceThe close watching or listening in on a person or place in the hope of gathering evidence.
- surveyA general appraisal of something; also the measuring of a piece of land, its boundaries, and its contents, and the ma…
- surveyorA person who surveys land and buildings.
- surveyor of the portA customs officer once appointed for each principal port of entry to oversee the inspection and valuation of imports.…
- survival actionA suit brought for a dead person's estate for the injuries they suffered before dying. It rests on the claim the dece…
- survival statuteA statute changing the common law by letting certain actions be carried on by a personal representative after the dea…
- survivingStill living, above all living beyond some event so as to become entitled to property or income.
- surviving corporationThe corporation that takes over the assets and liabilities of another in a merger or takeover.
- surviving partnerThe partner who, when the firm is dissolved by another partner's death, acts as trustee to wind up its remaining affa…
- survivorA person who outlives another; also a trustee who carries on after a co-trustee has died, resigned, or been removed.
- survivorshipThe condition of being the one who remains alive when the others have died; also the right of a surviving joint owner…
- survivorship annuityAn annuity that keeps paying a survivor, usually a spouse, after the original annuitant dies.
- survivorship policyA joint life policy that pays out only when the last of the named insureds dies.
- susceptibilityThe state of being open or liable to something.
- suspectA person believed to have committed an offense.
- suspect classA group marked out by a suspect classification.
- suspect classificationA statutory classification resting on race, national origin, or alienage, which the courts review with strict scrutin…
- suspendTo interrupt or postpone; also to keep a person temporarily from holding office, working, or exercising a right.
- suspendatur per collumFormerly, let him be hanged by the neck: words a judge wrote in the margin of the sheriff's list against the name of…
- suspended sentenceA sentence put off so that the defendant serves no time unless they offend again or break some condition the court ha…
- suspenseThe state of being suspended, or a temporary halt.
- suspense reserveA reserve of retained earnings set aside pending the outcome of some uncertain event, and so not available for divide…
- suspensionThe temporary halting of something, and the state of being so halted; also the temporary taking away of a person's po…
- suspension of armsIn international law, a temporary halt to hostilities agreed between the warring powers.
- suspension of tradingThe temporary halting of all trading in a particular stock on an exchange because of some abnormal market condition.
- suspensive appealAn appeal that holds up enforcement of the judgment appealed against.
- suspensive conditionA condition that must be met before an obligation can be enforced.
- suspensive vetoA veto that only delays a measure, which the legislature may override or which lapses after a set period, as opposed…
- suspensory vetoA veto that only delays a measure rather than defeating it, the legislature being able to pass the measure again.
- suspicionThe belief that something is wrong, resting on slight evidence or none.
- suspicious characterIn some states, a person known or strongly suspected to be a habitual criminal, who may on that ground be arrested or…
- suspicious-activity reportThe form a financial institution must file with the federal regulators when it suspects that a transaction passing th…
- suspicious-transaction reportA report a financial institution formerly filed to flag a transaction it suspected of involving a crime, replaced in…
- sustainTo support or maintain; also to undergo or suffer, and, of a court, to uphold or rule in favor of.
- suthdureIn church law, the south door of a church, where oaths of purgation were made and complaints heard and settled.
- suum cuique tribuereTo render to each person what is due to them: one of the three general precepts in which Justinian summed up the requ…
- suus haeresIn Roman law, a proper heir: one of the deceased's own unemancipated descendants.
- suus judexFormerly, the proper judge for a cause.
- suzerainFormerly, a tenant holding directly of the Crown; in international law, a nation that controls another nation's forei…
- suzeraintyFormerly, the power of a feudal overlord to whom fealty was due; in international law, the position of a nation that…
- suzereignFormerly, a tenant holding directly of the Crown; in international law, a nation that controls another nation's forei…
- swamp and overflowed landBoggy or marshy land unfit for farming until it is drained or reclaimed. Congress granted such land out of the public…
- swapAn exchange of one security for another; also an arrangement, usually through a dealer, under which two parties excha…
- swarf moneyA payment made instead of serving to guard a lord's castle.
- swearTo administer an oath to someone, or to take one; also to use profane language.
- swear outTo obtain an arrest warrant by making a charge on oath.
- swearing contestA dispute in which a vital fact turns on choosing between the word of one witness and that of another, the two being…
- swearing matchA dispute in which a vital fact turns on choosing between one witness's word and another's, with no other evidence ei…
- swearing the peaceThe proving to a magistrate that one fears for one's safety, so that the magistrate will bind the troublemaker to kee…
- swearing-inThe administering of an oath to a person taking office or about to give evidence.
- sweat equityThe value an owner creates in property by their own labor in improving it.
- sweatingThe unlawful questioning of a prisoner by threats or the like to force information out of them.
- sweatshopA workplace where employees are overworked and underpaid in harsh conditions; among lawyers, a firm that works its as…
- sweepingWide in scope, or overwhelming.
- Sweeping ClauseThe clause of the Constitution allowing Congress to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying its other powers…
- sweepstakesA race in which the winner takes the stakes the competitors have put up; also a prize contest, often promotional, in…
- sweetenerAn inducement offered to a brokerage firm to take on an underwriting; also a feature such as convertibility added to…
- sweetheart dealA collusive agreement, above all a collective-bargaining agreement reached by collusion between an employer and a uni…
- sweinFormerly, a forest freeholder.
- sweinmoteA forest court held three times a year, with the verderers as judges and the forest freeholders as jurors, to try for…
- swellA swelling or gradual rise; also a large unbroken wave, or the run of waves following a storm.
- swift witnessA witness who is over-eager to testify for the side calling them, whose zeal may itself be shown to the jury as beari…
- swindleTo cheat a person out of property.
- swindlerA person who deliberately cheats or defrauds another.
- swing loanA short-term loan covering costs until longer-term financing is arranged.
- swing voteThe vote that decides a question when the others, such as the judges of an appellate court, are evenly divided.
- switchingThe selling of shares in one mutual fund to buy shares in another.
- swolingThe quantity of land that can be plowed in a year.
- sworn brothersPeople who swear mutual oaths to share each other's fortunes.
- sworn clerks in chanceryOfficers of the Court of Chancery who helped the six principal clerks with clerical work, keeping records and copying…
- sworn statementA statement given on oath; also a builder's list of suppliers and subcontractors with their bids, which a lender requ…
- SYDA method of depreciation that multiplies the cost less salvage value by a fraction that shrinks each year, reflecting…
- syllabusAn outline of a subject or course; also the summary of a decision prefixed to a law report.
- symbiotic-relationship testThe test by which a private person counts as a state actor, and so may be liable for violating constitutional rights,…
- symbolicOf a signature, consisting of a mark or symbol rather than a written name.
- symbolic deliveryDelivery of what has been sold by handing over something that stands for it, gives access to it, or proves the buyer'…
- symbolic speechConduct that expresses an opinion, such as a hunger strike or the wearing of a black armband. It does not enjoy quite…
- symbolum animaeFormerly, a payment or gift due to the church on a parishioner's death.
- sympathy strikeA contract in which each party undertakes an obligation to the other, so that the promises are mutual.
- synallagmatic contractA contract in which each side takes on obligations to the other, so that the promises are mutual.
- syndicAn agent appointed to transact business for others, above all for a government or company; in civil law, a bankruptcy…
- syndicalismA doctrine under which trade unions seek to take control of production and distribution, above all by the general str…
- syndicateA group formed for a common purpose, whether to carry through a business transaction, promote a shared interest, or,…
- syndicatingThe forming of a syndicate; also the gathering of material from various writers and its distribution to newspapers ac…
- syndicatorA person who forms or manages a syndicate, above all one that assembles investors for a real-estate or entertainment…
- syndicusIn Roman law, a person chosen by a corporate body such as a town or college to represent it in legal proceedings.
- synergismA combination of known elements that produces a result greater than the sum of its parts. Showing it can help establi…
- synodA church council lawfully assembled to settle church matters, above all a meeting of neighboring presbyteries in the…
- synodalA collection of the ordinances of diocesan synods; also a payment made by clergy to a bishop at the Easter visitation.
- synodsmanA church officer who originally reported to the bishop on misconduct among clergy and congregation, and whose duties…
- synopsisA brief survey or summary of something.
- synthetic leaseA way of financing a purchase of real estate in which the lender sets up a special-purpose entity to buy the property…
- synthetic ruleA rule that evidence of a given kind is not enough on its own and must be supported by other evidence before the case…
- systematic jurisprudenceThe scholarly setting out of what an actual legal system contains, as it now stands or once stood.
- systematic violationIn civil-rights law, an employer's policy or practice that discriminates against an employee. It usually counts as a…