A Dictionary of Law

A conveyance of lands or tenements to a person for life, fora term of yeurs, or at will, in consideration of a return of rent or some other recompense. The person who ! 80 conveys

A species of conveyance much used in England, said to have been invented by Serjeant Moore, soon after the enactment of the statute of uses. It is thus contrived: a lease, or rathe

Inold English law. En-,or ensuared, 2 Inst. 247; Cowell;

An estate in realty heid under a lease; an estate for a fixed term of years.

Fr. Legality; sufficiency tn law. Britt. ce. 109,

To give or dispose of by will. “The word ‘ leave,’ a3 applied to the subjectmatter, prima facie means a disposition by will.” 10 East, 438.

A defense to an action in trespass setting up the consent of the plaintiff to the trespass complained of.

Permission obtained from a court to take some action which, without such permission, would not be allowable.

A debauched person. Cowell,

LAIRWITH, or

A species of proof on charges of impotency in France, cottus coram testibus. Abolished A. D. 1677. Le contrat fait la loi. The contract makes the law.

In Spanish law. A person appointed by competent authority to read and decipher ancient writings, to the end that they may be presented on the trial of causes as documents entitled

A pulpit. Mon. Angl, tom. ili, p. 243.

An instructor; a reader of lectures; also a clergyman who assists rectors, ete., In preaching, ete,

A book of accounts in which a trader enters the names of all persons with whom he has dealings; there being two parallel columns in each account, one for the entries to the debit o

In ecclesiastical law. The name of a book kept in the prerogative courts in England. It is considered as a roll of the court, but, it seems, it cannot be read in evidence. Bac. Abr

In oid English law. A lathe-reeve, or chief officer of a lathe, Spelman.

The rising water or increase of the sea.

or LACTA. The alloy of money. Spelman.: which may be bequeathed. Cowell.

A duty imposed in England upon personal property (other than leaseholds) devolving under any will or intestucy. Brown.

1, Conforming to the law; according to law; required or permitted by law; noi forbidden or discountenanced by law; good and effectual in law. 2. Proper or sullicient to be recogniz

That portion of the assets of a deceased party which by law is directly liable, In the hands of his executor sets as can be reached in the hands of an executor or administrator, by

One recognized or permitted by the law as valid and lawful; as distinguished from sueK as are illegal or immoral.

Such as will warrant the granting of a divorce to the injured party; as distinguished from such kinds or degrees of cruelty as do not, under the statutes and decisions, amount to s

Those that are recoverable in a court of common law, as debt on a bill of exchange, a bend, or a simple contract.

1. Adefense which is complete and adequate in point of law. 2. A defense which may be set up in a eourt of law; as distinguished from an “equitable defense,” which is cognizable on

Thediscretion to be exercised by a judge in interpreting the law, or in applying equitable principles to the determination of causes or the granting of relief.

That kind of estate which is properly cognizable in the courts of common law, though noticed, also, in the courts of equity. 1 Steph. Comm. 217.

A day designated by law as exempt from j oceedings, Service of process, det protest of commercial paper, ete. 77 is expresview has the right vested in him, 2 prevented by some An a

That rate of interest prescribed by the laws of the particular state or country as the highest which may be lawtully contracted for or exacted, and which must be paid in all cases

An irregularity occurring in the course of some legal proceeding. A defect or informality which, in the technical view of the law, is to be accounted an irregularity.

Lawful money of England. 1 Inst. 207.

or LEGALNESS. Lawfulness.

The act of legalizing or making legal or lawful. See LeaaL

To make legal or lawful; to confirm or validate what was before void or unlawful; to add the sanction and author. ity of law to that which before was without or against law.

Lawfully; according to law.

An expression used as the equivalent of “constructive malice,” or “malice in law.” 52 Me. 502.

See Memory.

A term used in Louisiana. The law alone in certain cases gives to the creditor a mortgage on the property of his debtor, without it being requisite that the parties should stipulat

Such notice as is adequate in point of law; such notice as the law requires to be given for the specific purpose or in the particular case.

A person who, in the law, represents the person and controls the rights of another. The phrase is commonly used as the equivalent of “executor” or “administrator.” The term imports

In Scotch law. The period within which a proprietor is at liberty to redeem land adjudged from him for debt. at® ER. That kind of coin, medium which the law compels accept in payme

The name of a code of ecclesiastical laws, enacted in national synods, held under legates ES from Pope Gregory IX. and Clement IV., in the reign of Henry I1I., about the years 1220

Lat. In the civillaw. One to whom a thing is bequeatlied; a legatea or legatary. Inst. 2, 20, 2, 4, 5, 10; Bract. fol. 40. ee In old European law. A legate, measenger, or envoy. Sp

The person to whom a legacy is given, eS

Nuncios, deputies, or extraordinary ambassadors sent by the pope te be his representatives and to exercise his jurisdiction in countries where the Roman Catholic Church is establis

Anembassy; a diplomatic minister and his suite; the persons commissioned by one government to exercise diplomatie functions at tle court of another, ineluding the minister, secreta

The third part of a freeman’s personal estate, which by the custom of Lendon, in case he hada wife and children, the freeman might always have disposed of by will. Bae. Abr. “Custo

Lat. In the civil law. A regacy; a gift left by a deceased person, to be executed by the heir. Inst. 2, 20, 1. In old English law. A legacy given to the church, or an accustomed mo

In Roman law. <A legacy to A. B. of any article or articles that A. B. liked to choose or select vut of the testator’s estate. If A. B. died after the testator, but before making t

Lat. To lose one’s law; that is, to lose one’s privilege of being admitted to take an oath.

Lat. Inold English law. To make law or oath.

Lat. In Romanlaw. To propose a law to the people for their adoption. Heineec. Ant. Rom. lib. 1, tit. 2.

Lat. To be capable of giving evidence upon oath. Witnesses Who had been convicted of crime were ineapable of giving evidence, until 6 &7 Vict. G. 85. proposed law; to make or pass

Lat. Te give consent and authority toa proposed Jaw; applied to the consent of the people. Legem terre amittentes, perpetuam infamize notam inde merito incurrunt. Those who lose th

In old English law. To wage law: tooffer or to give pledge to make defense, by oath, with compurgators.

A fine for adultery or fornication, anciently paid to the lords of certain manors, 4 Inst. 206,

Lat, Laws. At Rome, the deges (the decrees of the people in a strict sense) were laws which were proposed by a magistrate presiding in the senate, and adopted by the Roman people i

SCBRIPTA. Lat. In English law. Written laws; statute laws, or acts of parliament which are originally reduced into writing before they wre enacted, or receive any binding power. Ha

Lat. The laws of England, as distinguished from the civil law and other foreign systems. Leges Anglis sunt tripartite,—jus commune, consuetudines, ac decreta comitiorum. The laws o

Lat. In English law. Unwritten or customary laws, including those ancient acts of parliament which were made before time of memory. Hale, Com. Law, 5. See 1 Bl. Comm. 63, 64. Leges

Laws under a weightier law. Hale, Com. Law, 46, 44, Leges suum ligent latorem. Laws should bind their own maker. Fleta, lib. 1, e. 17, § 11.

Lat. Roman laws regulating the mode of voting by ballot, (tabeila.) 1 Kent, Comm. 232, note, Leges vigilantibus, non dormientibus, subveniunt. The laws aid the vigilant, not the ne

Lat. Released from the laws; not bound by the laws. An expression applied in the Roman civil law to the emperor. Calvin. Legibus sumptis desinentibus, lege naturze utendum est. Whe

In old records. Litigious, and so subjected to a course of law. Cowell. Legis constructio non facit injuriam. Co. Litt. 183. The construction of law does no injury. Legis interpret

The act of giving or enacting laws,

The lawmaking power; the department of government whose function is the framing and enactment of laws.

One who makes laws. of legislators is a living voice, to impose laws on things, and net on words. 10 Coke, 101.

The department, aasembly, or body of men that makes laws for a state or nation; a legislative body.

A person skilled or learned in the law; a lawyer or advocate. Feud. lib. 2, tit. 1. LEGIT VEL NON? Im old English practice, this was the formal question propounded to the ordinary

In Scotch law. The children’s share in the father’s movables.

2. To make lawful; to confer legitimacy; to place a child born be fore marriage on the footing of tliose born in lawful wedlock. 26 Vt. 653, 657, 658.

adj. That which is lawful, legal, recognized by law, or according to law; aa legitimate children, legitimate aathority, or lawful power.

The making legitimate or lawful that which was not originally 80; especially the act of legalizing the staius of a bastard. LEGITIMATION PER SUBSE-

Lat. In the civil law. That portion of a parent’s estate of which he eannot disinherit his children withuut a legal cause. Legitims imperanti parere necesse est. Jenk. Cent. 120. O

Lat. In Ro taan law. Legitimate heirs; the agnate relations of the estate-leaver; so called because the inheritance was given to them by a law of the Twelve Tables. strant, a lawfu

Lat. In Roman law. I beith. A common terin in wills, Dig. 30; Ds 81, et seq.

Thetitile of a French work on marine insurance, by an unknown author, dating back, probably, to the sixteenth century, and said to have been prepared for the merchants of Rouen. It

A person skilled in law, (ix legibus versaius;) one versed in the forms of Jaw. Calvin.

An officer under the Saxon government, who had jurisdiction over alath. Ene. Lond. See Laru.

Inold English law. A fugitive or runaway.

He from whom a thing is borrowed. The bailor of an article loaned.

Tosummon tenants to serve at the lord’s courts, to bring corn to be ground at his mill.

The quadragesimal fast; a time of abstinence; the time from Ash-Wednesday to Easier.

In old European law. A vassul, or liege man; service; a were or weregild. Spelman.

A tax for supplying the church with lights. Ane, Inst. Eng,

Lat. An at tempted partnership, in which one party was to bear all the losses, and have no shiare in the profits. This was a void partnership in Rotnan law; and, apparently, it wou

Agreyhound. Cowell.

A place where hares are kept. Mon. Angl. t. 2, p. 1035.

More remote Seirs. The kinsmen other than children or descendants.

The king will deliberate on it. This is the formula which the king of the French used when he intended to veto an act of the legislative assembly. 1 Toullier, no. 42. LE ROY (or LA

or ROY. The old law-French words for “the king.”

Trees fallen by chance or wind-falls. Brooke, Abr. 341.

The old Englishand Scotch translation of “lesa majestas,” or high treason. 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 6.

Fr. Damage; injury; detriment. Kelham. <A term of the Scotch law. In the civil law. The injury suffered by one who does not receive atull equivalent for what he gives ina commutati

An inferior officer in forests to take care of the vert and venison therein, ete. Wharton,

He to whom a lease is made, He who holds an estate by virtue of a lease,

Ie who grants a leage.

In the action of ejectment, this was the party who really and in effect prosecuted the action and was interested in its result. The reason of his having been so called arose from t

Fr. In French maritime law. Ballast. Ord. Mar. liv. 4, tit. 4, art. 1.