Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

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).