# Legal doctrines and principles list *NOTE: I am not a lawyer, just someone who is making sense of the law for people who don't understand it. Do not use this as legal advice.* Law is defined by many precedents, mostly through previous cases that created rulings. These cases create a framework of philosophical thought that forms a legal maxim over time. Most attorneys tend to learn these maxims and doctrines in law [school](education.md), thereby reinforcing its [culture](people-culture.md). Even in a fledgling nation, many lawyers will consult *other* nations that wrestled with the same issues instead of starting from scratch. [Human nature](humanity.md) is relatively unchanging, so [laws](people-rules.md) seem to always have *some* overlap, even across vastly different [cultures](people-culture.md). It is worth indicating, however, that some of these doctrines are actually *[unethical](morality.md)* in many situations. It's also worth indicating that there are many situations where opposing doctrines overlap, meaning precedent makes way for the judge's personal opinion. ## Broad Maxims Boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem - A good judge will enlarge his jurisdiction (i.e., remedial non-binding authority) Furiosis nulla voluntas est - A madman has no will Furiosis furore suo puiner - A madman is best punished by his madness Furious absentis loco est - A madman is like someone absent Actio personalis moritur cum persona - A personal right of action dies with the person Pacta sunt servanda - Agreements must be kept Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea - An act does not make one guilty unless it is accompanied by a guilty mind Actus me invito factus non est mens actus - An act done by me against my will is not my act Pacta sunt servanda - Agreements must be kept Volenti non fit injuria - Damage suffered by consent gives no cause of action Lex non a rege est violanda - Even the king must not violate the law Everything which is not forbidden is allowed - More specific times: Everything which is not allowed is forbidden Falsus in uno falsus in omnibus - False in one thing, false in everything Audi alteram partem - Hear the other side Ignorantia facit doth excusat, Ignorance juris non-excusat - Ignorance of fact is an excuse, but ignorance of the law is no excuse Fraus est celare fraudem - It is a fraud to conceal a fraud Interest reipublicae ut sit finis litium - It is in the republic's interest that there be an end to litigation Justice delayed is justice denied Justitia nemini neganda est - Justice must be denied to nobody Necessitas non habet legem - Necessity knows no law Nemo dat quod non habet - Nobody can give what they don't have Nemo debet locupletari ex aliena jactura - Nobody should grow rich from another's loss Nullum crimen sine lege, nulla poena sine lege - No crime without written law, no punishment without written law Nemo moriturus praesumitur mentire - No dying person presumes they can lie (implies dying declarations have weight) Nemo iudex in causa/propria sua - No one is the judge in their cause Nemo Potest esse tenens et dominus - No person of a property can be both tenant and landlord Nemo plus luris ad allum transferre potest quam ipse habet - One cannot transfer to another more rights than they have Qui facit per alium facit per se - One who acts through another does the action themself Qui peccat ebrius luat sobrius - One who does wrong while drunk must be punished while sober Qui sentit commodum, sentire debet et onus - One who receives the advantage must also bear the burden Res inter alios acta, aliis nec nocet nec prodest - Something done between some can't harm or benefit others Actori incumbit onus probandi - The burden of proof is on the plaintiff Potior est conditio possidentis - The condition of the possessor is better Rex non protest peccare - The king can do no wrong Salus populi est suprema lex - The people's welfare is the supreme law De minimis non curat lex - The law does not govern unimportant things Communis hostis omnium - They are common enemies of all Violenti non fit injuria - To a willing person, injury is not done Ubi jus ibi remedium - Where there is a right, there is a remedy ## General law doctrines Absolute liability (tort and criminal law) - an entity is liable for an action irrespective of their intent, views, or feelings Actio libera in causa (civil and common law) - Latin for "action free in its cause", even if someone wasn't free to choose the course of action that violated a law or contract, they can still be held responsible if they voluntarily created a condition ("cause") for the offending action Actionable per se - The very act is punishable, and no proof of damage is required Ademption by satisfaction - aka "satisfaction of legacies", when someone gives part of their inheritance to their trustee before they die, it's considered an advance payment Administration of justice - every government gives its judges authority under several possible systems: - Civil law - going back to Roman law, a code passed by a legislature that judges interpret - Common law - the judges' decisions determine the source of the laws - Religious law - a religious system or document is the legal source, typically for a [monotheistic](religion-answers.md) religion - A hybrid combination of the above Alternative liability - even when one defendant may be at fault, the plaintiff can shift the burden of proving causation of their injury to multiple defendants Attribution - aka "Imputation", a broad family of legal doctrines where a defendant is liable who didn't actually commit a criminal act (e.g., attempt/conspiracy to commit a crime, even if it wasn't performed) - Carltona doctrine (UK law) - the acts of government department officials are the same as the actions of the minister in charge of that department - Command responsibility - aka "Yamashita standard", "Medina standard" or "Superior responsibility", a commanding officer (military) or superior officer (civil) is legally responsible for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by their subordinates - Respondeat superior (common and civil law) - Latin for "let the master answer", aka "vicarious liability" or "master-servant rule", where employers/guardians/owners are responsible for the decided acts of their subordinates/dependents/charges - Enterprise liability - individual entities like legally unrelated corporations or people can be held jointly liable for an action because of being part of a shared enterprise Beneficium inventarii - literally "benefit of the inventory", limits liability of heirs when an estate becomes [insolvent](money-2_debt.md) - Doctrine of exoneration of liens (common law) - a debt of a property (i.e., a mortgage) is paid with funds from the originating estate and not from the property itself Bona fide purchaser (common and property law) - Someone who buys property without knowing that someone else different from the seller had rightful ownership of it is entitled to receive it Capitis diminutio - literally "diminished capacity", removing all or part of a person's former status and legal capacity Chances doctrine - evidence is permitted to show that it is unlikely a defendant would be repeatedly, innocently involved in similar suspicious circumstances Clean hands doctrine - aka "unclean hands doctrine" or "dirty hands doctrine", a plaintiff is not entitled to obtain an equitable remedy if the defendant has proof they were acting unethically or in bad faith (e.g., [monopolizing](mgmt-badsystems.md)) Commanding precedent - when the facts and issues of a previous case's ruling are nearly the same, the previous ruling takes precedence Contra principia negantem non est disputandum - Latin for "against one who denies the principles, there can be no debate", to debate reasonably about a disagreement there must be agreement about the principles or facts that judge the arguments Desuetude - a law that's been valid but unenforced for a long time (e.g., obsolete) doesn't have much weight in a ruling Eminent domain - aka "land acquisition", "compulsory purchase/acquisition", "resumption", or "expropriation", a government is entitled to take private property for public use Equity - a broad concept developed within the English Court of Chancery meant to provide a remedy where certain situations make the law too inflexible to create a fair resolution to a case (i.e., courts of equity allow for one-off weird situations) Erga omnes - Latin for "towards all/everyone", an enforceable right or obligation owed toward everything else Ex post facto law - Latin for "out of the aftermath", a law will retroactively change the legal consequences or status of actions that were committed before that law came into existence Floodgates principle - in certain situations, if a judge were to rule on claims for damages, it would open metaphorical "floodgates" to large numbers of claims and lawsuits Furiosi nulla voluntas est - Latin for "a madman cannot voluntarily choose", mentally impaired people cannot validly sign a will, contract, or form a frame of mind necessary to commit a crime. Homestead principle - when something is unowned, someone gains ownership of it by performing an act of original appropriation In loco parentis - Latin for "in place of a parent", a person or organization is sometimes legally responsible to take on some functions and responsibilities of a parent In pari delicto - Latin for "in equal fault", when both parties in a civil action are equally at fault or when the plaintiff has greater culpability, the court will not get involved in resolving one side's claim over the other - Wagoner doctrine - a claim of defrauding a willing corporation by a third party accrues to the creditors, and not to the guilty corporation Interpretation rules - there are several ways to interpret laws in a court: - Plain meaning rule - the statutes should be taken word-for-word and interpreted according to the original meaning of the language, the mechanism for textualism (that the original meaning of the law supersedes) and some parts of originalism (that the original understanding of the law as it was framed applies) - Mischief rule - the statutes should not only consider the exact wording of a rule, but also the legislators' intentions for enacting it to determine if a rule applies - Golden rule - the statute as a textual whole provides context on how a given provision should be interpreted when resolving textual difficulties, can be a "narrow approach" (where the interpretation is *really* scoped down to specifics) or a "broad approach" (where it simply avoids any absurd results of precise and [impractical](gainedin.site/idiot/) law) Jurisprudence constante - French for "stable jurisprudence", a series of previous decisions that applied a previous legal principle or rule is highly persuasive but *not* controlling in subsequent cases dealing with similar or identical legal issues Laches - French for "latches", if a plaintiff has "slept on its rights" and there is an unreasonable delay to change circumstances to make it harder for the plaintiff to prove their case, it's no longer a just resolution to grant the plaintiff's claim - Acquiescence - when a person knowingly stands by without raising objection to the infringement of their rights while someone else infringed on those rights unknowingly and without premeditated malice, that person may lose the right to take legal action against the infringer - Nullum tempus - Latin for "no time runs", short for "nullum tempus occurrit regi" or nullum tempus occurrit reipublicae" (no time runs against the king/republic), the government can proceed with actions that would normally be barred by laches, removes the complete legal inpenetrability of "squatters' rights" Last antecedent rule - if there's a comma, it dramatically separates concepts in the text, one of the pettiest law disputes ever Legal certainty - a law must allow people to make decisions to regulate themselves within it Legal rights doctrine - some rights are granted by governments, contrasts with natural rights doctrine Land tenure doctrine - land owned by an individual is possessed by someone who "holds" the land due to an agreement (i.e., feudalism) Male captus, bene detentus - Latin for "wrongfully captured, properly detained", a person may have been wrongfully or unfairly arrested, but it won't affect whether that person's trial can be fair Mater semper certa est - Latin for "the mother is always certain", the mother of the child is conclusively established, from the moment of birth, by the mother's role in the birth (somewhat more complicated with in vitro fertilization) - Pater semper incertus est - Latin for "the father is always uncertain", the father of the child is never clearly defined - Pater est, quem nuptiae demonstrant - Latin for "the father is he to whom marriage points", being married can clarify who a child's father is (though [DNA](science-life-biochem.md) testing is now often more effective) Merger doctrine - one of several doctrines depending on the domain: - Merger doctrine (civil law) - when litigants agree to a settlement, then seek it incorporated into a court order, that court order extinguishes the settlement and the authority of the court supervises behavior of both parties - Merger doctrine (copyright law) - a clarification to idea-expression distinction where sometimes both the idea and expression are considered merged, meaning the expression can't be protected (prevents double jeopardy) - Merger doctrine (criminal law) - lesser included offenses tend to merge into the greater offense - Merger doctrine (family law) - a woman's legal identity merges with her husbands, meaning she couldn't sue or testify against him (largely outdated) - Merger doctrine (property law) - the contract for conveying proerty merges into the deed of conveyance, so any contractual guarantees not made in the deed are extinguished when the deed is conveyed - Merger doctrine (trust law) - when the same person is both the sole trustee and sole beneficiary of a trust, the legal and equitable title are fused, and the trust is sometimes deemed to have terminated Natural rights doctrine - some rights are bestowed directly by God, contrasts with legal rights doctrine Nolle prosequi - Latin for "to be unwilling to pursue", prosecutors can end a criminal case before trial or before a rendered verdict Non bis in idem - Latin for "not twice in the same thing", aka "nemo bis punitur eodem delicto (nobody can be twice punished for the same offense), a Roman law where no legal action can be instituted twice for the same cause of action Non-aggression principle - *any* act of aggression is inherently wrong Novus actus interveniens - Latin for "new intervening act", aka "breaking the chain", in a cause-and-effect situation, an independent event which breaks the chain of events between the defendant and the imputed action Nulla poena sine culpa - Latin for "no punishment without fault", someone cannot be punished for something they are not guilty of Onus probandi - Latin for "burden of proof", one side of a dispute is typically presumed to be correct and the other side (typically the prosecutor/claimant) must provide evidence against the defendant Open court principle - court proceedings must be open and accessible to the public, especially the media Open justice - judicial proceedings must be conducted transparently and with the oversight and scrutiny of the people Public policy doctrine - there are certain principles underneath all societies, though their implementation may vary: - Ignorantia juris non excusat - Latin for "ignorance of the law is not an excuse", frames the legal fiction of "constructive notice" - Sanctity of life - life has enough inherent value that there is no clear justification to end a life except when in mortal self-defense - Evasion doctrine - people and entities can't evade the obligations and liabilities attached to them - Parens patriae - Latin for "parent of the nation", the state can intervene against an abusive or negligent parent, guardian or caretaker - Favor matrimonii - Latin for "preferred marriage", a marriage should be considered valid unless specific situations indicate otherwise Proportionality - the scope of repayment/restitution/punishment should fit the damages/crime Reasonable person - aka "reasonable man" or "man on the Clapham omnibus", a hypothetical reasonable person who possesses a common set of facts and makes conclusions about what they observe, used for interpreting how a case should be ruled when the facts are incomplete to make a conclusion Res judicata (civil and common law) - a case that delivers a final judgment can't be subject to appeal any longer and that judgment continues to hold weight, similar to double jeopardy and non bis in idem Rule according to higher law - a government can only enforce a law if it conforms with universal principles of fairness, morality, and justice Rule against perpetuities - people who own legal instruments (e.g., trust, will) cannot exert control over private property for a long time beyond the lives of people living when the instrument was created Slippery slope - making a ruling in a small matter can profoundly affect a larger one later Statute of limitations - there is a set amount of time after an event happens where a case can be filed - Tolling - the period of time for a statute of limitations can be paused for various specific reasons Strict liability - a person is still legally responsible for the consequences flowing from an activity, irrespective of fault or criminal intent Substantial certainty - even if someone didn't intend a result, they are still responsible for it if they knew it was a reasonable likelihood Tender years doctrine - mothers should have custody of children under ~4 years old Undue influence - an action can be set aside for proceedings if that person was being extremely influenced/coerced by someone else Year and a day rule - a person's death can't be attributed to an action that was more than a year and a day ago ### UN Best interests - aka "best interests of the child", a child right principle that indicates that the best interests of a child should be the primary consideration in a ruling ### USA Aggregate effects doctrine - aka "substantial effects doctrine" or "cumulative effects doctrine", interstate commerce regulations can affect *any* action only if it's combined with other legal actions Ecclesiastical abstention doctrine - legal systems can't act on behalf of or against protected religious expression Intracorporate conspiracy doctrine - members of a corporation can't be held to have conspired among themselves, since the corporation is a single actor for the purposes of law, which means a conspiracy can include 1 actor Undue hardship - specific circumstances can make someone exempt from particular responsibilities Warranty tolling - in California, product warranties must sometimes be paused for the advantage of the purchaser Willful blindness - if someone tries to avoid criminal liability by intentionally keeping themselves unaware of facts, they still know what they're doing ### Canada Equal authenticity rule - both versions of a bilingual law (English and French) are equally authoritative Wahkohtowin - Cree for "kinship", every interaction has a social impact, typically represented by various circles of influence ### China Spring and Autumn Courts - judges determine their convictions based on their ideas of righteousness from the Spring and Autumn Annals (2,500-year-old legal documents that span a 350-year timespan further back) ## Various Legal Domains [Criminal doctrines](legal-doctrines-criminal.md) [Civil doctrines](legal-doctrines-civil.md) [Other domains](legal-doctrines-misc.md) [Multi-entity](legal-doctrines-multi.md) ## Largely Obsolete Charitable immunity - a charitable organization is not liable under tort law (nullified in mid-20th century) Discovery doctrine - a European nation which discovers previously unknown territory to Europeans gives the discovering nation title to that territory against all other European nations, which can be perfected by possession (everything has been discovered now) Indivisibility doctrine - in copyright law, only an owner can assign a copyright, and an asignee to those rights was a "mere licensee" who couldn't assign further rights (eliminated in Copyright Act of 1976, and asignees can now file suit against infringers) Jacitation (UK and Irish law) - aka "jacitation of marriage", when a person falsely states they're married to someone else, that person can put a restraining order on them to not say it again (abolished by 1996) Fairness doctrine (USA's FCC communications law) - the holders of broadcast license must provide both sides of a controversial issue of public importance that fairly reflects both viewpoints (removed from federal register in 2011) Gravi de pugna - God will make the morally superior side win in a war (Catholic influence is no longer prevalent in most jurisprudence) Stadtluft macht frei - German for "urban air makes you free", in the 11th century a serf could not be reclaimed by his employer after a year and a day, and was therefore bound to the city and in some ways outside the feudal system