conventional law. A rule or system of rules agreed on by persons for the regulation of their conduct toward one another; law constituted by agreement as having the force of special law between the parties, by either supple-menting or replacing the general law of the land. • The most important example is conventional international law, […]
Hilary Rules. Hist. A collection of English pleading rules designed to ease the strict pleading requirements of the special-pleading system, esp. by limiting the scope of the general issue in the formed actions and by forcing the defendant to set up affirmatively all matters other than a denial of the breach of duty or of
An indorsement that restricts the instrument in some way, as by limiting how the instrument can be paid or transferred; an indorsement giving possession of the instrument to the indorsee, but retaining title until the occurrence of some condition named in the indorsement. • Wordings that indicate this type of indorsement are “Pay to Brad
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A legacy of a specific or unique item of property, such as any real estate or a particular piece of furniture. — Also termed special legacy. [Cases: Wills 753, 754. C.J.S. Wills §§ 1662, 1666–1677, 1679–1683.]
secondary meaning. Intellectual property. A special sense that a trademark or tradename for a business, goods, or services has acquired even though the trademark or tradename was not originally protectable. • The term does not refer to a subordinate or rare meaning, but rather to a later meaning that has been added to the original
A contract whose terms the parties have explicitly set out. — Also termed special contract. Cf. implied contract. [Cases: Contracts 3. C.J.S. Contracts §§ 5, 7.]
festuca (fes-tyoo-k[schwa]). Hist. A rod, staff, or stick used as a pledge (or gage) of good faith by a party to a contract or as a token of conveyance of land. • In Roman law, a festuca was a symbol of ownership. — Also termed fistuca; vindicta. See LIVERY OF SEISIN. “The wed or gage,
Latini Juniani (l[schwa]-tI-nI joo-nee-ay-nI), n. pl.[Latin “Junian Latins”] Roman law. Informally manumitted slaves who acquired some rights and privileges as free people, but not Roman citizenship. • They were a special class of freedmen (libertini) who could one day become citizens. If a Latinus Junianus did not become a citizen, then upon death that person’s
Hist. The legal termination of a particular marriage, enacted by the legislature rather than by a court. • In the 18th century, Colonial American legislatures granted these special statutes. In 1816, the House of Burgesses of Virginia granted a divorce to Rachel Robards Jackson, the wife of then President Andrew Jackson, from a former spouse.
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hot-potato rule. The principle that a lawyer may not unreasonably withdraw from representing a client. • The term comes from the rule’s classic formulation: “a firm may not drop a client like a ‘hot potato,’ especially if it is in order to keep happy a far more lucrative client.” Picker Int’l, Inc. v. Varian Assocs.,