Legal Terms Beginning with E

Legal Dictionary › E

Easement: A right of passage over a neighbor’s land or waterway. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Ecclesiastical law: Synonymous to canon law. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Eggshell Skull Doctrine: A tort-feasor or a wrongdoer takes his victim as he finds him. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Eighth Amendment: US constitutional amendment that prohibits excessive bail, ...excessive fines (and) cruel and unusual punishment.... - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Ejusdem Generis: Ejusdem Generis - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Emancipation: Term used to describe the act of freeing a person who was under the legal authority of another (such as a child before the age of majority) from that control (such as child reaching the age of majority). - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Embargo: This is an act of international military aggression where an order is made prohibiting ships or goods from leaving a certain port, city or territory and may be enforced by military threat of destroying any vehicle that attempts to break it or by trade penalties. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Embezzle: The illegal transfer of money or property that, although possessed legally by the embezzler, is diverted to the embezzler personally by his or her fraudulent action. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Embracery: Improper influence on a juror. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Eminent domain: USA: The legal power to expropriate private land for the sake of public necessity. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Emolument: A legal word which refers to all wages, benefits or other benefit received as compensation for holding some office or employment. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Emphyteusis: Civil law: a long-term (many years or in perpetuity) rental of land or buildings including the exclusive enjoyment of all product of that land and the exercise of all property rights typically reserved for the property owner such as mortgaging the property for the term of the emphyteusis or permitting a right of way. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Emptio or emtio: Latin for 'purchase' or the contract in which something is bought. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Enactment: A law or a statute; a document which is published as an enforceable set of written rules is said to be enacted. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Endorsement: something written on the back of a document. An alternate spelling, in some English jurisdictions, is 'indorsement'. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Endowment: The transfer of money or property (usually as a gift) to a public organization for a specific purpose, such as medical research or scholarships. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Enduring or Continuing Power of Attorney: A POA that continues even if and after a donor becomes incapacitated. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Entrapment: The inducement, by law enforcement officers or their agents, of another person to commit a crime for the purposes of bringing charges for the commission of that artificially-provoked crime. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Equity: A branch of English law which developed hundreds of years ago when litigants would go to the King and complain of harsh or inflexible rules of common law which prevented justice from prevailing. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Escheat: Where property is returned to the government upon the death of the owner, because there is nobody to inherit the property - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Escrow: When the performance of something is outstanding and a third party holds onto money or a written document (such as shares or a deed) until a certain condition is met between the two contracting parties. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Estate law: A term used by the law to decribe that part of the law which regulates wills, probate and other subjects related to the distribution of a deceased person’s estate. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Estoppel: A rule of law that when person A, by act or words, gives person B reason to believe a certain set of facts upon which person B takes action, person A cannot later, to his (or her) benefit, deny those facts or say that his (or her) earlier act was improper. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Euthanasia: The putting to death, by painless method, of a terminally-ill or severely debilitated person through the omission (intentionally withholding a life-saving medical procedure, also known as 'passive euthanasia') or commission of an act ('active euthanasia'). - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Evidence: Proof of fact(s) presented at a trial. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Ex aequo et bono: Latin for 'in justice and fairness'. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Examination for Discovery: An oral examination under oath. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Examination-in-chief: The questioning of your own witness under oath. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Exculpate: Something that excuses or justifies a wrong action. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Executor: A person specifically appointed by a testator to administer the will ensuring that final wishes are respected (i.e. that the will is properly executed). - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Exhibit: A document or object shown to the court as evidence in a trial. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Ex parte: Latin: for one party only. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Ex patriate: A person who has abandoned his or her country of origin and citizenship and has become a subject or citizen of another country. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Ex post facto: Latin: after the fact. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Expropriation: Canada: the forced sale of land to a public authority. Synonymous to the USA doctrine of 'eminent domain'. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Express trust: A trust which is clearly created by the settlor, usually in the form of a document (eg. a will), although they can be oral. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Expunge: To physically erase; to white or strike out. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Ex rel: An abbreviation of 'ex relatione', Latin for 'on the relation of.' - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Extortion: Forcing a person to give up property in a thing through the use of violence, fear or under pretense of authority. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Extradition: The arrest and delivery of a fugitive wanted for a crime committed in another country, usually under the terms of a extradition treaty. - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)
Ex turpi causa non oritur actio: Latin: 'Of an illegal cause there can be no lawsuit.' - (see expanded definition at duhaime.org)