avoidable, adj. 1. Not inevitable; subject to prevention (an avoidable accident). practically avoidable. (Of harm) capable of being eliminated in whole or substantial part without the incurrence of prohibitive expense or hardship. 2. Capable of being refrained from (avoidable habits). 3. Voidable.
insanity n. (刑法)精神病 社会学和法学的专门用语，而非医学用语。指由于精神疾病或精神缺陷，行为人缺乏像正常人那样对事物性质的辨认能力或对自已行为的控制能力，此时他实施社会危害行为，不负法律责任。精神病成为合法辩护的理由之一。美国共有四种对精神病的检验规则：姆纳顿规则〔M’Naghten rule〕、不能控制规则〔irresistable impulse rule〕、德赫姆规则〔Durham rule〕和实际能力规则〔substantial capacity rule〕。其中为《模范刑法典》所采用的实际能力规则现为大多数州所接受。
The client’s right to refuse to disclose and to prevent any other person from disclosing confidential communications between the client and the attorney. — Also termed lawyer–client privilege; client’s privilege. [Cases: Witnesses 197. C.J.S. Witnesses §§ 316–340.]
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Brady Act. A federal law establishing a national system for quickly checking the background of a prospective handgun purchaser. • The formal name of the law is the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. The U.S. Supreme Court held unconstitutional the law’s interim provision, which required chief state law-enforcement officers (usu. sheriffs) to conduct background checks
transition phrase. Patents. In a patent claim, the word or phrase that relates the preamble to the body. • The transition is often the term “comprising,” “having,” “including,” “consisting of,” or “consisting essentially of.” Cf. PREAMBLE(2); BODY OF A CLAIM.
The evidentiary rule providing that, to prove the contents of a writing (or a recording or photograph), a party must produce the original writing (or a mechanical, electronic, or other familiar duplicate, such as a photocopy) unless it is unavailable, in which case secondary evidence — the testimony of the drafter or a person who
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absence, n. 1. The state of being away from one’s usual place of residence. 2. A failure to appear when expected. 3. Louisiana law. The state of being an absent person. — Also termed (in sense 3) absentia.
mortmain statute. A law that limits gifts and other dispositions of land to corporations (esp. charitable ones) and that prohibits corporations from holding land in perpetuity. • In England, laws such as the Provisions of Westminster and Magna Carta essentially required the Crown’s authorization before land could vest in a corporation. The object was to
non bis in idem (non bis in I-dem). [Latin] Scots law. Not twice for the same thing. • The phrase usu. referred to the law forbidding more than one trial for the same offense. It essentially refers to the double-jeopardy bar. — Also termed non bis idem; non bis in eodem. See DOUBLE JEOPARDY.
learned-intermediary doctrine. The principle that a prescription-drug manufacturer fulfills its duty to warn of a drug’s potentially harmful effects by informing the prescribing physician, rather than the end-user, of those effects. [Cases: Products Liability 46. C.J.S. Products Liability § 54.]
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