Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Assignment of dower
The act of setting apart a widow's share of her deceased husband's real property.
Widower
A man whose wife has died and who has not remarried.
admeasurement of dower.
Hist. A writ to recover property from a widow who held more than she was entitled to. - Also termed admensuratione dotis.
consummate dower
A wife's interest in her deceased husband's estate until that interest is legally assigned to her.
dower
At common law, the right of a wife, upon her husband's death, to a life estate in one-third of the land that he owned in fee. 0 With few exceptions, the wife could not be deprived of dower by any transfer made by her husband during his lifetime. Although most states have abolished dower, many states retaining the concept have expanded the wife's share to a life estate in all the land that her husband owned in fee. - Also termed dowment. Cf. CURTESY.
dower ad ostium ecclesiae
n. [Law Latin "dower at the church door"] Hist. An endowment of dower made by a man to his wife at the church door or porch, usu. as part of the marriage ceremony. "DOWER AD OSTIUM ECCLESIAE . . . . This appears to have been the original English dower . . . . It was formerly the most usual species of dower, and, though latterly fallen into disuse, was not abolished until the statute of 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 105, s. 13with all my worldly goods I thee endow.'" 1 Alexander M. Burrill, A Law Dictionary and Glossary 520 (2d ed. 1867).
dower by custom
Hist. Dower that is determined by custom rather than the general law."Dower by .. . custom; as that the wife shall have half the husband's lands, or in some places the whole, and in some only a quarter." 2 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 132 (1766).
dower by the common law
The regular dower, consisting of a life interest in onethird of the lands that the husband held in fee. - Also termed dos rationabilis.
dower ex assensu patris
n. [Law Latin "dower by the father's assent"] Hist. A type of dower ad ostium ecclesiae made while the husband's father is alive and consents to the endowment to his son's wife.
election dower
A name sometimes given to a law specifying a widow's statutory share of her deceased husband's estate if she chooses to reject her share under a will. See RIGHT OF ELECTION.
inchoate dower
A wife's interest in her husband's estate while both are living. doweress. See DOWRESS.
ne unques seine que dower
n. [Law French "never seised of a dowable estate"] Hist. In a dower action, the tenant's general denial (plea of gen-eral issue) that the widow's husband was never seised of a dowable estate of inheritance.
widower's allowance
See spousal allowance under ALLOWANCE.
writ of dower
1. DE DOTE UNDE NIHIL HABET. 2. A widow's writ of right of dower providing her the remainder of the dower to which she is entitled after part of it had been assigned by the tenant.