Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.

Elastic Clause.

See NECESSARY AND PROPER CLAUSE.

Last

n. Hist. 1. A burden. 2. A measure of weight used for bulky commodities.

court of last resort

The court having the authority to handle the final appeal of a case, such as the U.S. Supreme Court.

cross-elasticity of demand

Antitrust. A relationship between two products, usu. substitutes for each other, in which a price change for one product affects the price of the other.

doctrine of the last antecedent

See RULE OF THE LAST ANTECEDENT.

doctrine of the last preceding antecedent.

RULE OF THE LAST ANTECEDENT.

last antecedent, rule of the

See RULE OF THE LAST ANTECEDENT.

last heir

Hist. The person - either the lord of the manor or the sovereign - to whom lands come by escheat when there is no lawful heir.

last illness

The sickness ending in the person's death. - Also termed last sickness.

last resort, court of

See court of last resort under COURT.

last sickness

See LAST ILLNESS.

last will

See WILL.

last will and testament

A person's final will. See WILL.

last-clear-chance doctrine

Torts. The rule that a plaintiff who was contributorily negligent may nonetheless recover from the defendant if the defendant had the last opportunity to prevent the harm but failed to use reasonable care to do so (in other words, if the defendant's negligence is later in time than the plaintiff's). ( This doctrine allows the plaintiff to rebut the contributory-negligence defense in the few jurisdictions where contributory negligence completely bars recovery. - Also termed discovered peril doctrine; humanitarian doctrine; last-opportunity doctrine; subsequent-negligence doctrine; supervening-negligence doctrine.

last-employer rule

The doctrine that liability for an occupational injury or illness falls to the employer who exposed the worker to the injurious substance just before the first onset of the disease or injury. - Also termed last-injuriousexposure rule.

last-in, first-out

An accounting method that assumes that the most recent purchases are sold or used first, matching current costs against current revenues. - Abbr. LIFO. Cf. FIRST-IN, FIRST-OUT; NEXT-IN, FIRST-OUT.

last-injurious-exposure rule

See LAST-EM. PLOYER RULE.

last-link doctrine

The rule that an attorney need not divulge nonprivileged information if doing so would reveal information protected by the attorney-client privilege, particularly if the information would provide essential evidence to support indicting or convicting the client of a crime. ( This doctrine is often relied on as an exception to the rule that a client's identity is not privileged. For example, if divulging the client's name would supply the last link of evidence to indict or convict the client of a crime, the name need not be disclosed.

last-opportunity doctrine

See LAST-CLEAR. CHANCE DOCTRINE.

last-proximate-act test

Criminal law. A common-law test for the crime of attempt, based on whether the defendant does the final act necessary to commit an offense (such as pulling the trigger of a gun, not merely aiming it). ( This test has been rejected by most courts as too lenient. See ATTEMPT (2).

last-straw doctrine

Employment law. The rule that the termination of employment may be justified by a series of incidents of poor performance, not one of which alone would justify termination, followed by a final incident showing a blatant disregard for the employer's interests.

last-survivor insurance

See INSURANCE.

last-survivor insurance.

Life insurance on two or more persons, payable on the death of all the insureds.

last-treatment rule

The doctrine that, for an ongoing physician-patient relationship, the statute of limitations on a medical-malpractice claim begins to run when the treatment stops or the relationship ends.

qui personal property that lasts for the life of the holder of the estate and that is equitable as opposed to legal in its creation. ( An example is a life estate held by a trust beneficiary. equitabl

See LIFE TENANT.

rule of the last antecedent

An interpretative principle by which a court determines that qualifying words or phrases modify the words or phrases immediately preceding them and not words or phrases more remote, unless the extension is necessary from the context or the spirit of the entire writing. ( For example, an application of this rule might mean that, in the phrase Texas courts, New Mexico courts, and New York courts in the federal system, the words in the federal system might be held to modify only New York courts and not Texas courts or New Mexico courts. - Also termed doctrine of the last antecedent; doctrine of the last preceding antecedent.

shin plaster

Hist. Slang. 1. A bank note that has greatly depreciated in value,.esp. the paper money of the Republic of Texas in relation to the U.S. dollar. 2. Paper money in denominations less than one dollar.