Durham Rule - Law Dictionary Search Results
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Durham rule [from Durham v. United States, 214 F.2d 862 (1954), a case heard by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals that established the rule] : a rule of criminal law used in some states that holds that in order to find a defendant not guilty by reason of insanity the defendant's criminal act must be the product of a mental disease or defect compare irresistible impulse test, m'naghten test, substantial capacity test ...
irresistible impulse test
irresistible impulse test : a test used in some jurisdictions when considering an insanity defense that involves a determination of whether an impulse to commit a criminal act was irresistible due to mental disease or defect regardless of whether the defendant knew right from wrong compare diminished capacity, durham rule, m'naghten test, substantial capacity test ...
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...
Marriage
Marriage. Marriage as understood in Christendom is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others, Hyde v. Hyde, 1866 LR 1 P&D 130. Where a marriage in a foreign country complies with these requirements it is immaterial that under the local law dissolution can be obtained by mutual consent or at the will of either party with merely formal conditions of official registration, and it constitutes a valid marriage according to English law, Nachimson v. Nachimson, 1930, P. 217. Previous to 1753 the validity of marriage was regulated by ecclesiastical law, not touched by any statutory nullity but modified by the Common law Courts, which sometimes interfered with the Ecclesiastical Courts, by prohibition, sometimes themselves decide on the validity of a marriage, presuming a marriage in fact as opposed to lawful marriage. A religious ceremony by an ordained clergyman was essential to a lawful marriage, at all events for dower and heirship; but if in an i...
Circuits
Circuits (seven eight formerly), certain divisions of England and Wales, appointed for the judges to go formerly twice a year, in the respective vacations after Hilary and Trinity terms, but more recently oftener, and at no precisely fixed periods, to administer justice in the several counties. Two judges, until 1884, attended at each circuit town, when by a new scheme set on foot by the 'Circuits Order' of that year it was arranged that at the majority of the circuit towns one judge only should attend, with the power, however, under Rule 9 of the Order, of requesting one of the judges in London to proceed to any place on circuit in his aid 'in order to enable the judges, as far as possible, to leve no cause untried at any place on any circuit.' The following were the circuits as altered by Order in Council made pursuant to 26 & 27 Vict. c. 122, viz.: (1) Northern; (2) Home; (3) Western; (4) Oxford; (5) Midland; (6) Norfolk; (7) North Wales; and South Wales.By the (English) Judicature ...
Housing of the working classes
Housing of the working classes. The Housing Act, 1936 (26 Geo. 5, and 1 Edw. 8, c. 51), replaces with amendments the Housing Acts, 1925, 1930 and 1935, and consolidates the general law on the subject with some exceptions, chiefly relating to agricultural populations and needs, which are also provided for in unrepeated portions of the Acts of 1930 and 1935. Very wide powers are conferred on local authorities over the ownership of land and housing properties, and populations within their districts, enabling those authorities to make bye-laws for houses occupied or adaptable for the working classes; to effect the clearance, demolition, rebuilding, redevelopment or improvement of houses either singly or in whole areas and other-wise regulating sites or houses; to prevent over-crowding, and generally making it incumbent on these authorities to review and provide for the housing conditions of the working classes, and in addition giving powers of compulsory expropria-tion of private owners fr...
Precedence or precedency
Precedence or precedency, the act or state of going before; adjustment of place.The rules of precedence may be reduced to the following list, in which those marked * are entitled to the rank here allotted them by 31 Hen. 8, c. 10; marked ' by 1 W. & M. c. 1; marked by letters-patent, 9, 10 & 14 Jac. 1, which see in Seld. Tit. of Hon. ii. 5, 46; marked ' by ancient usage and established custom, Camden's Brit., tit. 'Ordines'; Milles's Cat. of Hon. 1610; and Chamberlayne's Prest. St. of Eng., b. 3, c. iii; see 1 Bl. Com. 404.* The King's children and grandchildren.* The King's consort.* The King's uncles.* The King's nephews.* Archbishop of Canterbury (a).* Lord High Chancellor or Keeper, if a baron.* Archbishop of York.Prime Minister.By royal warrant dated December, 1905.* Lord Treasurer.* Lord President of the Council. } barons.* Lord Privy Seal.(a) The judges of assize, while on circuit, take pre-cedence of every subject.*Lord Great Chamberlain.But see Private Stat.1 Geo. 1, c. 3.* Lo...
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