Law Dictionary
	Search:

communia precepta (ka-myoo-nee-a pree-sep-ta). [Latin]. Common precepts; common rules.

communibus annis (ka-myoo-ni-bas an-is). [Latin]. On the average of years; on the annual average. "[T]he money arising from corn rents communibus annis, almost double to the rents in money." 2 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 322 (1766).

communication 1. The expression or exchange of information by speech, writing, gestures, or conduct; the process of bringing an idea to another's perception. 2. The information so expressed or exchanged.

communication right The power of a copyright owner to authorize or prohibit the transmission of a work to the public by way of interactive on-demand systems such as the Internet. This right is included in the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the European Commission's Directive on the Information Society.

communicative evidence See testimonial evidence under EVIDENCE.

communicative evidence- See testimonial evidence.

communings (ka-myoo-nings), Scots law. Contract negotiations.

communio bonorum (ka-myoo-nee-oh ba-nor-am). [Latin "community of goods"]. Civil law. Commonly owned goods, esp. those held in common by a husband and wife. PI. communiones bonorum.

communis stipes (ka-myoo-nis sti-peez). [Latin "common trunk"]. A common ancestor.

communis error (ka-myoo-nis e-ror). [Latin] Scots law. A common error; esp a long-standing error in practice that the court would uphold even though the practice has no legal basis. Also termed communis errorfacet jus.

communis opinio (ka-myoo-nis-a-pin-ee-oh). [Latin "common opinion"]. A generally accepted belief about a point of law. If held unanimously by those learned in the law, this common belief had the force of law in classical Rome. "Communis opinio is evidence of what the law is, not where it is an opinion merely speculative and theoretical, floating in the minds of persons, but where it has been made the ground work and substratum of practice." 1 Alexander M. Burrill, A Law Dictionary and Glossary 330 (2d ed. 1867) (quoting Lord Ellenborough).

communis opinio doctorum (ka-myoo-nis a-pin-ee-oh dok-tor-am]. [Latin "learned common opinion"]. Scholarly agreement on points of Roman law, collected by the glossators ofJustinian's texts in the later Middle Ages.

communis paries (ka-myoo-nis par-ee-eez). [Latin "common wall"] Civil law. See party wall under WALL. PI. communes parietes.

communis patria (ka-myoo-nis pay-tree-a). [Law Latin]. The common country; a place deemed home to all. "Under the old diligence of apprising, directed against heritable rights, the messenger executing the diligence held his court in the head borough of the shire where the lands lay, but afterwards it became the practice to hold these courts in Edinburgh as communis patria to all Scotland." John Trayner, Trayner's Latin Maxims 86 (4th ed. 1894).

communis scriptura (ka-myoo-nis skrip-t[y]oor-akam-myoo-nas-skrip-tyuur-a). [Latin "common writing"]. See CHIROGRAPH.

communism 1. A political doctrine, based on Marxism, advocating the abolition of capitalism by ground roots revolution; specif., a social and political doctrine advocating the abolition of private ownership in favor of common ownership ofthe means of production and the goods produced, each person contributing as able and receiving as needed. Cf. CAPiTALISM. 2. Totalitarian government.

communitization (ka-myoo-na-ta-zay-shan), The aggregating of small tracts sufficient for the granting of a well permit under applicable well-spacing rules; POOLING. Cf. UNITIZATION. communitize (ka-myoo-natIz), vb.

community account An account consisting of community funds or commingled funds. See COMMUNITY PROPERTY.

community control A criminal sentence whose terms include intensive and strict supervision of an offender in the community, as by restricting the offender's movements and activities and conducting electronic surveillance, and providing severe sanctions for violations of any of the sentence's terms.

community correctional center See JAIL.

community debt See DEBT.

community debt- A debt that is chargeable to the community of husband and wife. See COMMUNITY PROPERTY.

community development financial Institution fund A fund in the U.S. Department ofthe Treasury created to expand available credit, investment capital, and financial services in distressed urban and rural communities. Abbr. CDFI Fund.

community estate In a community-property state, the total of the assets and debts making up a married couple's property owned in common. Cf. COMMUNITY PROPERTY.

community grant See GRANT.

community grant- A grant of real property made by a government (or sometimes by an individual) for communal use, to be held in common with no right to sell. A community grant may set out specific, communal uses for the property, such as for grazing animals or maintaining a playground. Cf. private grant.

community lease See LEASE.

community mark See Community trademark under TRADEMARK.

community obligation See OBLIGATION.

community obligation A debt or other obligation incurred by either spouse after marriage in a community-property state. Such an obligation is presumed to be an obligation of the community and not of the individual spouse.

community of interest 1. Participation in a joint venture characterized by shared liability and shared opportunity for profit. See JOINT VENTURE. 2. A common grievance that must be shared by all class members to maintain the class action. See CLASS ACTION. 3. Labor law. A criterion used by the National Labor Relations Board in deciding whether a group of employees should be allowed to act as a bargaining unit. The Board considers whether the employees have similar duties, wages, hours, benefits, skills, training, supervision, and working conditions. See BARGAINING UNIT.

community of profits The right of partners to share in the partnership's profits.

Community patent An international patent issued by the European Patent Office. - Community patents are good for 20 years from the application date. They may be registered in any nation in the European Union and other EPC signatories.

community patent See PATENT (3).

community patent convention A 1975 treaty that, for patent purposes, treats the European Union as a single state and allows a patent applicant to obtain patent protection in all European Union nations through a Single blanket filing and examination procedure . If the application is approved, the European Patent Office issues a single Community patent. The treaty's full name is the Convention for the European Patent for the Common Market.

community policing A law-enforcement technique in which police officers are assigned to a particular neighborhood or area to develop relationships with the residents for the purpose of enhancing the chances of detecting and thwarting criminal activity.

community property Assets owned in common by husband and wife as a result of its having been acquired during the marriage by means other than an inheritance or a gift to one spouse, each spouse generally holding a one-half interest in the property . Only nine states have community-property systems: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. See marital property under PROPERTY; TITLE DIVISION. Cf. COMMUNITY ESTATE; SEPARATE PROPERTY.

community property See COMMUNITY PROPERTY.

community service Socially valuable work performed without pay . Community service is often required as part of a criminal sentence, esp. one that does not include incarceration.

community trademark See TRADEMARK.

community trademark treaty A 1996 agreement allowing a trademark registrant to file a single application with the European Trademark Office for trademark protection in all European Union nations instead of filing a separate application in each country . The trademark registrant does not have to be a citizen of a member nation to file an application.

community trust An agency organized to administer funds placed in trust for public-health, educational, and other charitable purposes in perpetuity.

community-notification law See MEGAN'S LAW.

community-property state A state in which spouses hold property that is acquired during marriage (other than property acquired by inheritance or individual gift) as community property. See COMMUNITY PROPERTY. Cf. COMMON-LAW STATE (2).

commutation (kom-ya-tay-sh;m), 1. An exchange or replacement. 2. Criminal law. The executive's substitution in a particular case of a less severe punishment for a more severe one that has already been judicially imposed on the defendant. Cf. PARDON; REPRIEVE. Commutation may be based on the discovery of pertinent facts that were not known or available when the sentenced was decided, or that arose and were developed afterward. It may also be based on the executive's statutorily or constitutionally granted discretion, regardless of the facts. Under § 1-2.113 of the US DOr Manual, commutation is rarely granted but may be considered for old age, illness, disparity, or undue severity of sentence. 3. Commercial & civil law. The substitution of one form of payment for another. commute, vb. commutative, adj.

commutation of payments Workers' compensation. A substitution of lump-sum compensation for periodic payments. The lump sum is equal to the present value of the future periodic payments.

commutation of taxes A tax exemption resulting from a taxpayer's paying either a lump sum or a specific sum in lieu of an ad valorem tax.

commutation of tithes act An act of Parliament that permitted tithes to be levied and collected in the form of cash rents rather than labor and goods in kind.

commutation tax 1. A combination of two or more taxes that is or can be substituted for something else that could be imposed, such as a demand for other taxes or the performance of personal services. - For example, an excise or franchise tax may be combined with a local tax in lieu of all other taxes related to the subject matter. 2. Hist. A tax imposed on shipowners, requiring them to post a bond or remit a payment per foreign passenger. In the 19th-century, the tax was used to discourage immigration and to raise revenue to defray the costs ofsupporting indigent immigrants who had remained in the U.S. 3. A 1784 tax intended to reduce tea-smuggling and increase tax revenue by cutting the tax on tea and raising the tax on windows. To avoid payment of the tax, many people boarded up their windows.

commutation tax See TAX.

commutative contract See CONTRACT.

commutative contract- (ka-myoo-ta-tiv or kom-ya-tay-tiv). 1. Civil law. A contract in which, at the time it is formed, the parties' obligations and advantages are certain and determinate. This definition applied in Louisiana law before the civil code was revised in 1984. 2. Louisiana law. A contract in which one party's performance is correlative to the performance of the other, so that nonperformance by either affords a defense to the other. La. eiv. Code art. 1911. Cf. independent contract; synallagmatic contract.

commutative justice See JUSTICE (1).

commutative justice (ka-myoo-ta-tiv or kom-ya-tay-tiv). Justice concerned with the relations between persons and esp. with fairness in the exchange of goods and the fulfillment of contractual obligations.

commuted value See VALUE (2).

commuuity 1. A neighborhood, vicinity, or locality. 2. A society or group of people with similar rights or interests. 3. Joint ownership, possession, or participation.

commuuity account See ACCOUNT.

commw COMMONWEALTH.

comp time Time that an employee is allowed to take off from work instead of being paid for overtime already worked. Also termed compensatory time.

compact (kom-pakt), An agreement or covenant between two or more parties, esp. between governments or states.

compact clause U.S. Const. art. I, § 10, cl. 3, which forbids a state from entering into a contract with another state or a foreign country without congressional approval.

companion bill A bill introduced in the other house of a bicameral legislature in a substantially identical form

companion hill See BILL (3).

companionship services Assistance provided to someone who needs help with personal matters such as bathing and dressing . This type of service (in contrast to housecleaning) is exempt from the Federal Labor Standards Act's minimum-wage and overtime requirements.

company 1. A corporation or, less commonly, an association, partnership, or union that carries on a commercial or industrial enterprise. 2. A corporation, partnership, association, joint-stock company, trust, fund, or organized group of persons, whether incorporated or not, and (in an official capacity) any receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, or similar official, or liquidating agent, for any of the foregoing. Investment Company Act § 2(a)(8) (15 USCA § 80a-2(a)(8)). -Abbr. CO.; com.

company union See UNION.

company-run dividend~reinvestmentplan A program operated by a corporation for its own shareholders. Company-run plans may offer additional features such as IRAs.

company-run dividend-reinvestment plan See DIVIDEND-REINVESTMENT PLAN.

company's paper See commercial paper under PAPER.

comparable (kom-par-a-bal), (usu. pl.) A piece of property used as a comparison to determine the value of a similar piece of property. comparable, adj.

comparable accommodation A standard used for determining the maximum allowable rent in rent-regulated housing. In applying this standard, a court reviews the prevailing rent for substantially similar housing units in the same area.

comparable worth 1. The analogous value that two or more employees bring to a business through their work. 2. The idea that employees who perform identical work should receive identical pay, regardless of their sex; the doctrine that men and women who perform work of equal value should receive comparable pay.

comparables analysis See MARKET APPROACH.

comparable-sales approach See MARKET APPROACH.

comparatio literarum (kom-pa-ray-shee-oh lit-a-rair-am). [Latin "comparison of writings"]. The act of comparing writings to ascertain authorship . Even under Roman law, handwriting experts (comparatores) sometimes testified about a document's authenticity.

comparatist A comparative-law scholar.

comparative advertising Advertising that specifically compares the advertised brand with another brand of the same product.

comparative advertising- See ADVERTISING.

comparative criminology See CRIMINOLOGY.

comparative criminology- The scholarly study of the similarities and differences between the criminaljustice systems of different nations.

comparative disparity The percentage of underrepresentation of a particular group among potential jurors on a venire, in comparison with the group's percentage of the general population. Comparative disparity is calculated by subtracting a group's percentage of representation on the venire from the group's percentage of the population - that is, calculating the group's absolute-disparity representation then dividing that percentage by the group's percentage-representation in the population, and multiplying the result by 100. For example, if AfricanAmericans make up 12% of a county's population, and 8% of the potential jurors on the venire, the absolute disparity of African-Americans is 4%. And the comparative disparity is 33%, because 4 divided by 12 is .33, or 33%. Many courts criticize the comparativedisparity analysis, and favor an absolute-disparity analysis, because the comparative-disparity analysis is said to exaggerate the deviation. The reason for cal culating the disparity is to analyze a claim that the jury was not impartial because it was not selected from a pool of jurors that fairly represented the makeup of the jurisdiction. See DUREN TEST; FAIR-CROSS-SECTION REQUIREMENT; STATISTICAL-DECISION THEORY. Cf. ABSOLUTE DISPARITY.

comparative fault See comparative negligence under NEGLIGENCE.

comparative history of law See descriptive comparative law under COMPARATIVE LAW.

comparative interpretation See INTERPRETATION.

comparative interpretation A method of statutory construction by which parts of the statute are compared to each other, and the statute as a whole is compared to other documents from the same source on a similar subject.

comparative jurisprudence See COMPARATIVE LAW.

comparative jurisprudence See COMPARATIVE LAW.

comparative law The scholarly study of the similarities and differences between the legal systems of different jurisdictions, such as between civil-law and commonlaw countries. Also termed comparative jurisprudence. See INTERNATIONAL LAW. "What is known as comparative jurisprudence - namely, the study of the resemblances and differences between different legal systems - is not a separate branch of jurisprudence co-ordinate with the analytical, historical, and ethical, but is merely a particular method of that science in all its branches. We compare English law with Roman law either for the purpose of analytical jurisprudence, in order the better to comprehend the conceptions and principles of each of those systems; or for the purpose of historical jurisprudence, in order that we may better understand the course of development of each system; or for the purpose of ethical jurisprudence, in order that we may better judge the practical merits and demerits of each of them. Apart from such purposes the comparative study of law would be merely futile." John Salmond, jurisprudence 7-8 n.(c) (Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947).

comparative legal history A species of comparative law seeking to establish a universal history of law, so that the succession of social phenomena influencing the evolution of the legal world might be better understood. This field is closely allied to ethnological jurisprudence, folklore, legal sociology, and jurisprudence. Also termed comparative history oflaw. Cf. descriptive comparative law under COMPARATIVE LAW; COMPARATIVE LEGISLATION.

comparative legislation A species of comparative law seeking to define the common link for modern statutory doctrines, concerned with the development of legal study as a social science and with awakening an international legal consciousness, Cf. descriptive comparative law under COMPARATIVE LAW; COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY.

comparative negligence See NEGLIGENCE.

comparative nomogenetics The study of the development of the world's legal ideas and systems. This term, like comparative nomoscopy and comparative nomothetics, was devised by fohn Henry Wigmore. See John Henry Wigmore, A Panorama of the World's Legal Systems 1121 (libr. ed. 1936).

comparative nomoscopy The description of the world's legal systems.

comparative nomothetics The analysis of the merits of legal systems.

comparative rectitude The degree to which one spouse is less culpable than the other in damaging the marriage, so that even though both spouses are at fault, the less culpable spouse may successfully petition for a separation or divorce. Comparative rectitude tempers the doctrine of recrimination by making a divorce possible even though both parties are at fault. Comparative rectitude is now virtually obsolete because of the prevalence of no-fault divorce. See RECRIMINATION (1).

comparative-impairment test A test that asks which of two or more forums would have its policies most impaired by not having its law applied in the case.

comparative-negligence doctrine The principle that reduces a plaintiff's recovery proportionally to the plaintiff's degree of fault in causing the damage, rather than barring recovery completely . Most states have statutorily adopted the comparative negligence doctrine, See NEGLIGENCE. Cf. CONTRIBUTORY-NEGLIGENCE DOCTRINE,

comparative-sales approach See MARKET APPROACH.

comparator (kam-par-a-tar or kom-pa-ray-tar). Something with which something else is compared <the female plaintiffs alleged illegal wage discrimination and contrasted their pay with that of male comparators>.

comparuit ad diem (kam-pair-oo-wit ad dI-am), [Latin "he appeared to the day"]. A plea averring that the defendant appeared in court as required and did not forfeit the bail bond.