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lateral sentencing See lateral departure under DEPARTURE.

lateral support See SUPPORT (4).

lateral support Support by the land that lies next to the land under consideration. - Also termed easement of natural support.

laterare (lat-a-rair-ee). [Law Latin]. To lie sideways, rather than endways. This term was formerly used in land descriptions.

late-term abortion An abortion performed during the latter stages of pregnancy, usu. after the middle of the second trimester.

late-term abortion See ABORTION.

latifundium (lat-a-fan-dee-am). [Latin fr. latus "broad" + fundus "land"] Roman law. A large private estate, common in the late Republic.

Latin The language of the ancient Romans and a primary language of the civil and canon law, and formerly of the common law. "The value of the Latin has always consisted in its peculiar expressiveness as a language of law terms, in its superior conciseness which has made it the appropriate language of law maxims, and in its almost unlimited capacity of condensation by means of abbreviations and contractions, many of which are retained in popular use at the present day." 2 Alexander M. Burrill, A Law Dictionary and Glossary 131 (2d ed. 1867). "The Latin maxims have largely disappeared from arguments and opinions. In their original phraseology they convey no idea that cannot be well expressed in modern English." William C. Anderson, Law Dictionaries, 28 Am. L. Rev. 531, 532 (1894).

latinarius (lat-a-nair-ee-as). [Latin]. An interpreter of Latin.

Latini Juniani (la-ti-ni joo-nee-ay-ni). pl. [Latin "Junian Latins"]. Roman law. Informally manumitted slaves who acqUired some rights and privileges as free people, but not Roman citizenship. They were a special class of freedmen (libertini) who could become citizens. If a Latinus Junianus did not become a citizen, then upon death that person"s status reverted to slavery, and his or her patron acquired all the decedent"s property. Also termed libertine lunian Latins. See LEX TUNIA NORBANA. Cf. INGENUUS; SERVUS. "Upon all these persons ... a new and definite status was conferred; they were henceforth to be known as Latini juniani, their position being based upon Latinitas, a status which had been enjoyed by certain latin colonists. A Latinus junianus had no public rights .... But he had part ofthe commercium, i.e. he could acquire proprietary and other rights inter vivos, but not mortis causa. A Latinus junianus, therefore, could neither take under a will ... nor could he make one .... But, subject to these disabilities, a Latinus junianus was a free man, and his children, though not, like the children of citizens, under his potestas, were free-born citizens." R.W. Leage, Roman Private Law 68-69 (C.H. Ziegler ed., 2d ed. 1930).

latitat (lat-a-tat). [Law Latin "he lurks"]. A writ issued in a personal action after the sheriff returned a bill of Middlesex with the notation that the defendant could not be found. The writ was called latitat because of its fictitious recital that the defendant lurks about in the county. It was abolished by the Process in Courts of Law at Westminster Act of 1832 (St. 2, Will. 4, ch. 39). See BILL OF MIDDLESEX; TESTATUM. "Latitat is a writ by which all men in personal actions are originally called in the king"s bench to answer. And it is called latitat, because it is supposed by the writ that the defendant cannot be found in the county of Middlesex, as it appears by the return of the sheriff of that county, but that he lurks in another county: and therefore to the sheriff of that county is this writ directed to apprehend him." Termes de la Ley 277 (1 st Am. ed. 1812).

latitatio (lat-a-tay-shee-oh). [Law Latin]. A lurking; a hiding; a concealment, esp. to avoid a trial.

Latium majus (lay-shee-am may-jas). [Latin]. The greater rights conferred on the inhabitants of Latium and, later, of colonies outside Italy, giving citizenship to all members of the local curia or town council and their children. Cf. LATIUM MINUS. "Under the Principate there is a distinction between Latium maius and Latium minus. The former referred to the rights granted to colonies founded as a coloniae Latinae outside Italy, combined with the concession of Roman citizenship to a larger group of individuals than Latium minus, in which only the municipal magistrates and members of the municipal council... were rewarded with Roman citizenship." Adolf Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law 537-38 (1953).

Latium minus (lay-shee-am mi-nas). [Latin]. The right of citizenship granted to the superior magistrates of provincial colonies. Also termed minus Latium. Cf. LATIUM MAIUS.

lato sensu (lay-toh sen-s[y]oo). [Latin]. In a wide sense; in a broad sense.

lator (lay-tar). [Latin "a bearer, proposer"]. 1. A bearer; a messenger. 2. A maker or giver of laws.

latori praesentium (lay-tor-i or la-tor-i pri-sen-shee-am). [Law Latin]. To the bearer of these presents. The phrase appeared in reference to written notes or bonds made payable to an unnamed creditor.

latro (la-troh). [Latin] Roman law. A robber; a brigand.

latrocination (la-tra-sa-nay-shan). [fr. Latin latrocinium "highway robbery") Archaic. The act of robbing; a depredation; a theft. Also termed latrociny; latrocinium. See LARCENY; THEFT.

latrocinium (la-tra-sin-ee-an). [Latin fr. Zatro "a robber"]. 1. ATROCINATION. 2. Something stolen. 3. The right to judge and execute thieves.

latrociny (la-tra-sa-nee). See LATROCINATION.

laudamentum (law-da-men-tam). A jury award.

laudare (law-dair-ee). [Latin]. 1. To name; to cite or quote as authority. 2.. To determine or pass upon (a case, etc.) judicially.

laudatio (law-day-shee-oh). [Latin]. Roman law. Court testimony concerning an accused person"s good behavior and integrity of life. This testimony resembles the practice in modern criminal trials of calling persons to speak favorably about a defendant"s character. PI. laudationes (law-day-shee-oh-neez).

laudator (law-day-tar), n. [Latin]. 1. Roman law. A character witness in a criminal trial. 2. An arbitrator. PI. laudatores (law-da-tor-eez).

laudatory words In a patent claim, descriptive but self-serving and conclusory words about the invention"s quality or features, such as "faster" or "more effective." Laudatory words are usu. not allowed in the claims of utility-patent applications, but they are allowed in plant-patent applications.

laudemium (law-dee-mee-am). [Law Latin]. A sum paid to a landowner by a person succeeding to a particular form of land contract by gift, devise, exchange, or sale; HERIOT. The payment equaled 2% of the purchase money, and was paid to the landowner for acceptance of the successor. Also termed (in old English law) acknowledgment money. See EMPHYTEUSIS.

laudere auctorem (law-deer-ee awk-tor-am). See NOMINATIO AUCTORIS.

laudum (law-dam). [Law Latin]. An arbitrament. See ARBITRAMENT.

laughe See FRANKPLEDGE.

laughing heir See HEIR.

laughing heir An heir distant enough to feel no grief when a relative dies and leaves an inheritance (generally viewed as a windfall) to the heir.

launch 1. The movement of a vessel from the land into the water, esp. by sliding along ways from the stocks on which the vessel was built. 2. A large open boat used in any service; LIGHTER.

laundering See MONEY-LAUNDERING.

laundry list An enumeration of items, as in a statute or court opinion <Texas"s consumer-protection law contains a laundry list of deceptive trade practices>.

laureate (lor-ee-it). 1. An officer ofthe sovereign"s household, who composed odes annually on the sovereign"s birthday, on the new year, and occasionally on the occurrence of a remarkable victory. 2. A person honored for great achievement in the arts and sciences, and esp. in poetry.

laus Deo (laws dee-oh or lows day-oh). [Latin]. Archaic. Praise be to God. This was a heading to a bill of exchange.

law (bef. 12c). 1. The regime that orders human activities and relations through systematic application of the force of politically organized society, or through social pressure, backed by force, in such a society; the legal system <respect and obey the law>. 2. The aggregate of legislation, judicial precedents, and accepted legal principles; the body of authoritative grounds of judicial and administrative action; esp., the body of rules, standards, and principles that the courts of a particular jurisdiction apply in deciding controversies brought before them <the law of the land>. 3. The set of rules or principles dealing with a specific area of a legal system <copyright law>. 4. The judicial and administrative process; legal action and proceedings <when settlement negotiations failed, they submitted their dispute to the law>. 5. A statute <Congress passed a law>. Abbr. 1. 6. COMMON LAW <law but not equity>. 7. The legal profession <she spent her entire career in law>. "Some twenty years ago I pointed out two ideas running through definitions of law: one an imperative idea, an idea of a rule laid down by the lawmaking organ of a politically organized society, deriving its force from the authority of the sovereign; and the other a rational or ethical idea, an idea of a rule of right and justice deriving its authority from its intrinsic reasonableness or conformity to ideals of right and merely recognized, not made, by the sovereign." Roscoe Pound, "More About the Nature of law," in Legal Essays in Tribute to Orrin Kip McMurray at 513, 515 (1935). "All law is the law of a group of individuals or of groups made up of individuals. No one can make a law purely for himself. He may form a resolution, frame an ambition.

law agent See SOLICITOR (4).

law and economics (often cap.). 1. A discipline advocating the economic analysis of the law, whereby legal rules are subjected to a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether a change from one legal rule to another will increase or decrease allocative efficiency and social wealth. Originally developed as an approach to antitrust policy, law and economics is today used by its proponents to explain and interpret a variety of legal subjects. 2. The field or movement in which scholars devote themselves to this discipline. 3. The body of work produced by these scholars.

law and literature (often cap.). 1. Traditionally, the study of how lawyers and legal institutions are depicted in literature; esp., the examination of law-related fiction as sociological evidence of how a given culture, at a given time, views law, Also termed law in literature. 2. More modernly, the application of literary theory to legal texts, focusing esp. on lawyers" rhetoric, logic, and style, as well as legal syntax and semantics. Also termed law as literature. 3. The field or movement in which scholars devote themselves to this study or application. 4. lhe body ofwork produced by these scholars.

law arbitrary A law not found in the nature of things, but imposed by the legislature"s mere will; a bill not immutable.

law as literature See LAW AND LITERATURE (2).

law between states See INTERNATIONAL LAW.

law clerk 1. See CLERK (4). 2. See PARALEGAL (2).

law commission (often cap.) An official or quasi-official body of people formed to propose legal reforms intended to improve the administration of justice. Such a body is often charged with the task of reviewing the law with an eye toward systematic development and reform, esp. through codification.

law court 1. See COURT (1). 2. See COURT (2). - Also written law-court.

law court of appeals An appellate tribunal, formerly existing in South Carolina, for hearing appeals from the courts oflaw.

law day See LAW DAY.

law day 1. Archaic. The yearly or twice-yearly meeting of one ofthe early common-law courts. 2. Archaic. The day appointed for a debtor to discharge a mortgage or else forfeit the property to the lender. 3. (cap.) A day on which American schools, public assemblies, and courts draw attention to the importance of law in modern society. Since 1958, the ABA has sponsored Law Day on May 1 of each year.

law department A branch of a corporation, government agency, university, or the like charged with handling the entity"s legal affairs.

law enforcement See LAW ENFORCEMENT

law enforcement 1. The detection and punishment ofviolations of the law. This term is not limited to the enforcement of criminal laws. For example, the Freedom of Information Act contains an exemption from disclosure for information compiled for law-enforcement purposes and furnished in confidence. That exemption is valid for the enforcement of a variety of noncriminal laws (such as national-security laws) as well as criminal laws. See 5 USCA § 552(b)(7). 2. CRIMINAL TlJSTICE (2). 3. Police officers and other members of the executive branch of government charged with carrying out and enforcing the criminal law.

Law Enforcement Assistance Administration A former federal agency (part of the Department of Justice) that was responsible for administering law-enforcement grants under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. It has been replaced by a variety of federal agencies, including the National Institute of Corrections and National Institute of Justice. Abbr. LEAA.

Law Enforcement Information Network A computerized communications system that some states use to document driver"s-license records, automobile registrations, wanted-persons" files, and the like. - Abbr. LEIN.

law firm An association oflawyers who practice law together, usu. sharing clients and profits, in a business organized traditionally as a partnership but often today as either a professional corporation or a limited-liability company. Many law firms have a hierarchical structure in which the partners (or shareholders) supervise junior lawyers known as "associates," who are usu. employed on a track to partnership.

Law French The corrupted form of the Norman French language that arose in England in the centuries after William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 and that was used for several centuries as the primary language of the English legal system; the Anglo-French used in medieval England in judicial proceedings, pleadings, and lawbooks. Also written law French. To the linguist, law French is a corrupt dialect by definition. Anglo-French was in steady decline after 1300. Lawyers such as Fortescue, on the other hand, were probably serious in maintaining that it was the vernacular of France which was deteriorating by comparison with the pristine Norman of the English courts. That Fortescue could make such a claim, while living in France, is in itself a clear demonstration that by the middle of the fifteenth century there was a marked difference between the French of English lawyers and the French of France." J.H. Baker, A Manual of Law F,.encn 11 (1979). "Law French refers to the Anglo•Norman patois used in legal documents and all judicial proceedings from the 12605 to the reign of Edward III (1327-1377), and used with frequency in legal literature up to the early 18th century. When first introduced into England, this brand of French was the standard language used in Normandy; by the BOOs, through linguistic isolation, it became a corrupted language by French standards, at any rate." Bryan A. Garner. A Dictionarv of Modern Legal Usage 504-05 (2d ed. 1995). "That Law French was barbarous in its decrepitude does not in the least diminish the value of it to our law when it was full of vitality. It helped to make English law one of the four indigenous systems of the civilized world, for it exactly expressed legal ideas in a technical language which had no precise equivalent." Percy H. Winfield, The Chief Sources of English Legal History 14 (1925).

law guardian See guardian ad litem.

law guardian See guardian ad litem under GUARDIAN.

law in action The law as applied in the day-to-day workings of the legal system, as opposed to the law found in books. - Sometimes written law-in-action. See LEGAL REALISM. Cf. LAW IN BOOKS.

law in books The legal rules to be found in texts; esp., sterile, oft-repeated rules that seem to depart from the way in which the law actually operates in the day-to-day workings of the legal system. Sometimes written law-in-books. Cf. LAW IN ACTION.

law in literature See LAW AND LITERATURE (1).

law journal 1. A legal periodical or magazine, esp. one published by a bar association. Abbr. L.J. 2. LAW REVIEW (1).

Law Latin A corrupted form of Latin formerly used in law and legal documents, including judicial writs, royal charters, and private deeds. It primarily consists of a mixture of Latin, French, and English words used in English sentence structures. - Abbr. L.L.; L. Lat. Also written law Latin. "LAW LATIN. A technical kind of Latin, in which the pleadings and proceedings of the English courts were enrolled and recorded from a very early period to the reign of George II .... The principal peculiarities of this language consist first, in its construction, which is adapted so closely to the English idiom as to answer to it sometimes word for word; and, secondly, in the use of numerous words "not allowed by grammarians nor having any countenance of Latin, but framed from the English by merely adding a Latin termination, as murdrumfrom murder ...." 2 Alexander M. Burrill, A Law Dictionary and Glossary 135 (2d ed. 1867). "Law Latin, sometimes formerly called "dog Latin," is the bastardized or debased Latin formerly used in law and legal documents. For the most part, we have escaped its clutches. In 1730, Parliament abolished Law Latin in legal proceedings, but two years later found it necessary to allow Latin phrases that had previously been in common use, such as fieri facias, habeas corpus, ne exeat, and nisi prius. As Blackstone would later say, some Latinisms were "not ... capable of an English dress with any degree of serio ousness. 3 William Blackstone. Commentaries 323 (1768)." Bryan A. Garner, A Dictionarv of Modern Legal Usage 505 (2d ed. 1995).

law list 1. A published compilation of the names and addresses of practicing lawyers and other information of interest to the profession, such as legal organizations, court calendars, rosters of specialists, court reporters, and the like. 2. A legal directory that provides biographical information about lawyers, such as Martindale-Hubbell. - Many states and large cities have law lists or directories. See MARTINDALE-HUBBELL LAW DIRECTORY.

Law Lord A member of the appellate committee of the House of Lords, consisting of the Lord Chancellor, the salaried Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, and any peer who holds or has held high judicial office. Also written law lord.

lawbook A book, usu. a technical one, about the law; esp., a primary legal text such as a statute book or book that reports caselaw. Also written law book.

lawbreaker A person who violates or has violated the law.

lawburrows (law-bar-ohz). 1. An action requiring security for the peaceable behavior of a party. 2. Security obtained by a party apprehensive of danger to safeguard the peace.

law-craft The practice of law. "This quest for ever broader empirical understanding must, of course, be kept under reasonable control in practical law-craft, lest it delay necessary decisions in a continually expanding and pointlessly expensive fact-finding spiral." Bruce A. Ackerman, Reconstructing American Law 30 (1984).

law-enforcement system See CRIMINAL-JUSTICE SYSTEM.

law-enforcement officer See LAW-ENFORCEMENT OFFICER.

law-enforcement officer A person whose duty is to enforce the laws and preserve the peace. See PEACE OFFICER; SHERIFF.

lawful adj. Not contrary to law; permitted by law <the police officer conducted a lawful search of the premises>. See LEGAL.

lawful admission Immigration. Legal entry into the country, including under a valid immigrant visa. Lawful admission is one of the requirements for an immigrant to receive a naturalization order and certificate. 8 USCA §§ 1101(a)(20), 1427(a)(1), 1429.

lawful age 1. See age ofcapacity under AGE. 2. See age ofmajority (1) under AGE.

lawful age 1. See age ofcapacity. 2. See age of majority (1).

lawful arrest The taking of a person into legal custody either under a valid warrant or on probable cause that the person has committed a crime. Also termed arrest by warrant; warrant arrest. Cf. unlawful arrest.

lawful arrest See ARREST.

lawful authorities Those persons (such as the police) with the right to exercise public power, to require obedience to their lawful commands, and to command or act in the public name.

lawful cause See good cause under CAUSE (2).

lawful condition See CONDITION (2).

lawful condition A condition that can be fulfilled without violating the law.

lawful damages Those damages fixed by law and ascertained in' a court of law.

lawful damages See DAMAGES.

lawful deed See good deed.

lawful deed See good deed under DEED.

lawful dependent See DEPENDENT.

lawful dependent 1. One who receives an allowance or benefits from the public, such as social security. 2. One who qualifies to receive a benefit from private funds as determined by the laws governing the distribution.

lawful entry 1. The entry onto real property by a person not in possession, under a claim or color of right, and without force or fraud. 2. The entry of premises under a search warrant. See SEARCH WARRANT.

lawful entry See ENTRY (1).

lawful fence A strong, substantial, and wellsuited barrier that is sufficient to prevent animals from escaping property and to protect the property from trespassers. Also termed legal fence; good and lawful fence. Cf. SPITE FENCE.

lawful goods Property that one may legally hold, sell, or export; property that is not contraband.

lawful heir See HEIR (1).

lawful interest See INTEREST (3).

lawful interest 1. A rate of interest that is less than or equal to the statutory maximum. 2. See legal interest.

lawful issue Descendants, including descendants more remote than children. At common law, the term included only those who were children of legally recognized subsisting marriages. See DESCENDANT; HEIR. 4. Commercial law. The first delivery of a negotiable instrument by its maker or holder.

lawful issue See ISSCE (3).

lawful man See LEGALIS HOMO.

lawful money See MONEY.