Glossary of Legal Terms Beginning with A

Duhaime's Law Dictionary

A: Legal definitions for terms and concepts beginning with A

Ab Absurdo: Latin: an evidentiary suggestion or statutory interpretation that is, or leads to, an absurdity.
Abandon: A giving up, a total desertion, an absolute relinquishment.
Abandonment: The leaving behind of property; an indifference as to the fate of a chattel.
Abate: To put an end to, to nullify or to become void.
Abatement: A reduction in some amount that is owed, usually granted by the person to whom the debt is owed. In the law of torts, the summary removal of a nuisance.
Abbacinare: A barbaric form of corporal punishment meted out in the middle ages where persons would be permanently blinded by the pressing of hot irons to the open eyes.
ABC Rule: An equitable exception to the general rule that attorney fees are not awarded, and which allows an award of attorney fees as consequential damages.
Abduction: To take someone away from a place without that person's consent, or by fraud.
Aberemurder: A spontaneous and gratuitous murder.
Aberratio Ictus: Latin: the accidental harm to a person; e.g. perpetrator aims at X but by chance or lack of skill hits Y.
Abet: Encouraging or inciting another to do a certain thing, such as a crime.
Ab Initio: Latin: from the start; from the beginning.
Abode: A place or places with which a person has established significant contacts through continuous or extended habitation.
Aboriginal: Pertaining to things or land or person or members of a race, which are indigenous to, or first occupied a specified territory.
Aboriginal Fishing Rights: (Canada) The right of Aboriginals to fish for food, to exchange fish for money or other goods, and to fish commercially.
Aboriginal Title: Indians' exclusive right to use and occupy lands they have inhabited from time immemorial, but that have subsequently become discovered by European settlers.
Abortion: The expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it is viable.
Absolute: Final, perfected, complete and unconditional.
Absolute Discharge: A sentence of a person guilty of a crime in which the accused is deemed to have not been convicted. In bankruptcy law, to be fully absolved of former debts and the status of bankrupt.
Absolute Immunity: Shields public officials from being sued for official acts without regard to motive.
Absolute Liability: Offences in which it is not open to a person to avoid liability on the ground that she or he acted under a reasonable mistake of fact which, if the facts had been as the accused believed them to be, would have made his act innocent.
Absolute Nuisance: Intentional conduct or an abnormally dangerous condition that cannot be maintained without injury to property, no matter what precautions are taken.
Absolute Priority Rule: The highest rank amongst creditors; he who gets paid in full before any other creditor.
Absolute Privilege: An absolute defence to an otherwise defamatory statement because of the venue or context in which the statement was made.
Abstract Instruction: An instruction given to a jury which though correct in law, is irrelevant.
Abstract of Title: A statement of the conveyances and charges appearing of record and affecting the title to real property.
Abuse: Physical or nonphysical misuse or maltreatment or use or treatment so as to injure, hurt, or damage.
Abuse of Discretion: A decision of a judicial body based on an erroneous finding of fact or conclusion of law, or an improper application of law to fact.
Abuse of Dominant Position: Intentional anti-competitive acts by persons substantially in control of a market, that has had, is having, or is likely to have the effect of preventing or lessening competition.
Abuse of Process: The use of legal process in an improper or unauthorized manner.
Academic Freedom: The right, without outside interference or censorship, of freedom of teaching, discussions, research, the expression of academic opinion, and to participate in professional or representative academic bodies.
Accardi Doctrine: An agency must abide by its own regulations.
Acceleration Clause: A clause in a contract that states that if a payment is missed, or some other default occurs (such as the debtor becoming insolvent), then the contract is fully due immediately.
Acceptance: The final and unequivocal expression of assent to another's offer to contract.
Access: A non-custodian parent's bundle of rights or times and days during which he/she has exclusive time with the child of the separated parents.
Accessory: Persons who aid or abet the principal offender in the commission of the offence, before or after.
Accident: An unlooked for mishap or occurrence.
Accomplice: Person(s) that aids, abets, advises, or encourages the commission of the crime.
Accord and Satisfaction: The act of one party, having complied with its contractual obligation, accepting some type of compensation from the other party (usually money and of a lesser value) in lieu of enforcing the contract and holding the other party to their original obligation.
Accounting: A detailed statement of the debits and credits between parties arising out of a contract or a fiduciary relation.
Accounts: The written, detailed or summary, record of a person's management or administration of an estate or of a particular matter.
Accretion: The addition to land by the action of water.
Accusare Nemo Se Debet Nisi Coram Deo: Latin: no man is obliged to accusehimself except before God.
Accusation: The formal criminal charge against a person which specifies the essential ingredients in regards to the alleged offence such as time and place and the relevant reference to the criminal law allegedly breached.
Accused: A person to whom a formal information containing an allegation of a criminal offence has been delivered, or a person arrested for a criminal offence.
Acquiescence: Action or inaction which binds a person legally even though it was not intended as such.
Acquittal: A decision by a judge that a person accused of a crime is not guilty.
Act: A bill which has passed through the various legislative steps required for it and which has become law.
Acta Exteriora Indicant Interiora Secreta: Latin: The outward acts show the secret intentions.
Action: A formal demand to a court of law and of justice to resolve a dispute.

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