An obvious guaranteed right just by the fact that one is a human being and not a right granted pursuant to another outside means or source. … [Read more...]

In Scotch law. Preliminaries of testimony. The preliminary examination of a witness, before examining him in chief, answering to the voir dire of the English law, though taking a somewhat wider range. Wharton. … [Read more...]

civ. law. Those freemen who were born free. Vicat, vocab. 2. They were a class of freemen, distinguished from those who, born slaves, had afterwards legally obtained their freedom the latter were called at various periods, sometimes liberti, sometimes libertini. An unjust or illegal servitude did not prevent a man from being ingenuus. … [Read more...]

The old term for "heiress." Co. Litt 13a. … [Read more...]

Commenced; inchoate. Curtesy initiate is the interest which a hues band has in the wife's lands after a child is born who may inherit but before the wife dies. … [Read more...]