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Legal Dictionary E
Easement :
A right of passage over a neighbor's land or waterway. An easement
is a type of servitude. For every easement, there is a dominant and a
servient tenement. Easements are also classified as negative (which
prevents the servient land owner from doing certain things) or
affirmative easements (the most common, which allows the beneficiary of
the easement to do certain things, such as a right-of-way). Although
right-of-ways are the most common easements, there are many others such
as rights to tunnel under another's land, to use a washroom, to emit
smoke or fumes, to pass over with transmission towers, to access a dock
and to access a well.
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Ecclesiastical law :
Synonymous to canon law: the body of church-made law which binds
only those persons which recognize it, usually only church officers, and
based on aged precepts of canon law.
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Emancipation :
Term used to describe the act of freeing a person who was under the
legal authority of another (such as a child before the age of majority)
from that control (such as child reaching the age of majority). The term
was also used when slavery was legal to describe a former slave that had
bought or been given freedom from his or her master. When Abraham
Lincoln outlawed slavery he did so in a law called the "emancipation
proclamation".
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Embargo :
This is an act of international military aggression where an order
is made prohibiting ships or goods from leaving a certain port, city or
territory and may be enforced by military threat of destroying any
vehicle that attempts to break it or by trade penalties. The word has
also come to refer to a legal prohibition of trade with a certain nation
or a prohibition towards the use of goods or services produced by or
within a certain nation.
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Embezzle :
The illegal transfer of money or property that, although possessed
legally by the embezzler, is diverted to the embezzler personally by his
or her fraudulent action. For example, an employee would embezzle money
from the employer or a public officer could embezzle money received
during the course of their public duties and secretly convert it to
their personal use.
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Eminent domain :
USA: The legal power to expropriate private land for the sake of
public necessity.
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Emolument :
A legal word which refers to all wages, benefits or other benefit
received as compensation for holding some office or employment.
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Emphyteusis :
Civil law: a long-term (many years or in perpetuity) rental of land
or buildings including the exclusive enjoyment of all product of that
land and the exercise of all property rights typically reserved for the
property owner such as mortgaging the property for the term of the
emphyteusis or permitting a right of way.
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Emptio or emtio :
Latin for "purchase" or the contract in which something is bought.
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Enactment :
A law or a statute; a document which is published as an enforceable
set of written rules is said to be "enacted".
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Endorsement :
Something written on the back of a document. An alternate spelling,
in some English jurisdictions, is "indorsement." In the laws of bills of
exchange, an endorsement is a signature on the back of the bill of
exchange by which the person to whom the note is payable transfers it by
thus making the note payable to the bearer or to a specific person. An
endorsement of claim means that if you want to ask a court to issue a
writ against someone, you have to "endorse" your writ with a concise
summary of the facts supporting the claim, sometimes called a statement
of claim.
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Endowment :
The transfer of money or property (usually as a gift) to a public
organization for a specific purpose, such as medical research or
scholarships.
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Entrapment :
The inducement, by law enforcement officers or their agents, of
another person to commit a crime for the purposes of bringing charges
for the commission of that artificially-provoked crime. This technique,
because it involves abetting the commission of a crime, which is itself
a crime, is severely curtailed under the constitutional law of many
states.
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Enumeration :
Latin enumeratus to count, from number. 1 : to ascertain the
number of : COUNT 2 : to specify one after another : LIST
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Equity :
A branch of English law which developed hundreds of years ago when
litigants would go to the King and complain of harsh or inflexible rules
of common law which prevented "justice" from prevailing. For example,
strict common law rules would not recognize unjust enrichment, which was
a legal relief developed by the equity courts. The typical Court of
Equity decision would prevent a person from enforcing a common law court
judgment. The kings delegated this special judicial review power over
common law court rulings to chancellors. A new branch of law developed
known as "equity", with their decisions eventually gaining precedence
over those of the common law courts. A whole set of equity law
principles were developed based on the predominant "fairness"
characteristic of equity such as "equity will not suffer a wrong to be
without a remedy" or "he who comes to equity must come with clean
hands". Many legal rules, in countries that originated with English law,
have equity-based law such as the law of trusts and mortgages.
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Escheat :
Where property is returned to the government upon the death of the
owner, because there is nobody to inherit the property. Escheat is based
on the Latin principle of dominion directum as was often used in the
feudal system when a tenant died without hiers or if the tenant was
convicted of a felony.
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Escrow :
When the performance of something is outstanding and a third party
holds onto money or a written document (such as shares or a deed) until
a certain condition is met between the two contracting parties.
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Estate law :
A term used by the law to decribe that part of the law which
regulates wills, probate and other subjects related to the distribution
of a deceased person's "estate".
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Estoppel :
A rule of law that when person A, by act or words, gives person B
reason to believe a certain set of facts upon which person B takes
action, person A cannot later, to his (or her) benefit, deny those facts
or say that his (or her) earlier act was improper. A 1891 English court
decision summarized estoppel as "a rule of evidence which precludes a
person from denying the truth of some statement previously made by
himself".
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Euthanasia :
The putting to death, by painless method, of a terminally-ill or
severely debilitated person through the omission (intentionally
withholding a life-saving medical procedure, also known as "passive
euthanasia") or commission of an act ("active euthanasia'). See also
living will.
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Evidence :
Proof of fact(s) presented at a trial. The best and most common
method is by oral testimony; where you have an eye-witness swear to tell
the truth and to then relate to the court (or jury) their experience.
Evidence is essential in convincing the judge or jury of your facts as
the judge (or jury) is expected to start off with a blank slate; no
preconceived idea or knowledge of the facts. So it is up to the opposing
parties to prove (by providing evidence), to the satisfaction of the
court (or jury), the facts needed to support their case. Besides oral
testimony, an object can be deposited with the court (eg. a signed
contract). This is sometimes called "real evidence." In other rarer
cases, evidence can be circumstantial.
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Ex aequo et bono :
Latin for "in justice and fairness." Something to be decided ex
aequo et bono is something that is to be decided by principles of what
is fair and just. Most legal cases are decided on the strict rule of
law. For example, a contract will be normally upheld and enforced by the
legal system no matter how "unfair" it may prove to be. But a case to be
decided ex aequo et bono, overrides the strict rule of law and requires
instead a decision based on what is fair and just given the
circumstances.
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Examination-in-chief :
The questioning of your own witness under oath. Witnesses are
introduced to a trial by their examination-in-chief, which is when they
answer questions asked by the lawyer representing the party which called
them to the stand. After their examination-in-chief, the other party's
lawyer can question them too; this is called "cross-examination".
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Exculpate :
Something that excuses or justifies a wrong action.
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Executor :
A person specifically appointed by a testator to administer the will
ensuring that final wishes are respected (i.e. that the will is properly
"executed"). An executor is a personal representative.
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Exhibit :
A document or object shown to the court as evidence in a trial. They
are each given a number or letter by the court clerk as they are
introduced for future reference during the trial. For example, weapon
are frequently given as exhibits in criminal trials. Except with special
permission of the court, exhibits are locked up in court custody until
the trial is over.
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Ex parte :
Latin: for one party only. Ex parte refers to those proceedings
where one of the parties has not received notice and, therefore, is
neither present nor represented. If a person received notice of a
hearing and chose not to attend, then the hearing would not be called ex
parte. Some jurisdictions expand the definition to include any
proceeding that goes undefended, even though proper notice has been
given.
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Ex patriate :,/A>
A person who has abandoned his or her country of origin and
citizenship and has become a subject or citizen of another country.
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Ex post facto :
Latin: after the fact. Legislation is called ex post facto if the
law attempts to extend backwards in time and punish acts committed
before the date of the law's approval. Such laws are constitutionally
prohibited in most modern democracies. For example, the USA Constitution
prohibits "any ex post facto law".
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Expropriation :
Canada: the forced sale of land to a public authority. Synonymous to
the USA doctrine of "eminent domain".
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Express trust :
A trust which is clearly created by the settlor, usually in the form
of a document (eg. a will), although they can be oral. They are to be
contrasted with trusts which come to being through the operation of the
law and which do not result from the clear intent or decision of any
settlor to create a trust (eg. constructive trust).
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Expunge :
To physically erase; to white or strike out. To "expunge" something
from a court record means to remove every reference to it from the court
file.
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Ex rel :
An abbreviation of "ex relatione", Latin for "on the relation of."
Refers to information or action taken that is not based on first-hand
experience but is based on the statement or account of another person.
For example, a criminal charge "ex rel" simply means that the attorney
general of a state is prosecuting on the basis of a statement of a
person other than the attorney general himself (or herself.)
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Extortion :
Forcing a person to give up property in a thing through the use of
violence, fear or under pretense of authority.
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Extradition :
The arrest and delivery of a fugitive wanted for a crime committed
in another country, usually under the terms of a extradition treaty.
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Ex turpi causa non oritur
actio :
Latin: "Of an illegal cause there can be no lawsuit." In other
words, if one is engaged in illegal activity, one cannot sue another for
damages that arose out of that illegal activity. A example is an injury
suffered by a passenger in a stolen car, which that passenger knew to be
stolen and was a free participant in the joyriding. If vehicle crashes
injuring the passenger, there is no action in tort against the driver
under the ex turpi causa non oritur actio principle.
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