Duhaime's Law Dictionary


Quaere Definition:

Latin for "query" as in an issue on which some doubt or question exists.

An issue expounded after the word quaere in a legal judgment, exposes a statement of law or of fact that remains in doubt, not finally decided, and open to question.

For a judicial example of the use of the term, in a stolen goods case for which the legal citation is Haughton v Smith, 1973 UKHL 4, the British House of Lords queried as follows:

"Quaere if this is the correct approach, but I am satisfied in any event that it is a misapplication of the process ... to purport to settle an order and provide therein a term that has such a possibly singular effect on one party, if the issue has not been addressed sufficiently in the original hearing."

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