Glossary of Legal Terms Beginning with r

r: Legal definitions for terms and concepts beginning with r

Racial Pollution: A prohibition of sexual relations with persons outside of defined races.
Racial Profiling: Targeting of individual members of a particular racial group, on the basis of the supposed propensity of the entire group.
Rack: A medieval form of punishment or confession extractor in which the subject was affixed to a wooden platform and separate ropes attached to each of his four limbs, which were then pulled apart by a system of pulleys.
Racketeering: The interfering with trade or commerce by violence or threats.
Rand Formula: (CAN) Union dues are withheld from the pay of an employee, whether or not he or she belongs to the union.
Ransom: Money paid to have a kidnapped person released.
Rape: Sex with a woman, other than the perpetrator's wife, without her consent.
Rapina: Latin: to take away forcefully.
Ratification: The act by a principal, after the agent has acted, confirming that what the agent may have done without authority, is binding on the principal.
Ratio Decidendi: Latin: reasons for a decision.
Ratione loci: Latin: by reason of the place.
Ratione Personae: Latin: by reason of his person.
Real Estate: Same as real property; land and rights attached to land.
Real Obligation: A legal obligation associated with real property.
Real Property: A property interest in land.
Reasonable Doubt: A threshold of proof in criminal cases in most modern criminal law systems which requires the trier of fact to be sure, not certain, of the accused's guilt, before convicting.
Reasonable Man: An ethereal concept of conduct against which liability is weighed.
Reasons: The legal rationale behind a court's judgment, expressed verbally or in writing.
Rebus Sic Stantibus: Latin: changed circumstances.
Rebuttable Presumption: A presumption of fact which can be defeated by persuasive evidence to the contrary.
Receipt: A document which acknowledges the delivery of a thing or the payment of money.
Reciprocity: A term of international treaties by which two or more states agree to extend to the other's citizens specified legal rights on the same standing as its own citizens.
Recommendation: Advice or counsel which although presented as such, the recipient is free to take or leave, or which may be binding in the context.
Reconciliation: The act of separated spouses returning to family cohabitation.
Reconvention: A rule of jurisdiction which enables a counterclaim against another who, although otherwise beyond the jurisdiction of the court, has voluntarily submitted to jurisdiction by iniating the principal action.
Recorder: An ancient judicial position in the legal history of England and Wales, now mostly a part-time judicial appointment given to practising barristers or solicitors in England and Wales.
Recoupment: A rebate of a debt or claim because of a right of the debtor arising out of the same transaction.
Recross Examination: The resumption of cross-examination by the original cross-examiner in order to respond to matters that may have arisen during the re-examination of a witness.
Rectal Prolapse: A medical condition in which the lower end of the bowel (the rectum) falls or pops out of the anus.
Recusation: An application made to a judge that he/she not hear a particular case because of a real or perceived conflict of interest; that the judge recuse himself (abstain) from the case.
Redact: Removing text or images from an original document.
Reddendum: Latin: that part of a lease which sets out the amount of rent and when it is payable.
Redemption: Buying back. When a vendor later buys the property back.
Red Herring: An irrelevant legal issue.
Redirect Examination: The re-opening of an examination-in-chief after cross-examination, to cover matters that may have arisen during cross-examination.
Red test
Refoulement: The return of an alleged refugee to his state of origin.
Refugee: A person who is outside his state of origin or of residence, and cannot return for fear of human-rights related persecution.
Regiam Majestatem: An ancient compendium of Scottish law; circa 1320.
Regrating: The buying of food products at a market not for demonstrable personal need, but for the purposes of resale at the same market, or one nearby.
Regulation: A law on some point of detail, supported by an enabling statute, and issued not by a legislative body but by an executive branch of government.
Relator: An informer; a person who has supplied the facts required for a criminal prosecution or a civil suit.
Release: A with prejudice concession made by a party to give up all claims in regards to an alleged tort or contract.
Religion: Faith and worship in a god.
Remainder: A right to future enjoyment or ownership of real property.
Remanet: Latin: an action that has been put over, deferred to a later time.
Remedy: Remedial judicial action to right a wrong or to prevent a infringement upon a legal right.
REMO: Abbreviation for reciprocal enforcement of maintenance orders, an international system of enforcement of support orders.
Renewable Energy: Electrical energy derived from naturally occurring resources and which do not deplete the source as energy is produced.
Rent: Money or other consideration paid by a tenant to a landlord in exchange for the exclusive use and enjoyment of land, a building or a part of a building.

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