Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Color
n. 1. Appearance, guise, or semblance; esp., the appearance of a legal claim to a right, authority, or office <color of title> <under color of state law>. 2. Common-law pleading. An apparent, but legally insufficient, ground of action, admitted in a defendant's pleading to exist for the plaintiff; esp., a plaintiffs apparent (and usu. false) right or title to property, the existence of which is pleaded by the defendant as a confession and avoidance to remove the case from the jury by turning the issue from one of fact to one of law. See GIVE COLOR.
Colorable
adj. 1. (Of a claim or action) appearing to be true, valid, or right <the pleading did not state a colorable claim>. 2. Intended to deceive; counterfeit <the court found the conveyance of exempt property to be a colorable transfer, and so set it aside>.
Colorado River abstention
A federal courts decision to abstain while relevant and parallel state-court proceedings are under-way Colorado River Water Conservation I )dist.u United States, 424 U.S. 800, 96 S.Ct. .1236 (1976).
color book.
Archaic. Int'l law. An official compilation of diplomatic documents and internal papers and reports of a government, the purpose of which is to inform the legislature and the public about foreign policy, esp. during foreign crises. & Color books reached their height of popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are now little used in most countries.
color of authority
The appearance or presumption of authority sanctioning a public officer's actions. The authority derives from the officer's apparent title to the office or from a writ or other apparently valid process the officer bears.
color of law
The appearance or semblance, without the substance, of a legal right. ( The term usu. implies a misuse of power made possible because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of the state. State action is synonymous with color of law in the context of federal civil-rights statutes or criminal law. See STATE ACTION.
color of office
The authority or power that is inherent in an office, esp. a public office. 0 Acts taken under the color of an office are vested with, or appear to be vested with, the authority entrusted to that office."The starting point in the law of bribery seems to have been when a judge, for doing his office or acting under color of his office, took a reward or fee from some person who had occasion to come before him, - and apparently guilt attached only to the judge himself and not to the bribe-giver." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 527 (3d ed. 1982).
color of title
A written instrument or other evidence that appears to give title, but does not do so. - Also termed apparent title.
colorable alteration
Intellectual property. A modification that effects no real or substantial change, but is made only to distinguish an invention or work from an existing patent or copyright.
colorable claim
1. A claim that is legitimate and that may reasonably be asserted. given the facts presented and the current law (or a reasonable and logical extension or modification of the current law). 2. A claim in which the debtor and property holder are, its a tnatter of law, not adverse. one example of a colorable claim is one made by a person holding property as an agent or bailee of the bankrupt.
colorable transaction
A sham transaction having the appearance of authenticity; a pretended transaction <the court set aside the colorable transaction>.
colorable transaction.
See TRANSACTION.
colorable-imitation test
Trademarks. A test for a trademark violation in which a court determines whether an ordinary person who is not allowed to compare the two items side by side could recognize the difference between the two.
colore oficii
[Latin "by color of office"] See COLOR OF OFFICE.
ex colore
[Latin] By color; under color of; under pretense, show, or protection of.
express color
A feigned matter pleaded by the defendant in an action of trespass, from which the plaintiff seems to have a good -•laim while in truth the plaintiff has only the appearance of one. 0 This pleading was abolished by the Common-Law Procedure Act of 1852, 15 & 16 Vict., ch. 76, § 64."Express color is a fictitious allegation, not traversable, to give an appearance of right to the plaintiff, and thus enable the defendant to plead specially his own title, which would otherwise amount to the general issue. It is a licensed evasion of the rule against pleading contradictory matter specially." Benjamin J. Shipman, Handbook of Common-Law Pleading § 202, at 351 (Henry Winthrop Ballantine ed., 3d ed. 1923).
give color
ub. Hist. To admit, either expressly or impliedly by silence, an apparent right in an opponent's allegations. 0 In common-law pleading, a defendant's plea of confession and avoidance had to give color to the plaintiffs allegations in the complaint or the plea would be fatally defective. See COLOR (2).
implied color
An apparent ground of action that arises from the nature of the defense, as when the defense consists of a confession and avoidance in which the defendant admits the facts but denies their legal sufficiency. 0 This is a quality inherent in all pleadings in confession and avoidance.
sub colore juris
[Latin] Under color of right; under an appearance of right.
title, color of
See COLOR OF TITLE (1)