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Criminal Trespass - Law Dictionary Search Results

Action

Action, conduct, something done; also the form prescribed by Law for the recovery of one's due, or the lawful demand of one's right. Bracton (Bk. 3, cap. 1) defines it:-Actio nihil aliud est quam jus prosequendi in judicio quod alicui debetur.-(An action is nothing else than the right of suing in a court of justice for that which is due to some one.) Actions are divided into criminal and civil: criminal actions are more properly called prosecutions, and perhaps actions penal, to recover some penalty under statute, are properly criminal actions. There were formerly three classes of actions in England: personal actions, in which the plaintiff sought to recover a debt or damages from the defendant; real actions, in which he sought to establish his title to land or other hereditaments; mixed actions, in which he sought only to establish his right to possession of land. All forms of action are now abolished, but there still inevitably remains the distinction between actions in personam brou...

case

case [Latin casus accident, event, set of circumstances, literally, act of falling] 1 a : a civil or criminal suit or action [the judicial power shall extend to all s, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution "U.S. Constitution art. III"] see also controversy case at bar : a case being considered by the court [the facts of the case at bar] case of first im·pres·sion : a case that presents an issue or question never before decided or considered by the court com·pan·ion case : a case that is heard with another case because it involves similar or related questions of law test case 1 : a representative case whose outcome will serve as precedent for future cases and esp. for pending cases involving similar or related issues or circumstances and often some of the same parties NOTE: A test case is selected from a number of cases in order to avoid a flood of litigation. All of the parties to the cases must agree to accept the outcome of the test case as bi...

Assault

Assault [fr. salire, Lat., to leap; saillir, assaillir, Fr., to assai]; insultus, Lat.], an attempt to offer, with force and violence, to do a corporal hurt to another, as by striking at him with or without a weapon. No words, how provoking so ever they be, will amount to an assault. Assault does not always necessarily imply a hitting or blow; because, in trespass for assault and battery, a person may be found guilty of the assault, but not guilty of the battery. But battery always includes an assault, 1 Hawk. P. C. c. lxii., s. 1.The various kinds of assault are successively dealt with and made punishable by ss. 36-47 and ss. 52 and 62 (indecent assaults) of the (English) Offences against the Person Act, 1861. By s. 47 an assault occasioning actual bodily harm is punishable on indictment by penal servitude for not less than three, or imprisonment for not more than two year, and a common assault by imprisonment for not more than one year; but by s. 42 common assaults are summarily tria...

King's Bench

King's Bench. The Court of King's or Queen's bench (so called because the King used formerly to sit there in person (though the judges determined the causes), the style of the Court still being coram ipso rege, or coram ipsa regina) was a Court of record, and the Supreme Court of Common Law in the kingdom, consisting of a chief justice and four puisne justices, who were by their office the sovereign conservators of the peace and supreme coroners of the land.This court, which was the remnant of the aula regia, was not, nor could be, from the very nature and constitution of it, fixed to any certain place, but might follow the King's person wherever he went, for which reason all process issuing out of this Court in the King's name was returnable 'ubicunque fuerimus in Anglia.' For some centuries, and until the opening of the Royal Courts, the court usually sat at Westminster, being an ancient palace of the Crown, but might remove with the King as he thought proper to command.The jurisdict...

Caveat actor

Caveat actor. The Criminal Law of England supposes that a man intends the natural and probable consequences of his act. But in civil matters there is no rule of common law that a man 'acts at his peril,' except the case of one who harbours or collects a dangerous thing, or anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, Rylands v. Fletcher, (1866) LR 1 Ex. 265; (1868) LR 3 HL 330; with that exception in which nothing short of an act of God, or the victim's default, will excuse him, if a person suffers injury he must found his action either on contract or tort, e.g., trespass or negligence on the part of the defendant. This is the theory of the law, though in practice a very small amount of malice or negligence will suffice. See Malice and Res Ipsa Loquitur.Let the doer, or actor, beware, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 215....

Chancellors of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge

Chancellors of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the titular heads of those bodies, the office being honorary.The Chancellor of the University of Oxford, by virtue of certain ancient charters confirmed by statute, enjoys the sole jurisdiction (in exclusion of the King Courts) when a scholar or privileged person is the defendant, over all civil actions and suits whatsoever, excepting where a right of freehold is concerned, and of all injuries and trespasses against the peace, mayhem and felony excepted, Brown v. Renouard, (1810) 12 East 12; Thornton v. Ford, (1812) 15 East 634; Ginnett v. Whittingham, (1886) 16 QBD 761; and these he is at liberty to try and determine, either according to the Common Law of the land, or according to the University Statutes and customs, at his discretion. The judge of the Chancellor's Court at Oxford is the Vice-Chancellor, or his deputy. By 5 & 26 Vict. c. 26, amending 17 & 18 Vict. c. 81, s. 45, the Court of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford is now g...

Not guilty

Not guilty, a plea by way of traverse which occurred in actions of trespass, libel, or other tort, and amounted to a denial only of the breach of duty or wrongful act alleged to have been committed by the defendant; this was called pleading the 'general issue.' See PLEADING.The plea of not guilty, jin criminal proceedings, is the proper form wherever a prisoner means either to deny or justify the charge in the indictment; the effect of which plea is, that on the one hand, it puts the prosecutor to the proof of every material fact alleged in the indictment or information, and on the other it entitles the defendant to avail himself of any defensive circumstances as amply as if he had pleaded them in a specific form....

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