Dictum
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
In general. A statement, remark, or observation. Gratis dictum; a gratuitous or voluntary representation; one which a party is not bound to make.
2 Kent, Comm. 486.
Simplex dictum; a mere assertion; an assertion without proof. Bract. fol.
320.
The word is generally used as an abbreviated form of obiter dictum, "a remark by the way;" that is, an observation or remark made by a judge in pronouncing an opinion upon a cause, concerning some rule, principle, or application of law, or the solution of a question suggested by the case at bar, but not necessarily involved in the case or essential to its determination; any statement of the law enunciated by the court merely by way of illustration, argument, analogy, or suggestion. Dicta are opinions of a judge which do not embody the resolution or determination of the court, and made without argument, or full consideration of the point, are not the professed deliberate determinations of the judge himself. Obiter dicta are such opinions uttered by the way, not upon the point or question pending, as if turning aside for the time from the main topic of the case to collateral subjects.
62 N. Y. 47, 58.
In French law. The report of a judgment made by one of the judges who has given it. Poth. Proc. Civil, pt.
1, c. 5, art. 2.