Basic Flashcards
Jurisprudence
The study of legal philosophy.
Acceptance
In contract law, the agreement of the offered to be bound by the terms of the offer.
Accession
A natural increase in one’s property. Examples include the interest earned on money deposited in a bank account, or crops grown on one’s land, or newborn puppies delivered by one’s dog.
Accord
In contract law, the offer of something different from what was under the original contract.
Accord and Satisfaction
An agreement between two (or more) persons, one of whom has a right of action against the others, that the latter should do or give, and the former accept, something in satisfaction of the right of action. When the agreement is executed, and satisfaction has been made. It operates as a bar to the right of action.
Accord, Restatement (Second) of Contracts ss281(1).
Act-of-State Doctrine
An issue of justiciability. The doctrine provides that American courts should not determine the validity of public acts committed by a foreign sovereign within its own territory.
Actus Reus
An overt wrongful act.
Additur
A motion made by a prevailing party in state court asking that the trial court award the plaintiff an additional sum of money because the jury’s verdict is grossly inadequate.
Adjudicative Power
A delegated power contained in an enabling act authorizing an administrative agency to determine legal rights, duties, and obligations, and to impose sanctions on those subject to its jurisdiction.
Administrative Law Judges (ALJs)
Persons employed by administrative agencies to conduct adjudicatory hearings. Like law court judges, ALJs decide questions of fact and issues of law, issue subpoenas, administer oaths, make evidentiary rulings, and conduct hearings. ALJs are NOT, however members of the federal judiciary. They perceive their function as that of implementing and administering a legislative purpose rather than as judges impartially deciding between two litigants.
Administrative Procedure Act (APA)
A 1946 federal statute enacted to improve and strengthen the administrative process. Section 553 of the APA establishes notice and comment procedures for informal rule making, and Section 554 establishes trial-like procedures for informal rule making.
Adoption
A social and legal process by which the rights and duties accompanying the parent-child relationship are transferred from birth parent(s) to adoptive parents.
Adverse Possession
Also known as easement by prescription. One whose possession of another’s realty is open and notorious, hostile, adverse, and continuous for a legally specified period of time can bring a quiet title action in court at the end of the time period and, if successful, obtain a marketable title.
Advisory Opinion
(1) In some jurisdictions, the formal opinion of a higher court concerning a point at issue in a lower court. (2) The formal opinion of a legal officer, e.g., attorney general, concerning a question of law submitted by a public official. (3) In some jurisdictions, the opinion of a court concerning a question submitted by a legislative body.
Aesthetics
The study of beauty.
Affirm
An appellate court affirms a lower court when it concludes that the lower court’s judgement is valid.
Affirmative Defense
(1) In civil law, defenses pleaded by the defendant in his or her answer to the plaintiff’s complaint. Each defense will consist of facts that the defendant contends may bar the plaintiff from recovery. (2) In criminal law, defenses in which a defendant admits to the act but claims that special circumstances mitigate, justify, or excuse the defendant’s conduct.
Agency Adoption
Birth parents consent to the termination of their parental rights and surrender their child to an adoption agency that selects the adoptive parent(s) and places the child.
Agent
A person authorized by another (the principal) to do an act or transact business for him or her, and to bind the principal within the limits of that authority. They may be authorized to do all business of a particular kind or limited to one particular act. The agent’s power to bind the principal is confined to the scope of his or her authority.
Age of Majority
The age at which a minor legally becomes an adult. At present, most states set the age as eighteen, but I can be from 18-21.
Agreement
An expression of the parties’ willingness to be bound to the terms of a contract.
Alibi Defense
A defense in which a criminal defendant proves that he or she was somewhere other than at the scene of the crime on the date and time that the offense allegedly occurred.
Alimony
(1) Court order requiring that an economically strong spouse pay financial support to an economically dependent spouse where it is necessary and appropriate. Some jurisdictions deny alimony to a spouse whose marriage ended as a result of that person’s marital fault. (2) The term for the support payment ordered by the divorce court.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
A term that refers to a variety of techniques adherents claim can in some cases resolve disputes more quickly, at less cost, and with less acrimony than would be true if the case were litigated in a court.
Analytical Positivism
Adherents of this philosophical approach view law as a self-sufficient system of legal rules that the sovereign issues in the forms of commands to the governed. Judgements about the intrinsic morality of the sovereign’s commands are viewed as extra-legal.
Annul/Annulment
An action in which a marriage partner seeks to prove that no valid marriage ever existed.
Answer
(1) A pleading in which a civil defendant responds to the allegations of the complaint and states the defenses on which he or she intends to rely. (2) A statement under oath in response to written interrogatories, i.e., questions, or oral questions.
Appeal
A process for obtaining review by a higher court of a lower court’s decision.
Appellant
A person who initiates an appeal from one court to another.
Appellee
The party in a lawsuit against whom an appeal has been taken.
Arbitration
A form of alternative dispute resolution. The voluntary submission of a matter in dispute to the nonjudicial judgement of one, two, or more disinterested persons, called arbitrators, whose decision is binding on the parties.
Arbitration Award
An arbitrator’s decision is called an award.
Arbitrator
In the alternate dispute resolution proceeding known as arbitration, the person or persons who conduct the proceeding and decide the outcome of the dispute. Arbitrators often are persons who specialize in a particular field such as construction, commercial contracts, real estate, finance, etc.
Arraign/Arraignment
To bring a criminally accused person formally before a court for the purpose of having him or her answer charges brought by the prosecution.
Arrest
(1) The seizing and detaining of a person in custody by lawful authority. (2) The taking of another into custody for the actual or purported purpose of bringing the other before a court, or of otherwise securing the administration of the law. (3) The seizure and detention of personal chattels, especially ships and vessels libeled (i.e., involved in a lawsuit) in a court of admiralty.
Assault (Simple Assault)
Applies in both civil law, as an intentional tort, and criminal law. (1) Strictly speaking, assault means threatening to strike or harm. (2) A threatening gesture, with or without verbal communication. If a blow is struck, it is battery. (3) Attempting to cause or purposely, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to another, or negligently causing bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon, or attempting by physical menace to put another in fear of immense serious bodily injury.
Assignee
In contract law, the person to whom an assignment of rights is made.
Assignment
The transfer of contractual rights to another person.
Assignor
In contract law, the person making an assignment of rights.
Assumpsit
A common-law writ used to remedy some breaches of duty (called undertakings) that has previously been actionable under the old writ of trespass on the case.
Assumption of Risk
A defense to a claim for negligent injury to a person or property, i.e., a person who voluntarily exposes himself or his property to a known danger may not recover for injuries thereby sustained.
Attempt
An inchoate crime. A crime committed by a person who has the intent to commit a substantive criminal offense and does an act that tends to corroborate the intent, under circumstances that do not result in the completion of the substantive crime.
At-Will Doctrine
A legal doctrine in employment law that permits an employee who has no contractual rights to employment to quit without notice or be fired by the employer at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all.
Avoidable-Harm Doctrine
Also known as the rule of mitigation, this rule prevents the recovery of damages that could have been foreseen and avoided by reasonable effort without undue risk, expense, or humiliation.
