Peerage - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: peeragePeerage
Peerage, the dignity of the lords, or peers of the realm. Where, on the death of a peer, doubts arise respecting the devolution of his dignity, and in all cases of long abeyance or other non-enjoyment of a peerage, the Lord Chancellor will not issue his writ of summons to a claimant without a previous investigation of his title, in order to which the claimant must present a petition to the Crown through the Home Secretary, which the Crown then refers to the Attorney-General, and in most cases the claim is subsequently referred to the Lords Committee for Privileges. For the practice and procedure in peerage claims, see Hubback on Succession, p. 84; Shrewsbury Peerage,(1857) 7 HLC 1; Palmer's Peerage Law in England. In modern practice the creation of a peerage must be shown to have taken place either by writ, or by letters patent; the latter mode of creation was introduced in the eleventh year of Ric. 2. If the claim is by writ, actually sitting in Parliament is also essential, for until...
Life-peerage
Life-peerage. Letters-patent, conferring the dignity of baron for life only, do not enable the grantee to sit and vote in the House of Lords, not even with the usual writ of summons to the House, Resolution of the Committee for Privileges, February 22, 1856. But see LORDS OF APPEAL IN ORDINARY....
A vinculo matrimonii
A vinculo matrimonii. (From the bond of wedlock). It was a total divorce obtained from the Ecclesiastical Court on some canonical impediment existing before marriage and not arising afterwards, for the marriage was declared void, as having been absolutely unlawful ab initio, and the parties were therefore separated pro salute animarum (for the safety of their souls), the issue (if any) were illegitimate, and the parties could contract another marriage. This maxim directs the construction to be put upon Acts of Parliament, against the express letter of which the Courts will not sanction any interpretation, for the meaning of the Legislature cannot be so well explained as by its own direct words, since index animi sermo (language conveys the intention of the mind), and maledicta expositio qu' corrumpit textum (an exposition which corrupts the text is bad). [4 Rep. 35; Sussex Peerage Case, (1844) 11 Cl & F 143.]This maxim directs the construction to be put upon Acts of Parliament, against...
Earl
Earl [fr. eorl, Sax.; eoryl, Erse; comes, Lat.], a title of nobility, formerly the highest in England, now the third, ranking between a marquis and a viscount, and corresponding with the French Comte and the German Graf. The title originated with the Saxons, and is the most ancient of the English peerage. William the Conqueror first made it hereditary. An earl has an hereditary seat in the House of Lords. In official instruments he is called by the sovereign 'trusty and well-beloved cousin,' an appellation as ancient as the reign of Henry IV., who was, as a fact, related to the greater part of the nobles (see Shakespeare's Henry IV., Second Part, Act 2, sc. 2), and took this public notice of it as a means of popularity.A title of nobility, formerly the highest in England but now the third highest ranking between marquis and a viscount, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 525.Earl, is the third degree of peerage in order of precedence, but the first in antiquity. (Cruise on Dignities (...
Peeress
Peeress. Women may acquire peerages by creation (as the Baroness Burdett Coutts), descent (as where a peerage goes in the female as well as in the male line, to which line it is usually confined), or marriage, but they have never had the legislative power, and it was decided in Viscountess Rhondda's Claim, (1922) 2 AC 339, that a peeress of the United Kingdom in her own right is not entitled to receive a writ of summons to Parliament by virtue of, the (English) Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5, c. 71). 20 Hen. 6, c. 9, declares that peeresses, either in their own right or by marriage, shall be tried before the same judicature as peers of the realm....
Countess
The wife of an earl in the British peerage or of a count in the Continental nobility also a lady possessed of the same dignity in her own right See the Note under Count...
Peerage
The rank or dignity of a peer...
Peerdom
Peerage also a lordship...
Abeyance, or Abbayance
Abeyance, or Abbayance [fr. abayer, Fr., to expect, to look at anything with open mouth], in expectation, remembrance, and contemplation of law. The word abeyance has been compared to what the civilians call hereditas jacens; for, as the civilians say land and goods jacent, so the common lawyers say that things in a similar condition are in abeyance, as the logicians term it in posse or in understanding. Thus in the case of a parson, who has an estate for life only, the fee simple of his glebe is in abeyance; and when the parsonage is void, the freehold, until a successor be appointed, is in abeyance, 2. Bl. Com. 107. Commonly used as meaning having no present owner, e.g., a peerage is said to be 'in abeyance' when there is no holder thereof....
Access
Access, approach, or the means of approaching. The presumption of a child's legitimacy is rebutted, if it be shown by strong, distinct, satisfactory, and conclusive evidence, see Atchley v. Sprigg, (1864) 33 LJ Ch 345, that the husband-whether before or after marriage-had not access to his wife within such a period of time before the birth, as admits of his having been the father. 'If a husband have access, although others, at the same time, are carrying on a criminal intimacy with his wife, a child born under such circumstances is still legitimate': per Alderson, J., in Cope v. Cope, (1833) 5 C&P 604. Neither husband nor wife is admissible as a witness to prove non-access, Goodright v. Moss, (1777) 2 Cowp p. 594. See also Poulett Peerage Case, 1903 AC 395, and Russell v. Russell, 1924 AC 687 see PATERNITY.An owner of land adjoining a highway has a right of access to it where the land adjoins for any kind of traffic required for the reasonable enjoyment of his property, Lyon v. Fishmon...
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