A controversy is an actual dispute, which refers to one of the underlying requirements to obtain jurisdiction in federal court. U.S Constitution, Article III, section 2, in setting out the powers of the Federal judiciary, grants federal...
legal education and writing
corpus delicti
Corpus delicti is a common law Latin phrase that translates to “body of the crime.” The phrase generally refers to the principle that no one should be convicted of a crime without sufficient evidence that the crime actually occurred. The rule...
criminal case
A criminal case is a type of court proceeding in which a prosecutor employed by the federal, state, or local government charges a person with the commission of a crime. Criminal cases generally begin after the person is arrested and informed...
criminal procedure
Overview:
Criminal procedure deals with the set of rules governing the series of proceedings through which the government enforces substantive criminal law. Municipalities, states, and the federal government each have their own criminal...
critical legal theory
Overview
Critical legal studies (CLS) is a theory which states that the law is necessarily intertwined with social issues, particularly stating that the law has inherent social biases. Proponents of CLS believe that the law supports the...
cy pres: charitable trusts
Cy pres is a legal doctrine that means "as near as possible.”
When a person creates a charitable trust, the express charitable purpose of the trust may become impossible to fulfill. Rather than terminating the trust, the...
de facto law
De Facto is a legal term meaning "in fact" or "in reality", which is used to qualify many legal concepts, even when the formal legal requirements have not been met. De facto law refers to a legal practice or formality that is not specifically...
dead man's statute
A dead man's statute states that in a civil action, a party with an interest in the litigation may not testify against a dead party about communications with the dead party. In Larkin v. Metz, 398 Pa.Super. 235, the court noted that the “...
deceit
Deceit is most commonly seen as the key element of the tort of fraud. Though primarily a common law concept, deceit is sometimes defined by states in either criminal or civil statutes. For example:
In New Jersey, "The term 'deceive'...decision
In the legal context, a decision is a judicial determination of parties’ rights and obligations reached by a court based on facts and law. A decision can mean either the act of delivering a court’s order or the text of the court’s opinion...