British Subject - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: british subject Page: 2Adoption
Adoption, an act by which a person adopts as his own the child of another. Until recently there was no law of adoption in this country though it exists in other countries, as France and Germany, where the civil law (as to which, see Sand. Just.) prevails to any great extent. In 1889 and 1890, Lord Meath introduced Bills in the House of Lords to legalize adoption.By the (English) Adoption of Children Act, 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. 5, c. 29), after the 31st December, 1925, the Court (usually in the Chancery Division) may authorize the adoption of an infant who is under twenty-one years of age, a British subject, and resident in England and Wales, by an applicant who is more than twenty-five years of age, and also twenty-one years older than the infant, unless closely related, and a British subject, resident and domiciled in England or Wales, but a single adopter, only, will be authorized unless two spouses jointly apply. A male may not adopt a female infant unless the court finds special reason...
Foreign Enlistment Act
Foreign Enlistment Act, 59 Geo. 3, c. 69 (as to which see Burton v. Pinkerton, (1867) LR 2 Ex 340), repealed and replaced by the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 90), passed to 'regulate the conduct of the Majesty's subjects during the existence of hostilities between foreign states with which her majesty is at peace.' by s. 4 of this Act, if any British subject accepts any engagement in the military or naval service of any foreign state at war with any foreign state at peace with the Crown,he is punishable by fine and imprisonment or either; and by s. 11, if any person within theBritish Dominions 'prepares or fits out any naval or military expedition to proceed against the dominions of any friendly state,' such person and any persons employed in any capacity in any such expedition are similarly punishable. In Reg. v. Jameson, (1896) 2 QB 425, many persons were tried and convicted for an offence against s. 11 in making an armed incursion into the Transvaal in South Africa...
Wills
Wills. A will is the valid disposition by a living person, to take effect after his death, of his disposable property. ''But in law ultima voluntas in scriptis is used, where lands or tenements are devised, and testamentum, when it concerneth chattels': Co. Litt. 111 a.Depository of Will of Living Person.-By the (English) Jud. Act, 1925, s. 172, replacing s. 91 of the Court of Probate Act, 1857:-There shall, under the control and direction of the High Court, be provided safe and convenient depositories for the custody of the wills of living persons, and any person may deposit his will therein.And see (English) Administration of Justice Act, 1928 (18 & 19 Geo. 5, c. 26), s. 11, as to deposit of wills under control of the High Court.Law before 1838.-The right of testamentary aliena-tion of lands is a matter depending on Act of Parliament. Before 32 Hen. 8, c. 1, a will could not be made of land, and before the Statute of Frauds a will (see NUNCUPATIVE WILL) could be made by word of mouth...
Letters-patent, or letters overt
Letters-patent, or letters overt [fr. liter' patentes, Lat.], writings of the sovereign, sealed with the Great Seal of England, whereby a person or public company is enabled to do acts or enjoy privileges which he or it could not do or enjoy without such authority. They are so called because they are open with the seal affixed and ready to be shown for confirmation of the authority thereby given. Peers are sometimes created by letters-patent, and letters-patent of precedence were granted to barristers. By letters-patent aliens are made denizens, and especially new inventions are protected; hence the incorporeal chattel of patent-right.A 'patent-right' is a privilege granted by the Crown to the first inventor of any new contrivance in manufactures, that he alone shall be entitled, during a limited period, to make Articles according to his own invention--Statute of Monopolies, 21 Jac. 1, c. 3.To be the subject of a patent-right an article must be material and capable of manufacture, an i...
De medietate lingu'
De medietate lingu' (of a moiety of tongue), Jury. At Common Law an alien was entitled to be tried by a jury of which one-half consisted of aliens, and the (English) County Juries Act, 1825 (6 Geo. 4, c. 50), s. 47, enacted that, on the prayer of any alien indicted for felony or misdemeanour, the sheriff should return for one-half of the jury a competent number of aliens, if so many there were in the town or place where the trial was had; and if not, then so many aliens as should be found in the same town or place, if any. An alien is now triable in the same manner as if he were a natural born British subject; see the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1914, s. 18, in substitution for the (English) Naturalization Act, 1870. See ALIEN....
Half-tongue
Half-tongue, a jury de meditate lingu', formerly empanelled to try foreigners. An alien is now tribal in the same manner as if he were a natural-born British subject. [see British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1914, s. 18]In England, a jury empanelled to try an alien, and composed chief of one nations and half of other. Jury ended in 1914, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 718....
Negligence
Negligence, acting carelessly, a question of law or fact or of mixed fact and law, depending entirely upon the nature of a duty, which the person charged with negligence has failed to comply with or perform in the particular circumstance of each case. A very convenient classification has been formulated corresponding to the degree of negligence entailing liability measured by the degree of care undertaken or required in each case, i.e., (1) ordinary, which is the want of ordinary diligence; (2) slight, the want of great diligence; and (3) gross, the want of slight diligence. A smaller degree of negligence will render a person liable for injury to infants than in the case of adults, see Cooke v. Midland Great Western Railway, 1909 AC 229; and Glasgow Corporation v. Taylor, (1922) 1 AC 44. There is also a peculiar duty to take precaution in the case of dangerous Articles, see Dominion Natural Gas Co. v. Collins, 1909 AC 640. This case should be distinguished from the principle in Fletche...
Bigamy
Bigamy. By the Offences against the Person Act, 1861, s. 57, whomsoever, being married, shall marry any other person during the life of the former husband or wife . . . shall be guilty of a felony punishable by penal servitude for not more than seven years, or less than three, or by imprisonment for not more than two years, with or without hard labour. That section, however, does not apply to any second marriage contracted elsewhere than in England and Ireland by any other than a subject of His Majesty or to any person whose husband or wife shall have been continually absent for seven years from such person, and shall not have been known to such person to be living within that time; or even, as was held in Reg. v. Tolson, (1889) 23 QBD 168, by nine judges to five, to a person re-marrying within the seven years with a bona fide belief on reasonable grounds in the death of the first husband before the second marriage. Bigamy will have been committed though the second form of marriage was...
Deprivation
Deprivation, taking away from a clergy-man his patronage, vicarage, or other spiritual promotion or dignity, either, first, by sentence declaratory in the proper Court for fit and sufficient causes; such as conviction of infamous crime; for heresy, gross immorality, and the like, or for farming or trading contrary to law, after two former convictions for the same offence; or, secondly, in pursuance of divers penal statutes, which declare the benefice void, for some nonfeasance or neglect, or else some malfeasance or crime, as for simony; for neglecting to read the liturgy and articles in the church, and to declare assent to the same within two months after induction; or for using any other form of prayer than the liturgy of the Church of England; or for continued neglect, after order of the bishop, followed by sequestration, to reside on the benefice; and see as to deprivation for immorality, etc., the (English) Clergy Discipline Act, 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c. 32), s. 6(1)(b), and Oxford ...
Bar, trial at
Bar, trial at, the trial of a cause or prisoner before the Court itself instead of at Nisi Prius. It is confined to cases of great importance, and it is entirely discretionary with the court to grant it, unless the Crown be interested (see as to this, Dixon v. Farrar, Sec. of Board of Trade, (1886) 18 QBD 43), when the Attorney-General may demand it as of right. The procedure for obtaining it is regulated by Rules 150-155 of the Crown Office Rules of 1906.A celebrated trial at bar--of one Arthur Orton for perjury, in swearing that he was Sir Roger Tichborne--took place in 1873 before Cockburn, L.C. J., and Lush and Mellor, JJ. Others since that date are the action by the Attorney-General against Mr. Bradlaugh for penalties under the Parliament Oaths Act, A.G. v. Bradlaugh, (1885) 14 QBD 667; the trial of Dr. Jameson and many others, Reg. v. Jameson, 1896 (2) QB 425, for making an incursion into the Transvaal in contravention of the (English) Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870 (see that title...
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