M: Ancient common law: the symbol branded on the thumb of persons convicted of manslaughter. | Legal Definition of M
M'Naghten Rules: A defence to criminal law liability developed in England; if, at the time of the offence, the accused had a disease of the mind such that he was unable to know that his act was wrong. | Legal Definition of M'Naghten Rules
Machine Gun: A firearm which can shoot more than one shot without having to be reloaded and by single function of the trigger. | Legal Definition of Machine Gun
Mailbox Rule: A contract law exception that makes a mailed acceptance of an offer valid as of posting. | Legal Definition of Mailbox Rule
Maill: Scots law: rent. | Legal Definition of Maill
Mainprize: The taking of a person into friendly custody. | Legal Definition of Mainprize
Maintenance: The obligation of one person to contribute, in part or in whole, to the cost of living of another person. | Legal Definition of Maintenance
Mala Fides: Latin: bad faith. | Legal Definition of Mala Fides
Maladministration: Abuse of power by public officers. | Legal Definition of Maladministration
Malfeasance: Doing something which is illegal. | Legal Definition of Malfeasance
Malice: Spite or ill-will. | Legal Definition of Malice
Malicious Prosecution: An intentional tort which redresses losses flowing from an unjustified prosecution. | Legal Definition of Malicious Prosecution
Mandamus: A writ which commands an individual, organization (eg. government), administrative tribunal or court to perform a certain action, usually to correct a prior illegal action or a failure to act in the first place. | Legal Definition of Mandamus
Mandate Rule: An inferior court has no power or authority to deviate from the mandate issued by an appellate court. | Legal Definition of Mandate Rule
Mania: An abnormally elevated mood state. | Legal Definition of Mania
Manifest Abuse of Discretion: An American standard of judicial review: discretion exercised improvidently or thoughtlessly and without due consideration. | Legal Definition of Manifest Abuse of Discretion
Manslaughter: Unlawful killing of a human being without malice or deliberation. | Legal Definition of Manslaughter
Mansuetae Naturae: Latin: animals which are now generally domestic, presumed gentle and readily tamed, such as dogs, cats, cows and horses. | Legal Definition of Mansuetae Naturae
Manumission: The act of freeing a slave. | Legal Definition of Manumission
Mareva Injunction: A temporary injunction that freezes the assets of a party pending further order or final resolution by the Court. | Legal Definition of Mareva Injunction
Marital Property: Property acquired by either of two spouses while they are married together. | Legal Definition of Marital Property
Maritime Law: A specialized body of law particular to transportation by water. | Legal Definition of Maritime Law
Maritime Lien: A lien which attaches to a ship and its cargo. | Legal Definition of Maritime Lien
MARPOL 73/78: Acronym for the international treaty for the prevention of pollution from ships, 1973, as modified in 1978. | Legal Definition of MARPOL 73/78
Marriage: The voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. | Legal Definition of Marriage
Marriage Agreement: An agreement between two persons in anticipation of or during the marriage, and in regards to rights and responsibilities as they may flow from the relationship. | Legal Definition of Marriage Agreement
Marriage Brokerage Contract: A contract of introduction to unwed persons, payment due and payable upon marriage. | Legal Definition of Marriage Brokerage Contract
Marriage Contract: A contract between prospective husband and wife, or during the marriage, and which settles in whole or in part, their respective rights and obligations as regards the marriage. | Legal Definition of Marriage Contract
Marriage of Convenience: A marriage entered into not for love and mutual affection but in order to facilitate immigration. | Legal Definition of Marriage of Convenience
Marshalling: If a creditor has access to two sources of payment, he shall take his payment out of that fund upon which another creditor has no access or lien. | Legal Definition of Marshalling
Martial Law: The suspension of regular government and habeas corpus or the reliance of military law enforcement. | Legal Definition of Martial Law
Mary Carter Agreement: A partial settlement to litigation where some defendants settle by accepting a term of which is a loan by the settling defendant to the plaintiff, to be repaid by any monies recovered from the remaining defendant(s). | Legal Definition of Mary Carter Agreement
Massachusetts Trust: A unique way to organize a business where the property is bought by, or transferred to, a trustee (such as a trust company) and the trustee issues trust units, which the investors, or their designates, hold as beneficiaries. | Legal Definition of Massachusetts Trust
Master: A partly-empowered superior-level court judge, used mostly for interlocutory and procedural civil hearings. | Legal Definition of Master
Material Reciprocity: A format of international agreements wherein a host state agrees to extend to foreign nationals the same legal rights that the foreign government extends to its own citizens inside its state. | Legal Definition of Material Reciprocity
Matrimonial: Of or relating to the state of being married; of marriage. | Legal Definition of Matrimonial
Matrimonial Asset: An asset owned by one or both of two persons who are married to one another which, upon the application of one of the spouses to a court, is subject to division between them. | Legal Definition of Matrimonial Asset
Matrimonial Debt: A debt contracted during a marriage and for which both spouses are equally liable, regardless of who contracted the debt or who is directly liable for it. | Legal Definition of Matrimonial Debt
Matrimonial Property: Property owned by one or both of two persons who are married to one another which, upon the application of one of the spouses to a court, is subject to division between them. | Legal Definition of Matrimonial Property
Matrimony: The legal state of being married. | Legal Definition of Matrimony
Mayhem: Violently depriving another person of a body part to render less effective that person's defence of self. | Legal Definition of Mayhem
McDonnell Douglas Framework: A preliminary legal requirement to proving employment discrimination: that the adverse employment decision which is complains of was more likely than not motivated by discrimination. | Legal Definition of McDonnell Douglas Framework
MCMI - Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory: A test to assess specific personality characteristics including emotional factors. | Legal Definition of MCMI - Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory
McMorris Evidence: Evidence of past violence by a victim of crime. | Legal Definition of McMorris Evidence
Means and Manner: The result and performance detail(s) of work. | Legal Definition of Means and Manner
Mechanic's Lien: A statutory charge on real property arising from labor or material supplied to improve upon it. | Legal Definition of Mechanic's Lien
Med-Arb: A form of arbitration in which the arbitrators starts as a mediator but in the event of a failure of mediation, the arbitrator imposes a binding decision. | Legal Definition of Med-Arb
Mediation: A neutral facilitator who assists the parties to a dispute in communicating and negotiating a settlement. | Legal Definition of Mediation
Medical Expert: A witness tendered to offer opinion evidence within the confines of his or her area of medical expertise. | Legal Definition of Medical Expert
Medical Malpractice: Negligence of a health care professional in the diagnosis, care, and treatment of a patient. | Legal Definition of Medical Malpractice
Meeting: The coming together for the transaction of a lawful object of two or more persons. | Legal Definition of Meeting
Meeting of the Minds: The fact of contracting parties arresting their thoughts on a common set of fundamental terms. | Legal Definition of Meeting of the Minds
Melton's Case: A mid-1500s English case, never brought to Court because the king and his Parliament defeated the otherwise meritorious claim by retroactive statute. | Legal Definition of Melton's Case
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): A document which generally is not intended to be legally binding but, if meeting the other criteria, can be, in law, a contract. | Legal Definition of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
Mens Rea: Latin for guilty mind; guilty knowledge or intention to commit a prohibited act. | Legal Definition of Mens Rea
Mental Cruelty: Wanton, malicious or unnecessary infliction of pain or suffering upon the feelings or emotions of another. | Legal Definition of Mental Cruelty
Mental Disorder: A psychiatric disorder; a clinically significant disease, illness or disability of the mind. | Legal Definition of Mental Disorder
Mentally Ill: A person who is incapable of managing his person or his affairs. | Legal Definition of Mentally Ill
Mentally Retarded: Subnormal general intellectual functioning which originates during the developmental period and is associated with impairment of learning and social adjustment or maturation. | Legal Definition of Mentally Retarded
Mercantile Law: The law as it relates to merchants and commerce; commercial law. | Legal Definition of Mercantile Law
Merchant: A person engaged in the making, buying or selling of goods or services. | Legal Definition of Merchant
Merchantable Quality: A product which is undamaged and usable and of sufficient quality to merit purchase at the requested price by a reasonable buyer. | Legal Definition of Merchantable Quality
Merger: The absorption of one corporation by another. | Legal Definition of Merger
Mesne Profits: Profits from land while it has been improperly held. | Legal Definition of Mesne Profits
Metis: A term of Canadian aboriginal law referring to an individual with mixed white and Indian blood. | Legal Definition of Metis
Middle Temple: One of four Inns of the Court, self-regulating associations of barristers in England and Wales. | Legal Definition of Middle Temple
Minimum Wage: The lowest allowable rate of pay as established by statute. | Legal Definition of Minimum Wage
Minor: A young person not yet of the age of majority. | Legal Definition of Minor
Minutes: The official written record of a meeting. | Legal Definition of Minutes
Minutes of Settlement: A formal record of a contract which settles one or more live issues before a Court. | Legal Definition of Minutes of Settlement
Miranda Warning: A requirement that police officers, in the U.S.A., before any questioning is so begun, warn suspects upon arrest that they have the right to remain silent, that any statement that they make could be used against them in a court of law, that they have the right to contact a lawyer and that if they cannot afford a lawyer, that one will be provided. | Legal Definition of Miranda Warning
Mis-joinder: When a person has been named as a party to a law suit when that person should not have been added. | Legal Definition of Mis-joinder
Miscarriage of Justice: A substantial wrong which occurs during a trial which so infects the proceedings as to merit quashing the result on appeal. | Legal Definition of Miscarriage of Justice
Miscegenation: Interracial cohabitation or marriage. | Legal Definition of Miscegenation
Misdemeanor: (USA) A crime of lesser seriousness than a felony where the punishment might be a fine or prison for less than one year. | Legal Definition of Misdemeanor
Misfeasance: Improperly doing something which a person has the legal right to do. | Legal Definition of Misfeasance
Misleading Advertising: Materially false or misleading representations concerning a product or service. | Legal Definition of Misleading Advertising
Misprision: Offence in aid of the most seriously punished crimes in the ancient common law of England. | Legal Definition of Misprision
Misrepresentation: A false and material statement which induces a party to enter into a contract. | Legal Definition of Misrepresentation
Mistake: A fundamental error going to the root of a purported contract. | Legal Definition of Mistake
Mistrial: A partial or complete trial which is found to be null and void and of no effect because of some irregularity. | Legal Definition of Mistrial
Mitigating Circumstances: Facts that, while not negating a wrongful action, tend to show that the defendant may have had some grounds for acting the way he/she did. | Legal Definition of Mitigating Circumstances
Mitigation of Damages: The obligation upon a person who sues another for damages, to minimize - mitigate - those damages, as far as reasonable. | Legal Definition of Mitigation of Damages
Mixed Blood: Persons of half, or more or less than half, Indian blood. | Legal Definition of Mixed Blood
MMPI - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: An objective personality test designed to detect a number of major patterns of personality and emotional disorder. | Legal Definition of MMPI - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Mobilia Sequuntur Personam, Immobilia Situa: Latin: movables follow the person, immovables their locality. | Legal Definition of Mobilia Sequuntur Personam, Immobilia Situa
Modi Vivendi: Latin: limited force. A temporary and often limited interim agreement between states pending negotiation and ratification of a treaty. | Legal Definition of Modi Vivendi
Modus Operandi: Latin: method of operation. | Legal Definition of Modus Operandi
Mohtasib: Muslim law: the investigating and, in some cases, prosecuting office of criminal justice. | Legal Definition of Mohtasib
Moiety: Half of something. For example, it can be said that joint tenants hold a moiety in property. | Legal Definition of Moiety
Monarchy: A form of government in which law-making power is given to a single person, usually holding such authority by birthright and not by merit. | Legal Definition of Monarchy
Money: An item accepted by all as payment for debts or for goods or services. | Legal Definition of Money
Money Laundering: The conversion or transfer of money obtained by crime for the purposes of frustrating law enforcement. | Legal Definition of Money Laundering
Monopoly: A commercial advantage enjoyed by only one or a select few companies in which only those companies can trade in a certain area. | Legal Definition of Monopoly
Mooring: The securing of a vessel to the shore or to the bottom, including by anchor. | Legal Definition of Mooring
Moot: A matter where the issue raised concerns a hypothetical or abstract question | Legal Definition of Moot
Moot Court: A trial on a fictional or hypothetical issue, usually hosted by law schools, as training for future barristers or litigators. | Legal Definition of Moot Court
Moral Turpitude: An act of baseness or depravity contrary to accepted moral standards. | Legal Definition of Moral Turpitude
Moratorium: The temporary suspension of legal action against a person. | Legal Definition of Moratorium
Mortgage: An interest given on a piece of land, in writing, to guarantee the payment of a debt or the execution of some action. | Legal Definition of Mortgage
Mortgagee: The person who extends credit secured by a mortgage; the mortgage lender. | Legal Definition of Mortgagee
Mortgagor: The person who borrows money secured by conceding a mortgage against his interest in real property. | Legal Definition of Mortgagor
Mortis Omnia Solvit: Latin: Death puts an end to everything. | Legal Definition of Mortis Omnia Solvit
Mortmain Statutes: Statutes of ancient English law which prevented the transfer of real property to or from corporations in general, or to or from religious corporations in particular. | Legal Definition of Mortmain Statutes
Mosaic Law: Ancient law as set out in the first five books of the Bible (Old Testament). | Legal Definition of Mosaic Law
Motion: A proposal made to a Court or at a meeting and intended to be considered and decided upon. | Legal Definition of Motion
Motion to Strike: A motion put to the Court to strike a pleading or evidence of a witness. | Legal Definition of Motion to Strike
Motor Vehicle: A self-propelled contrivance designed for the carriage of persons or things. | Legal Definition of Motor Vehicle
MOU: Abbreviation of Memorandum of Understanding. A document intended to become a contract but which, if meeting other criteria, can be recognized, in law, as a contract. | Legal Definition of MOU
Movable: Civil law: things not attached to land and which may be carried from place to place. | Legal Definition of Movable
Mujtahid: Muslim law: a scholar of Muslim lawyer; one sufficiently versed in Muslim law. | Legal Definition of Mujtahid
Multi-level Marketing: A system for selling products in which participants get paid for selling products to other participants who, in turn, are paid for selling the same products to yet more participants. | Legal Definition of Multi-level Marketing
Multiculturalism: A doctrine of state policy of active encouragement and support of the co-existence of multiple cultures within a same territory. | Legal Definition of Multiculturalism
Murder: Intentional homicide (the taking of another person’s life), without legal justification or provocation. | Legal Definition of Murder
Muslim: Muslim law: any person who professes as a religion, that there is but one God and that Mohammad is the prophet of that God. | Legal Definition of Muslim
Muslim Law: The body of law derived from the Koran and other recorded sayings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad (570-632). | Legal Definition of Muslim Law
Muta: Muslim law: a temporary marriage; for a fixed period. | Legal Definition of Muta
Mutatis Mutandis: Latin: with changes on points of detail. | Legal Definition of Mutatis Mutandis
Mutilation: To render a thing imperfect by cutting off or destroying a part. | Legal Definition of Mutilation
Mutual Combat: A fight into which both parties enter willingly, or in which two persons, upon a sudden quarrel, and in hot blood, mutually fight upon equal terms. | Legal Definition of Mutual Combat
Myocardial Infarction: Permanent damage caused to the middle layer, the heart muscle, usually by sudden obstruction of blood flow. | Legal Definition of Myocardial Infarction
Myocardium: The cardiac muscle at the middle layer of the heart. | Legal Definition of Myocardium
Mystic Will: A sealed and secret will requiring strict formalities and available only in limited civil law jurisdictions. | Legal Definition of Mystic Will