1. An issue to be decided by the judge, concerning the application or interpretation of the law (a jury cannot decide questions of law, which are reserved for the court).
2. A question that the law itself has authoritatively answered, so that the court may not answer it as a matter of discretion (under the sentencing guidelines, the punishment for a three-time offender is a question of law).
3. An issue about what the law is on a particular point; an issue in which parties argue about, and the court must decide, what the true rule of law is (both parties appealed on the question of law).
4. An issue that, although it may turn on a factual point, is reserved for the court and excluded from the jury; an issue that is exclusively within the province of the judge and not the jury (whether a contractual ambiguity exists is a question of law). — Also termed legal question; law question.
