beneficium abstinendi (ben-[schwa]-fish-ee-[schwa]m ab-sti-nen-dI). [Latin “privilege of abstaining”] Roman law. The right of an heir to refuse an inheritance and thus avoid liability for the testator’s debts. “[T]hese heirs came also to be protected by the praetor, viz. by the jus or beneficium abstinendi. Provided they took care not to act as heir in any […]
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jus praeventionis (j[schwa]s pree-ven-shee-oh-nis). [Law Latin “a right of preference”] Scots law. A court’s jurisdictional superiority by virtue of being the first court to exercise its jurisdiction in a case.
benefice (ben-[schwa]-fis). 1. Hist. A feudal estate in land, held during the life of the tenant. See BENEFICIUM(3). “[T]he vassal no longer owns the land, but ‘holds’ it ‘of’ the lord — the vassal has become a ‘tenant’ (from the Latin, ‘tenere’, to hold). The vassal’s interest in the land so held, first called a
Ember Days. Eccles. law. The days — which the ancient church fathers called quatuor tempora jejunii — that are observed on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following (1) Quadragesima Sunday (the first Sunday in Lent), (2) Whitsuntide, or Holyrood Day, in September, and (3) St. Lucy’s day, about the middle of December. • Almanacs refer
mesne (meen), adj. 1. Occupying a middle position; intermediate or intervening, esp. in time of occurrence or performance (the mesne encumbrance has priority over the third mortgage, but is subordinate to the first mortgage). 2. Hist. Of or relating to a lord who holds land of a superior while himself having a tenant.
Act of Assembly. Scots law. A piece of legislation passed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for governing the affairs of that church and its members.
functionality. Trademarks. The quality of having a shape, configuration, design, or color that is so superior to available alternatives that giving the first user exclusive trademark rights would hinder competition. [Cases: Trade Regulation 43. C.J.S. Trade-Marks, Trade-Names, and Unfair Competition §§ 49–50.] aesthetic functionality. A doctrine that denies protection to the design of a product
nobility, n. pl. 1. Persons of social or political preeminence, usu. derived by inheritance or from the sovereign. • In English law, there are various degrees of nobility, or peerage, such as dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons, and their female counterparts. Nobility is generally created either by a writ of summons to sit in
A lien on property seized by prejudgment attachment. • Such a lien is initially inchoate but becomes final and perfected upon entry of a judgment for the attaching creditor and relates back to the date when the lien first arose. — Also termed lien of attachment. See ATTACHMENT. [Cases: Attachment 177; Federal Civil Procedure 589.
obscene, adj. Extremely offensive under contemporary community standards of morality and decency; grossly repugnant to the generally accepted notions of what is appropriate. • Under the Supreme Court’s three-part test, material is legally obscene — and therefore not protected under the First Amendment — if, taken as a whole, the material (1) appeals to the