Body - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition body

Definition :

Body, the main part of any instrument; in deed sit is spoken of as distinguished from the recitals and other introductory parts and signatures; in affidavits, from the title, and jurat, q.v.; also the term is used in writs to describe the person who is to be taken (as habeas corpus). And see CORPSE.

What constitutes a body has not been judicially defined. There must have been independent life, a non-viable fetus expelled at a stage of pregnancy at which separate existence is impossible does not fall within the coroner's jurisdiction, Halsbury's Laws of England, Vol. 9, 4th Edn., Para 1055, p. 659.