Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Defense
1 A defendant's stated reason why the plaintiff or prosecutor has no valid case; esp., a defendant's answer, denial, or plea <her defense was that she was 25 miles from the building at the time of the robbery>. "Defence is defined to be that which is alleged by a party proceeded against in an action or suit, as a reason why the plaintiff should not recover or establish that which he seeks by his complaint or petition." Edwin E. Bryant, The Law of Pleading Under the Codes of Ciuil Procedure 240 (2d ed. 1899).
Defense Department
An executive department of the federal government, responsible for coordinating and overseeing military affairs and the agencies responsible for national security. 0 The Department was established as the National Military Establishment in 1947, by combining the War and the Navy Departments. Its name was changed to Department of Defense in 1949. The Department's components include the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is answerable to the President as Commander-inChief. - Also termed Department of Defense (abbr. DOD).
Department of Defense
See DEFENSE DEPART MENT.
Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 test
See APPRECIATION TEST.
Nuremberg defense
The defense asserted by a member of the military who has been charged with the crime of failing to obey an order and who claims that the order was illegal, esp. that the order would result in a violation of international law. ( The term is sometimes used more broadly to describe situations in which citizens accused of committing domestic crimes, such as degradation of govern- ment property, claim that their crimes was justified or mandated by international LAW;-
Pac-Man defense
An aggressive an titake over defense by which the target company attempts to take over the bidder company by making a cash tender offer for the bidder company's shares. ( The name derives from a video game popular in the 1980s, the object of which was to gobble up the enemy. This defense is seldom used today.
Peremptory defense
A defense that questions the plaintiff's legal right to sue or contends that the right to sue has been extinguished.
SODDI defense
Slang. The someother-dude-did-it defense; a claim that somebody else committed a crime, usu. made by a criminal defendant who cannot identify the third party.
Sergeant Schultz defense
An assertion by a criminal or civil defendant who claims that he or she was not an active participant in an alleged scheme or conspiracy, and that he or she knew nothing, saw nothing, and heard nothing. 0 This defense is named after a character from the television series Hogan's Heroes, in which Sergeant Schultz, a German guard in charge of prisoners of war during World War II, would avoid controversy over the prisoners' schemes by proclaiming that he saw nothing and knew nothing.
XYY-chromosome defense
Criminal law. defense, usu. asserted as the basis for an insan ity plea, whereby a male defendant argues that his criminal behavior is due to the genetic abnormality of having an extra Y chromosome which causes him to have uncontrollable aggressive impulses. ( Most courts have rejected this defense because its scientific foundations are uncertain. See INSANITY DEFENSE. - Also termed XYY defense "As one commentator has suggested ... 'an attorney defending an XYY individual will be required to call upon both a geneticist and a psychiatrist to give expert testimony. The geneticist's role would be to testify with respect to the individual's genetic structure, any distinguishing characteristics which are relevant to an insanity defense, and the result of family studies designated to determine the influence of genetics and environment on the development of this individual. The psychiatrist's testimony would focus upon the defendant's mental capacity or condition.' But in the absence of-sound medical support for an XYY defense, courts are understandably unsympathetic to defense efforts to obtain such expert testimony." Wayne R. LaFave & Austin W. Scott, Jr., Criminal Law ยง 4.8, at 380 (2d ed. 1986) (quoting Note, 57 Geo. L.J. 892, 902-03 (1969)).
absolute defense
See real defense under DEi -:NSE (4).
affidavit of defense
see affidavit of merits under affidavit.
affirmative defense
A defendant's assertion raising new facts and arguments that, if true, will defeat the plaintiff's or prosecution's claim, even if all allegations in the complaint are true. ( Examples of affirmative defenses include duress and contributory negligence (in a civil case) and insanity and selfdefense (in a criminal case).
black-rage insanity defense.
An insanity defense based on an African-American defendant's hatred of white people. ( This defense was first used in the mid-1990s.
capacity defense
A defense based on the defendant's inability to be held accountable for an illegal act or the plaintiff's inability to prosecute a lawsuit (as when the plaintiff was a corporation, but has lost its corporate charter). See CAPACITY.
capacity defense.
See DEFENSE
civil defense
1. The practice of protecting civilians from dangers caused by hostilities or disasters and helping them recover from the immediate effects of such events. 2. The policies that underlie this practice.
collateral defense
Criminal law. A defense of justification or excuse not involving a rebuttal of the allegation and therefore collateral to the elements that the prosecutor must prove. See EXCUSE (2); JUSTIFICATION (2).
declaration of no defenses
See WAIVER OF DEFENSES.
defense attorney
A lawyer who represents a defendant in a civil or criminal case. - Also termed defense counsel; defense lawyer.
defense contingent fee
See reverse contingent fee under CONTINGENT FEE.
defense counsel
See DEFENSE ATTORNEY.
defense lawyer
See DEFENSE ATTORNEY.
defense of habitation
See CASTLE DOCTRINE.
defense of others
A justification defense available if one harms or threatens another when defending a third person. See JUSTIFICATION (2).
defense of property
A justification defense available if one harms or threatens another when defending one's property. See JUSTIFICATION (2).
defense of self
See SELF-DEFENSE.
defense-month
See FENCE-MONTH,
derivative defense
A defense that rebuts the criminal elements that a prosecutor must establish to justify the submission of a criminal case to a jury.
derivative defense.
See DEFENSE (2)
dilatory defense
A defense that temporarily obstructs or delays a lawsuit but does not address the merits.
dilatory defense.
See DEFENSE (1).
dwelling defense
See CASTLE DOCTRINE.
eleemosynary defense
See charitable immunity under IMMUNITY (2).
empty-chair defense
See EMPTY-CHAIR DEFENSE.3. One or more defendants in a trial <the defense rests>. 4. Commercial law. A basis for avoiding liability on a negotiable instrument <the drawer asserted a real defense against the holder in due course>.
equitable defense
A defense formerly available only in a court of equity but now maintainable in a court of law. ( Examples include mistake, fraud, illegality, and failure of consideration.
frivolous defense
A defense that has no basis in fact or law.
frivolous defense.
See DEFENSE (1).
full defense
A technical common-law defensive plea, stated at length and without abbreviation. ( The plea is obsolete because of the pleading requirements in federal and state rules of civil procedure.
full defense.
See DEFENSE
government-contract defense.
A theory allowing a supplier of goods to the federal government to escape civil liability under state law when the supplier has conformed to reasonably precise specifications established or approved by the government, when two conditions are satisfied: (1) if the supplier has warned the government about any dangers from the goods about which the supplier has knowledge but the government does not, and (2) if the government itself is immune from liability under the Feres doctrine. See FERES DOCTRINE.
imperfect self-defense
See SELF-DEFENSE.
inconsistent defense
A defense so contrary to another defense that the acceptance of one requires abandonment of the other. ( For example, a person accused of murder cannot claim both self-defense and the alibi of having been in a different city when the murder took place.
insanity defense
See INSANITY DEFENSE.
issuable defense
Common-law pleading. A plea on the merits setting forth a legal defense. Cf. issuable plea under PLEA.
joint-defense privilege
The rule that a defendant can assert the attorney-client privilege to protect a confidential communication made to a codefendant's lawyer if the communication was related to the defense of both defendants. - Also termed common-interest doctrine.
justification defense
See JUSTIFICATION DEFENSE.
legal defense
A complete and adequate defense in a court of law.
limited defense
See personal defense under DEFENSE (4).
meeting-competition defense
Antitrust. A defense to a charge of price discrimination whereby the defendant shows that the lower price was a good-faith attempt to match what it believed to be a competitor's equally low offer.