Glossary

A self-contained legal system (eg the jurisdiction of England and Wales) or the set of laws that are available to a particular court (the jurisdiction of the Crown Court) or in a particular situation (the admiralty jurisdiction). See also: arbitration, conflicts of laws, legal system.… Continue reading

A jury is a selected number of individuals (jurors) who have sworn (ie taken a solemn oath) to reach a fair decision on matters of fact in a court. In England and Wales, juries are required to reach a verdict on the evidence in criminal trials for indictable offences, tried in the Crown Court, and… Continue reading

An adult citizen, who need not be legally trained, who acts as a judge in a Magistrates’ Court. Justices usually sit in a bench of three, and are advised on the law by a Justices’ Clerk.… Continue reading

A legally qualified person employed in a Magistrates’ Court to advise lay Justices about points of law and procedure.… Continue reading

A law report is a record of a judicial decision on a point of law which sets a precedent. Law reports fall into two broad types: (a) full text law reports, which incorporate the full judgment(s) given by the court, together with a summary of the case known as the headnote and a number of… Continue reading

The laws, courts, judiciary and lawyers of a particular nation or one or more states in a federation, commonwealth, community or union of states.… Continue reading

In public or administrative law, a legitimate expectation is a clear, unambiguous and unqualified assurance, understood by those to whom it is given, that a particular course of action will be taken or a particular procedure will be followed. If a failure to do so would be unfair or an abuse of power, it may… Continue reading

A letter of credit (LC) is a financial instrument (document), issued by one bank and payable by another, which guarantees the seller of goods payment if certain terms and conditions are met. LCs are commonly used to facilitate international trade. Standard terms and procedures have been developed by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) known as… Continue reading

Latin for a case (lis) awaiting determination, or pending law suit. It may be used as an notice or warning that title to an asset, eg land, is subject to an unresolved dispute. The expression is also shorthand for the rule (in conflicts of laws cases) that the first party in time to issue proceedings… Continue reading

Now known as a freezing injunction, a pre-trial court order preventing the disposal by a party of assets forming part of the subject matter of a case pending trial. As Sir Robert Megarry V-C explained in Barclay-Johnson v Yuill [1980] 1 WLR 1259 at 1262: “The Mareva jurisdiction takes its name from Mareva Compania Naviera… Continue reading