open-fields doctrine. Criminal procedure. The rule permitting a warrantless search of the area outside a property owner’s curtilage. • Unless there is some other legal basis for the search, it must exclude the home and any adjoining land (such as a yard) that is within an enclosure or otherwise protected from public scrutiny. — Also […]
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A technique of philosophical discussion — and of law-school instruction — by which the questioner (a law professor) questions one or more followers (the law students), building on each answer with another question, esp. an analogy incorporating the answer. • This method takes its name from the Greek philosopher Socrates, who lived in Athens about
woodward (wuud-word), n. Hist. A forest officer who patrols and protects the forest. [Cases: Woods and Forests 7. C.J.S. Woods and Forests §§ 9–11, 14–15.]
mixed question of law and fact. An issue that is neither a pure question of fact nor a pure question of law. • Mixed questions of law and fact are typically resolved by juries. — Often shortened to mixed question. — Also termed mixed question of fact and law. [Cases: Administrative Law and Procedure 781;
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reasonable person. 1. A hypothetical person used as a legal standard, esp. to determine whether someone acted with negligence; specif., a person who exercises the degree of attention, knowledge, intelligence, and judgment that society requires of its members for the protection of their own and of others’ interests. • The reasonable person acts sensibly, does
safe house. A residence where people live under protection, usu. in anonymity. • Safe houses are operated for a range of purposes, both legal and illegal. Shelters for abused spouses and runaway children are safe houses. Law-enforcement agencies keep safe houses for undercover operations and to protect witnesses who have been threatened. Lawbreakers use them
business-method exception. Intellectual property. The traditional doctrine that business methods are not protected by intellectual-property laws. • Early caselaw established that “pure methods of doing business” were unpatentable. But in 1998, the Federal Circuit held in State St. Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Fin. Group (149 F.3d 1368) that business methods are not per
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domestic authority. 1. The legal power to use nondeadly force when reasonably necessary to protect a person for whom one is responsible. 2. A defense allowing a person responsible for another (such as a parent responsible for a child) to use nondeadly force when reasonably necessary to protect the person being cared for. [Cases: Assault
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major life activity. Any activity that an average person in the general population can perform with little or no difficulty, such as seeing, hearing, sleeping, eating, walking, traveling, and working. • A person who is substantially limited in a major life activity is protected from discrimination under a variety of disability laws, most significantly the
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An insurance-policy provision that protects the rights of a mortgagee when the insured property is subject to a mortgage. • Such a clause usu. provides that any insurance proceeds must be allocated between the named insured and the mortgagee “as their interests may appear.” — Also termed mortgagee clause. See LOSS-PAYABLE CLAUSE; ATIMA. [Cases: Mortgages