Glossary of Legal Terms Beginning with I

Duhaime's Law Dictionary

I: Legal definitions for terms and concepts beginning with I

Ineffective Assistance: In USA constitutional law, grounds for reversing a criminal law judicial determination where relevant legal advice was deficient and prejudicial.
In Facie Contempt: Contempt of court that occurs in the face of the Court.
Infanticide: Murder of an infant soon after its birth.
Infarction: A sudden reduction or stoppage of blood flow.
In Fictione Juris Semper Aequitas Existit: Latin: With legal fictions, equity always exists.
Information: Canada: the charging document in a criminal prosecution.
Informed Consent: The consent of a capable patient to treatment after disclosure of the risks.
In haec verba: Latin: verbatim.
Inherent Jurisdiction: The residual, automatic and ex officio authority of a court of law to regulate proceedings before it including punishing contempt.
Inhibition: A legal procedure to prevent a debtor from compromising property upon which a creditor holds a charge.
Injunction: A court order that prohibits a party from doing something (restrictive injunction) or compels them to do something (mandatory injunction).
In Jure Non Remota Causa Sed Proxima Spectatur: Latin: In law the near cause is looked to, not the remote one.
In Limine: Latin: at the beginning or on the threshold.
In Loco Parentis: A person who, though not the natural parent, has acted as a parent to a child and may thus be liable to legal obligations as if he/she were a natural parent.
Inner Temple: One of four Inns of the Court, self-regulating associations of barristers in England and Wales.
Innocent Passage: A term of international law referring to a ship or aircraft's right to enter and pass through another's territory so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the other state.
Innominate Terms: An implied term of a contract which is neither classed as a condition or a warranty but somewhere in between; an intermediary or innominate term.
Inns of Chancery: Smaller boarding schools for apprenticing law students and serving as preparatory schools for the Inns of the Court up to about 1590.
Inns of Court: The several professional associations of barristers, to which all barristers in England or Wales must belong to one, to wit, Lincoln's Inn, Middle Temple, Gray's Inn or Inner Temple.
Innuendo: In defamation, the inferential, inherent or secondary meaning of words.
In Pari Delicto: Latin: both parties are equally at fault.
In Personam: Latin: regarding a person; a right, action, judgment or entitlement that is attached to a specific person(s).
In Rem: Latin: regarding a thing; proprietary in nature; a right or judgment related to the use or ownership of an item of property.
Insanity: Disorder which impairs the human mind and prevents distinguishing between actions that are right or wrong.
Inscrutable Fault: A judicial finding that a fault has occurred but the court is unable to locate the source, to pinpoint a tort-feasor.
Insider Trading: Participation by corporate officers, directors or employees in the trade of a stock based on confidential or privileged corporate information, knowing that information to be confidential, and seeking thereby to acquire profits or avoid losses on the stock market.
Insolence: Insulting a supervisor at the workplace or during the tenure of an employment contract.
Insolvent: A person not able to pay his or her debts as they become due.
Insubordination: Willful failure to obey a supervisor's lawful orders.
Insurance: Where a persons agrees, for consideration, to pay a certain amount on the occurrence of a specified event.
Intangible Property: Incorporeal property; personal property that lacks a physical existence.
Intellectual Property: Ethereal property; of the mind, intangible, with no corporeal existence, though capable of being expressed in a tangible medium.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress: The malicious and outrageous causation of severe emotional distress.
Intentional Infliction of Nervous Shock: A wilfully false statement that comes to and causes mental anguish to another.
Intentional Tort: Torts actionable upon evidence of an intent to cause harm on another, such as assault, trespass, false imprisonment, private nuisance, defamation or invasion of privacy.
Inter Alia: Latin: 'among other things', 'for example' or 'including'.
Interculturalism: A government policy regarding the relationship between a cultural majority and cultural minorities, which emphasizes integration by exchange and interaction.
Interest Reipublicae Ut Sit Finis Litium: Latin: in the interest of society as a whole, litigation must come to an end.
Interim Order: A temporary court order; intended to be of limited duration, usually just until the court has had an opportunity of hearing the full case and make a final order.
Interjurisdictional Immunity: The purported inability of the Canadian Federal government to legislate in an area assigned by the Constitution to the Provincial government, and vice versa.
Interlineation: An addition of something to a document after it has been signed.
Interlocutory: Housekeeping, procedural proceedings taken during the course of, and incidental to a trial.
Interlocutory Injunction: A temporary injunction; which lasts only until the end of the trial during which the injunction was sought.
Interloper: A person who, without legal right, runs a business (eg. without mandatory licenses), or who wrongfully interferes or intercepts another's business.
International Commercial Arbitration: A commercial dispute subject to arbitration and in which a significant international elements exists such as, for example, the head offices of the disputants are different countries or the performance of the underlying contract is in a foreign state.
International Convention on Salvage, 1989: An international treaty which standardizes, for signatories, the rules related to salvage and the compensation thereof.
International Crime: Crimes which affect the peace or safety of more than one state or which are so reprehensible in nature as to justify the intervention of international agencies in the investigation and prosecution thereof.
International Criminal Law: Offences made criminal in international law and related matters such as jurisdiction, courts and tribunals.
International Law: A combination of treaties and customs which regulates the conduct of states amongst themselves, and persons who trade or have legal relationships which involve the jurisdiction of more than one state.
International Will: A will which which is valid if meeting the requirements of an international wills statute and notwithstanding deficiencies in form as regards to domestic wills.

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