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General Law - Law Dictionary Search Results

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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...


Hindu

Hindu, The historical and etymological genesis of the word 'Hindu' has given rise to a controversy amongst ideologists; but the view generally accepted by scholars appears to be that the word 'Hindu' is derived from the river Sindhu otherwise known as Indus which flows from the Punjab. 'That part of the great Aryan race', says Monier Williams, 'which immigrated from Central Asia, through the mountain passes into India, settled first in the districts near the river Sindhu (now called the Indus). The Persians pronounced this word Hindu and named their Aryan brethren Hindus. The Greeks, who probably gained their first ideas of India from the Persians, dropped the hard aspirate, and called the Hindus 'Indoi'. ('Hindulsm' by Monler Williams, p.1.)'. The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. VI, has described 'Hinduism' as the title applied to that form of religion which prevails among the vast majority of the present population of the Indian Empire (p. 686). As Dr. Radhakrishnan has obs...


Specific performance

Specific performance. Equity, in obedience to the cardinal rule of natural justice that a person should perform his agreement enforces, pursuant to a regulated and judicial discretion, the actual accomplishment of a thing stipulated for, on the ground that what is lawfully agreed to be done ought to be done, and that damages at law for breach of the contract are not a sufficient com-pensation. The Common Law has not recognized this principle; it has only given damages to a suffering party for the non-performance of an executory agreement. The (English) C.L.P. Act, 1854, however, imparted to the Common Law writ of mandamus a little more efficacy by provisions since superseded by s. 24 of the Judicature Act, 1873, now by Judicature Act, 1925, s. 36, and the (English) Mercantile Law Amendment Act, 1856, introduced a procedure for enforcing the specific delivery of goods sold, specially superseded by s. 52 of the (English) Sale of Goods Act, 1893.An award of damages may be combined with a ...


Court-baron

Court-baron, a court which, before 1926 (see COPYHOLDS), although not one of record, was incident to every manor, and could not be severed therefrom. It was ordained for the maintenance of the services and duties stipulated for by lords of manors, and for the purpose of determining actions of a personal nature, where the debt or damage was under forty shillings.This court might be held at any place within the manor, giving fifteen days' notice, including three Sundays. Of the day when the court will be held; but three or four days' notice have been deemed sufficient. It was frequently held together with the court-leet, and generally assembled but once a year.The freehold tenants alone were suitors to the Court-baron; and it was essential to the existence of the court that there should be two suitors at the least; for since freemen can only be tried by their peers or equals, should there be but one freeman, he could then have no peer or judge, and consequently he had to appeal to the co...


Distress

Distress [fr. distringo, Lat., to bind fast; districtio, Med. Lat., whence distraindre, Fr.], a taking, without legal process, of a personal chattel from the possession of a wrong-doer into the hands of a party grieved, as a pledge for the redressing an injury, the performance of a duty, or the satisfaction of a demand.This remedy may be resorted to by a landlord for recovery of rent in arrear, by a rate collector or tax collector for recovery of rates or taxes, and by justices of the peace for the recovery of fines due on summary convictions.A distress may be made of common right for the rent payable by a tenant to a landlord, technically termed 'rent-service,' and by particular reservation, or under s. 121 of the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, for rent-charges, and also for rents-seck since the (English) Landlord and Tenant Act, 1730 (4 Geo. 2, c. 28), s. 5, which extended the same remedy to rents-seck, rents of assize, and chief-rents, and thereby in effect abolished all mater...


Railway

Railway. A road owned by a private person or public company on which carriages run over iron rails; if the road is a public highway, that part of it on which the rails are laid is called a tramway. Every railway in this country (except a few private railways running through land owned by the owner of the railway) is constructed and managed (1) under a local and personal Act of Parliament; and (2) under the Companies Clauses, Lands Clauses, and Railways Clauses Consolidation Acts; and (3) under the general Acts relating to railways. The (English) Railway Act, 1921, provides for the reorganization of almost all the railways in England.Railway Companies as Carriers, The powers of railway companies as carriers are given by the 86th section of the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, and controlled by the (English) Railway and Canal Traffic Acts of 1854, 1873, and 1888. The (English) Act of 1845, s. 86, enacts that:-It shall be lawful for the company [authorized (see s. 3) by the speci...


Trade marks

Trade marks. by the Trade Marks Act, 1905 (English) (5 Edw. 7, c. 15), s. 3:-A 'mark' shall include a device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, numeral or any combination thereof.A 'trade mark' shall mean a mark used or proposed to be used upon or in connexion with goods for the purpose of indicating that they are the goods of the proprietor of such trademark by virtue of manufacture, selection, certification, dealing with, or offering for sale.A 'registrable trademark' shall mean a trade mark which is capable of registration under the pro-visions of this Act.Subject to the Trade Mark Acts, the owner of a trademark has a right to its use in connection with the goods associated with it, whether or not it is registered or registrable by him, and if that right is infringed by a sale of other goods under his mark, or a colourable imitation or otherwise so as to be calculated to deceive a purchaser that those goods are goods of his manufacture, sale or mark, the ...


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...


Common Law

Common Law [lex communis, Lat.]. 'The phrase 'common law' is used in two very different senses. It is cometimes contrasted with equity; it then denotes the law which, prior to the Judicature Act, was administered in the three ' superior ' Courts of law at Westminster, as distinct from that administered by the Court of Chancery at Lincoln's Inn. At other times it is used in contradistinction to the statute law, and then denotes the unwritten law, whether legal or equitable in its origin, which does not derive its authority from any express declaration of the will of the Legislature. This unwritten law has the same force and effect as the statute law. It depends for its authority upon the recognition given by our Law Courts to principles, customs, and rules of conduct previously existing among the people. This recognition was formerly enshrined in the memory of legal practitioners and suitors in the Courts; it is now recorded in the voluminous series of our law reports which embody the d...


Church

Church, includes any chapel or other building generally used for public Christian worship. (Christian Marriage Act, 1872, s. 3)--The Church of England is a distinct branch of Christ's Church, and is also an institution of the State (see the first clause of Magna Carta), of which the sovereign is the supreme head by Act of Parliament (1 Eliz. c. 1), but in what sense is not agreed. According to Sir Wiliam Anson, the sovereign is head of the Church, 'not for the purpose of discharging and spiritual function, but because the Church is the National Church, and as such is built into the fabric of the State' (Law and Custom of the Constitution). 'The establishment of the Churchby law,' says Lord Selborne, 'consists essentially in the incorporation of the law of the Church into that of the realm, as a branch of the general law of the realm, though limited as to the causes to which, and the persons to whom it applies; in the public recognition of its Courts and Judges, as having proper legal j...



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