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Deodand
A deodand is a thing forfeited or given to God, specifically, in law, an object or instrument that becomes forfeited because it has caused a person's death. The English common law of deodands traces back to the 11th century and was applied, on and off, until Parliament abolished it in 1846. Under this law, a chattel (i.e. some personal property, such as a horse or a haystack) was considered a deodand whenever a coroner's jury decided that it had caused the death of a human being. In theory, deodands were forfeited to the Crown, which was supposed to sell the chattel and then apply the profits to some pious end. Sir Edward Coke (1669) The term deodand derives from the Latin phrase "deo dandum", which means "to be given to God." In reality, the juries who decided that a particular animal or object was a deodand also appraised its value, and the owners were expected to pay a fine equal to the value of the deodand. If the owner could not pay the deodand, his township was held resp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Accident At Sonning Cutting
The Sonning Cutting railway accident occurred during the early hours of 24 December 1841 in the Sonning Cutting through Sonning Hill, near Reading, Berkshire. A Great Western Railway (GWR) luggage train travelling from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads station entered Sonning Cutting. The train was made up of the broad-gauge locomotive ''Hecla'', a tender, three third-class passenger carriages, and some heavily laden goods waggons. The passenger carriages were between the tender and the goods waggons. Recent heavy rain had saturated the soil in the cutting causing it to slip, covering the line on which the train was travelling. On running into the slipped soil the engine was derailed, causing it to slow rapidly. The passenger coaches were crushed between the goods waggons and the tender. Eight passengers died at the scene and seventeen were injured seriously, one of whom died later in hospital. Details of the accident and subsequent proceedings were reported widely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deodands Act 1846
The Deodands Act 1846 ( 9 & 10 Vict. c. 62) was an act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, that abolished the ancient remedy of deodands. Background By the early nineteenth century, the ancient remedy of deodands had largely fallen into desuetude. However, during the 1830s the rapid development of the railways led to increasing public hostility to the epidemic of railway deaths and the indifferent attitudes of the railway companies. Under the common law of England and Wales, the death of a person causes purely emotional and pure economic loss to their relatives. In general, damages cannot be recovered for either type of damage, only for physical damage to the claimant or their property, and families of fatal accident victims had no claim. This was the rule declared by the court in ''Baker v. Bolton'' (1808).(1808) 1 Camp 493. As a result, coroners' juries started to award deodands as a way of penalising the railways. The railway accident at Sonning Cutting (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fatal Accidents Act 1846
The Fatal Accidents Act 1846 ( 9 & 10 Vict. c. 93), commonly known as Lord Campbell's Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, that, for the first time in England and Wales, allowed relatives of people killed by the wrongdoing of others to recover damages. Background Under the common law of England and Wales, the death of a person causes solely emotional and pure economic loss to their relatives. In general, damages cannot be recovered for either type of damage, only for physical damage to the claimant or their property. This was the rule declared by the court in '' Baker v. Bolton'' (1808). Scottish law was different in that the court could grant a solatium in acknowledgment of the family's grief. Thus, if a person was injured through a tort, the wrongdoer would be liable for causing injury. If the person were killed, there would be no liability. Perversely, the wrongdoer had a financial interest in killing, rather than injuring, a victim. However, during t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on precedent—judicial rulings made in previous similar cases. The presiding judge determines which precedents to apply in deciding each new case. Common law is deeply rooted in Precedent, ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by things decided"), where courts follow precedents established by previous decisions. When a similar case has been resolved, courts typically align their reasoning with the precedent set in that decision. However, in a "case of first impression" with no precedent or clear legislative guidance, judges are empowered to resolve the issue and establish new precedent. The common law, so named because it was common to all the king's courts across England, originated in the practices of the courts of the English kings in the centuries fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC, FRSE (15 September 1779 – 23 June 1861) was a British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician, lawyer and man of letters. Background and education The second son of the Reverend George Campbell, D.D., and Magdalene Hallyburton, he was born a son of the manse at Cupar, Fife, Scotland, where his father was for fifty years parish minister. For seven years, from the age of 11, Campbell studied at the United College, St Andrews. When he was 18, he was offered the opportunity to leave home and see something of the world by becoming tutor to James Wedderburn-Webster. The family lived in Clapham, just south of London, with a summer house at Shenley, Hertfordshire. His employer was David Webster, London merchant of a Sugar plantations in the Caribbean, sugar trading house, with family connections through the Wedderburn baronets to the Slavery in the British and French Caribbean, slave plantations of Jamaica. L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1847 In British Law
Events January–March * January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the U.S. government. * January 13 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends fighting in the Mexican–American War in California. * January 16 – John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory. * January 17 – St. Anthony Hall fraternity is founded at Columbia University, New York City. * January 30 – Yerba Buena, California, is renamed San Francisco. * February 5 – A rescue effort, called the First Relief, leaves Johnson's Ranch to save the ill-fated Donner Party of California-bound migrants who became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada earlier this winter. Some have resorted to survival by cannibalism. * February 22 – Mexican–American War: Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops under General Zachary Taylor use their superiority in artillery to drive off 15,000 Mexican troops under Antonio López de Santa Anna, defeating the Mexicans the next day. * Februar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legal History Of England
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the art of justice. State-enforced laws can be made by a legislature, resulting in statutes; by the executive through decrees and regulations; or by judges' decisions, which form precedent in common law jurisdictions. An autocrat may exercise those functions within their realm. The creation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written or tacit, and the rights encoded therein. The law shapes politics, economics, history and society in various ways and also serves as a mediator of relations between people. Legal systems vary between jurisdictions, with their differences analysed in comparative law. In civil law jurisdictions, a legislature or other central body codifies and consolidates the law. In common law systems, judges m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Law
Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. Canon law includes the internal ecclesiastical law, or operational policy, governing the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches), the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the individual national churches within the Anglican Communion. The way that such church law is legislated, interpreted and at times adjudicated varies widely among these four bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a canon was originally a rule adopted by a church council; these canons formed the foundation of canon law. Etymology Greek / , Arabic / , Hebrew / , 'straight'; a rule, code, standard, or measure; the root meaning in all these languages is 'reed'; see also the Romance-language ancestors of the English word ''cane''. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin Legal Terminology
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. It has greatly influenced many languages, including English, having contributed many words to the English lexicon, particularly after the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest. Latin roots appear frequently in the technical vocabulary used by fields such as theology, the sciences, medicine, and law. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had evolved into standardized Classical Latin. Vulgar Latin refers to the less prestigious colloquial registers, attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of the comic playwrights Plautus and Terence and the author Petronius. While ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitution Of Vermont
The Constitution of the State of Vermont is the fundamental body of law of the U.S. state of Vermont, describing and framing its government. It was adopted in 1793 following Vermont's admission to the Union in 1791 and is largely based upon the 1777 Constitution of the Vermont Republic which was drafted at Windsor in the Old Constitution House and amended in 1786. At 8,295 words, it is the shortest U.S. state constitution. Largely unchanged since 1777, Vermont's Constitution is the only active constitutional document to have been drafted and ratified outside of the United States. History 1777 From 1777 to 1791, Vermont was an independent country, often referred to in the present day as the Vermont Republic. During that time it was usually called the State of Vermont but sometimes called the Commonwealth of Vermont or the Republic of Vermont. Its first constitution, drafted in 1777, was among the most far-reaching in guaranteeing personal freedoms and individual rights. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitution Of New Hampshire
The Constitution of the State of New Hampshire is the fundamental law of the State of New Hampshire, with which all statute laws must comply. The constitution became effective June 2, 1784, when it replaced the state's constitution of 1776. The constitution is divided into two parts: a Bill of Rights and a Form of Government. Subsections of each part are known as articles. For example, the subsection dealing with free speech and liberty of the press is cited as "Part I, Article 22" or "Pt. I, Art. 22." Part I – Bill of Rights The first part of the constitution is made up of 43 articles, codifying many of the same natural rights as does the United States Constitution, including free speech, freedom of the press, jury trials, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms. It protects citizens against double jeopardy, unreasonable searches and seizures, and being required to quarter soldiers. In most cases, the state constitution affords more specific protections than the U.S. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Common Law (Holmes)
''The Common Law'' is a book written by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in 1881, 21 years before Holmes became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The book is about common law in the United States, including torts, property, contracts, and crime. It is written as a series of lectures. It has gone out of copyright and is available in full on the web at Project Gutenberg. A famous aphorism appears on the first page of the book: "The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience." Holmes's pronouncement is a qualification of a dictum by the famous seventeenth-century English jurist Sir Edward Coke: "Reason is the life of the law." References Further reading * Hart, H. L. A.br>"Holmes's Common Law"''The New York Review of Books'', October 17, 1963. External links''The Common Law'' by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. from the U. of Toronto Typographical Society. by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. * Books That Shaped America: ''The Common Law''C-SPAN ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
