best-interests-of-the-child doctrine. Family law. The principle that courts should make custody decisions based on whatever best advances the child’s welfare, regardless of a claimant’s particular status or relationship with the child. • One important factor entering into these decisions is the general belief that the child’s best interests normally favor custody by parents, as opposed […]
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A tax levied on an imported or exported commodity; esp., the federal tax levied on goods shipped into the United States.
point of law. A discrete legal proposition at issue in a case. reserved point of law. An important or difficult point of law that arises during trial but that the judge sets aside for future argument or decision so that testimony can continue. — Also termed point reserved.
Falcidian law (fal-sid-ee-[schwa]n).Roman law. A law prescribing that one could give no more than three-fourths of one’s property in legacies and that the heirs should receive at least one-fourth (the Falcidian portion). • If the testator violated this law, the heir had the right to deduct proportionally from each legatee as necessary. The law, proposed
dicast (dI-kast ordik-ast), n. [Greek dikastes] Hist. An ancient Greek officer sitting as both judge and juror. • Each dicast was generally a free citizen over the age of 30. The dicasts sat together in groups of 100 to 500, according to each case’s importance, and decided cases by a majority.
executory process. Civil law. 1. A process that can be resorted to either (1) when the right of a creditor arises from an act importing a confession of judgment, and that contains a privilege or mortgage in the creditor’s favor, or (2) when the creditor demands the execution of a judgment that has been rendered
leading case. 1. A judicial decision that first definitively settled an important legal rule or principle and that has since been often and consistently followed. • An example is Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602 (1966) (creating the exclusionary rule for evidence improperly obtained from a suspect being interrogated while in police
nonintercourse. 1. The refusal of one country to deal commercially with another. • For example, the Non–Intercourse Act of 1809, a congressional act, prohibited the importation of British or French goods. 2. The lack of access, communication, or sexual relations between husband and wife. Cf. NONACCESS.
reissue. 1. An abstractor’s certificate attesting to the correctness of an abstract. • A reissue is an important precaution when the abstract comprises an original abstract brought down to a certain date and then several later continuations or extensions. [Cases: Abstracts of Title 3. C.J.S. Abstracts of Title §§ 6–20.] 2. See reissue patent under
A single conspiracy in which each person is responsible for a distinct act within the overall plan, such as an agreement to produce, import, and distribute narcotics in which each person performs only one function. • All participants are interested in the overall scheme and liable for all other participants’ acts in furtherance of that