Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

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

ancient

n. a senior member of an inn of court or of chancery. ancient demesne. see demesne.

ancient demesne

Hist. A manor that was held by the Crown at the time of William the Conqueror and was recorded in the Domesday Book.

ancient document

see document.

ancient house

see house.

ancient house.

Hist. In England, a house that has stood long enough to acquire an easement of support against the adjoining land or building. bawdy house. See DISORDERLY HOUSE.

ancient law

the law of antiquity, considered esp. either from an anthropological standpoint or from the standpoint of tracing precursors to modern law."ancient law uniformly refuses to dispense with a single gesture, however grotesque; with a single syllable, however its meaning may have been forgotten; with a single witness, however superfluous may be his testimony. the entire solemnities must be scrupulously completed by persons legally entitled to take part in them, or else the conveyance is null, and the seller is re-established in the rights of which he had vainly attempted to divest himself" henry s. maine, ancient law 225-26 (17th ed. 1901).

ancient readings

hist. lectures on ancient english statutes, formerly having substantial legal authority.

ancient rent

hist. the rent reserved at the time the lease is made, if the estate was not then under lease.

ancient serjeant.

hist english law. the eldest of the crown's serjenats. ( the last serjeant to hold this office died in 1866.

ancient wall

A party wall that has stood for at least 20 years, thus giving each party an easement right to refuse to allow the other party to remove or substantially change the wall.

ancient watercourse

A watercourse in a channel that has existed from time immemorial

ancient writing

see ancient document under document.

ancient-lights doctrine

the common-law principle by which a landowner acquired, after 20 years of uninterrupted use, an easement preventing a neighbor from building an obstruction that blocks light from passing through the landowner's window. ( the window (or other opening) is termed an ancient light. this doctrine has rarely been applied in the united states. - also termed ancient-windows doctrine.

ancient-windows doctrine

see ancientlights doctrine.

ancients

hist. certain members of seniority in the inns of court and chancery. ( in gray's inn, the society consisted of benchers, ancients, barristers, and students under the bar, with the ancients being the oldest barristers. in the middle temple, those who passed the readings were termed ancients. the inns of chancery consisted of both ancients and students or clerks

court of ancient demesne

Hist. A court made up of freeholders of land held by the Crown (i.e., an ancient demesne). ( The freeholders acted as judges much the same way that freeholders of an ordinary manor would in a court baron. See ancient demesne under DEMESNE; COURT BARON.

lights, ancient

See ANCIENT-LIGHTS DOCTRINE.