ne urbs ruinis deformetur (nee [schwa]rbz roo-I-nis di-for-m[schwa]-t[ schwa]r). [Latin] Scots law. Lest the city should be disfigured by ruinous houses. • The phrase appeared in reference to the jurisdiction of the Dean of Guild, who presided over construction projects, to order repairs to or demolition of unsafe buildings.
ne urbs ruinis deformetur Read More »
pretermit (pree-t[schwa]r-mit), vb. 1. To ignore or disregard purposely (the court pretermitted the constitutional question by deciding the case on procedural grounds). 2. To neglect, overlook, or omit accidentally (the third child was pretermitted in the will). • Although in ordinary usage sense 1 prevails, in legal contexts (esp. involving heirs) sense 2 is usual.
provisione hominis (pr[schwa]-vizh-ee-oh-nee hom-[schwa]-nis). [Law Latin] Hist. By an individual’s appointment. • The phrase appeared in reference to heirs that a testator appoints, as distinguished from those who succeed by law.
provisione hominis Read More »
independent-living program. Family law. A training course designed to enable foster children who are near the age of majority to leave the foster-care system and manage their own affairs as adults. • Independent living programs provide education, training, and financial and employment counseling. They also help many foster youth in locating suitable post-foster-care housing. Permanency
independent living program Read More »
irresistible-impulse test. Criminal law. A test for insanity, holding that a person is not criminally responsible for an act if mental disease prevented that person from controlling potentially criminal conduct. • The few jurisdictions that have adopted this test have combined it with the McNaghten rules. — Also termed control test; volitional test. See INSANITY
irresistible impulse test Read More »
navigable water. 1. At early common law, any body of water affected by the ebb and flow of the tide. • This test was first adopted in England because most of England’s in-fact navigable waters are influenced by the tide, unlike the large inland rivers that are capable of supporting commerce in the United States.
dean. 1. Eccles. law. An officer who leads a chapter, parish, or other subdivision of a diocese, usu. upon a bishop’s request or appointment. “A dean and chapter are the council of the bishop, to assist him with their advice in affairs of religion, and also in the temporal concerns of his see …. All
An estate that is the first of one or more derivative estates, bearing to each other the relation of a particular estate and a reversion.
defensor fidei (di-fen-s[schwa]r fI-dee-I), n. [Latin “defender of the faith”] Hist. A unique title of the sovereign of England, first granted by Pope Leo X to Henry VIII for writing against Martin Luther. • The Pope later withdrew the title because of Henry’s harsh regulation of the church, but the title was again bestowed on