RUBRIC

civil law. The title or inscription of any law or statute, because the copyists formerly drew and painted the title of laws and statutes rubro colore, in red letters. Directions printed in books of law and in prayer books, so termed because they were originally distinguished by red ink. Rubric of a statute. Its title, which was anciently printed in red letters. It serves to show the object of the legislature, and thence affords the means of interpreting the body of the act; hence the phrase, of an argument, “a rubro ad nigrum.”