Vocabulary for a Law Student

Two that come from French and are set as legal terms although they are not. Detenue, a person held in detention, particularly under a preventive detention law, and used in Indian practice as the name for the person whose release is sought. Faux pas, a blunder in manners or conduct, which is not a legal term at all and is set because the paper's list mixes legal Latin with general foreign phrases. Infra dig, short for infra dignitatem, meaning beneath one's dignity, belongs in the same group.

From French, through the Norman lawyers. Plaintiff, defendant, attorney, tort, lien, estoppel, laches, chattel, demurrer, voir dire, oyez. The vocabulary of English law is Norman French laid on Anglo-Saxon, which is why so many legal phrases come in pairs of near-synonyms: goods and chattels, will and testament, aid and abet, breaking and entering.

The terms the University has actually set

This list is not invented. It is every term that appears in the instruction "Give the meanings of any four of the following legal terms" in the papers we hold, with the paper it came from.

What the list tells you. The examiner mixes strict legal Latin with phrases that are merely foreign, and expects a one-line meaning rather than an essay. Four marks for four terms means one mark each, so write one clear sentence and move on.

Layer three: ordinary words with a legal meaning

The most dangerous group, because a student thinks the word is already known.

The last row is a favourite examination point. "Damage" is what was suffered; "damages" is what is paid for it. A candidate who writes "the court awarded damage" has made a legal error and a grammatical one at once.

Layer four: the machinery

Learn these and you can work out a word you have never seen, which is what the examination is really testing.

Prefixes.

Suffixes that make legal nouns.

The -or and -ee pair is the single most useful thing in this chapter. Once you know that the -or gives and the -ee receives, you never confuse mortgagor with mortgagee again, and the same rule explains appellant and respondent, plaintiff and defendant, drawer and drawee.

One-word substitution

A traditional examination item, and a genuine aid to precis writing.

Synonyms and antonyms worth having

Because a paper that sets an essay rewards a candidate who does not use the same word four times.

A caution on "disinterested". It means impartial, without a personal stake, and it is not a synonym for "uninterested", which means bored. Judges are disinterested; a bad student is uninterested.

How to build vocabulary, practically

Read with a pencil and a page at the back of the notebook. Word, meaning, and the sentence you met it in. The sentence is what makes it stick.

Learn words in families rather than singly. Negligence, negligent, negligently, negligible. Contract, contractual, contracting party, contractor.

Use a new word within a day. A word used once is remembered; a word looked up is forgotten.

Read judgments in this course, not only textbooks. The set texts of Modules I to III are chosen partly for this: a student who has followed the trial in Pickwick or the argument in Pudd'nhead Wilson has met the vocabulary of a trial in a form that stays in the mind.

And do not use a long word where a short one will do. The best legal writing in English is plain. "Before" is better than "prior to"; "about" is better than "with reference to"; "because" is better than "for the reason that". A large vocabulary is for understanding what you read, and for choosing exactly the right word, not for decorating what you write.

A worked answer

Question type. "Give one word for each of the following", or "Use the following words in sentences of your own".

For one-word substitution, the table above is the answer, and the discipline is to give exactly one word.

For "use in a sentence", the sentence must show that you know the meaning. "He was acquitted" proves nothing; "The court acquitted him because the prosecution failed to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt" proves that you know what acquittal is. The rule: a sentence that would work equally well with a different word has not earned the mark.

Four models.

Bona fide. The purchaser was held to be a bona fide transferee for value, having bought without notice of the earlier mortgage.

Ex parte. As the defendant did not appear despite service of summons, the suit proceeded ex parte and was decreed.

Prima facie. The court held that the complaint disclosed a prima facie case and directed that process be issued.

Ultra vires. The rule was struck down as ultra vires the Act, since the rule-making power did not extend to imposing a penalty.

Quick revision

Four layers: the words of the set texts, legal Latin and French, ordinary words with a special legal sense, and the machinery of prefixes and suffixes.

From the texts: bond, forfeit, surety, usury, damages, speculation, perjury, impeachment, arbitration, award, inadvertence, vagrancy, circumstantial evidence, motive, verdict.

The Latin most used: ab initio, bona fide, ex parte, mens rea, actus reus, obiter dictum, ratio decidendi, prima facie, res judicata, sub judice, suo motu, ultra vires, locus standi, habeas corpus.

The terms MU actually sets, which are not the same list: ex gratia, ad hoc, ipso jure, pendente lite, centum, ut supra, modus, jus, infra dig, detenue, faux pas, caveat emptor, status quo, salus populi suprema lex.

The traps: consideration, construction, execute, serve, notice, assault, battery, malice, and damage against damages.

The -or gives and the -ee receives: lessor and lessee, mortgagor and mortgagee, promisor and promisee.

Disinterested means impartial; uninterested means bored.

Use plain words in your own writing: before, about, because.

Test yourself

1. Distinguish "damage" from "damages". Damage is the harm or loss suffered; damages is the sum of money awarded as compensation for it. A court awards damages for the damage caused, and writing that a court awarded "damage" is both a grammatical and a legal error.

2. What is the difference between ratio decidendi and obiter dictum? The ratio decidendi is the reason for the decision, the principle on which the case was decided, and it is binding on lower courts. An obiter dictum is a remark made by the way, not necessary to the decision, and it is persuasive only.

3. Explain the -or and -ee suffixes with three pairs. The -or or -er ending names the person who does or gives, and the -ee ending names the person to whom it is done or given: lessor and lessee, mortgagor and mortgagee, promisor and promisee. The same relation explains transferor and transferee and drawer and drawee.

4. Give the meaning of: ex gratia, pendente lite, ad hoc, caveat emptor, infra dig. Ex gratia, paid as a favour and not in acknowledgment of any legal liability. Pendente lite, during the pendency of the suit. Ad hoc, arranged for this particular purpose only. Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. Infra dig, short for infra dignitatem, beneath one's dignity. Each is worth one mark, so one sentence each is the right length.

5. Give one word for: a person who dies without making a will; a statement made on oath; speaking evil of another in writing. Intestate; affidavit; libel. Note that the spoken form of the same wrong is slander, and that the distinction between the two is a matter of law and not merely of vocabulary.

6. What is wrong with using "disinterested" to mean "not interested"? Disinterested means impartial, having no personal stake in the outcome, which is a quality required of a judge or an arbitrator. The word for lacking interest is "uninterested", and confusing the two reverses a compliment into a criticism.