(noun) – 1. An established standard, guide, or regulation; a principle or regulation set up by authority, prescribing or directing action or forbearance; as, the rules of a legislative body, of a company, court, public office, of the law, of ethics. 2. A regulation made by a court of justice or public office with reference to the conduct of business therein. 3. An order made by a court, at the instance of one of the parties to a suit, commanding a ministerial officer, or the opposite party, to do some act, or to show cause why some act should not be done. It is usually upon some interlocutory matter, and has not the force or solemnity of a decree or judgment. 4. “Rule” sometimes means a rule of law. Thus, we speak of the rule against perpetuities ; the rule in Shelley’s Case, etc. Cross rules. These were rules where each of the opposite litigants obtained a rule nisi, as the plaintiff to increase the damages, and the defendant to enter a nonsuit. Wharton. General rules. General or standing orders of a court, in relation to practice, etc. Rule alb solute. One which commands the subject matter of the rule to be forthwith enforced. It is usual, when the party has failed to show sufficient cause against a rule nisi, to “make the rule absolute, i.e., imperative and final. Rule day. In practice. The day on which a rule is returnable, or on which the act or duty enjoined by a rule is to be performedv See Cook v. Cook, 18 Fla. 687. Rule in Shelley’s Case. A celebrated rule in English law, propounded in Lord Coke’s reports in the following form: That whenever a man, by any gift or conveyance, takes an estate of freehold, and in the same gift or conveyance an estate is limited, either mediately or immediately, to his heirs in fee or in tail, the word “heirs” is a word of limitation and not of purchase. In other words, it is to be understood as expressing the quantity of estate which the party is to take, and not as conferring any distinct estate on the persons who may become his representatives. Rule nisi. A rule which will become imperative and final unless cause be shown against it. This rule commands the party to show cause why he should not be compelled to do the act required, or why the object of the rule should not be enforced. Rule of 1756. A rule of international law, first practically established in 1756, by which neutrals, in time of war, are prohibited from carrying on with a belligerent power a trade which is not open to them in time of peace. 1 Kent Comm. 82. Rule of course. There are some rules which the courts authorize their officers to grant as a matter of course, without formal application being made to a judge in open court, and these are technically termed, in English practiee, “side bar rules, because formerly they were moved for by the attorneys at the side bar in court. They are now generally termed” “rules of course.” Brown. Rules of court. The rules for regulating the practice of the different courts, which the judges are empowered to frame and put in force as occasion may require, are termed “rules of court.” Brown. See Goodlett v. Charles, 14 Rich. Law (S. C.) 49. Rule of law. A legal principle, of general application, sanctioned by the recognition of authorities, and usually expressed in the form of a maxim or logical proposition. Called a “rule,” because in doubtful or unforeseen cases it is a guide or norm fox their decision. Toullier, tit. prel. no. 17. Rules of practice. Certain orders made by the courts tor the purpose of regulating the practice in actions and other proceedings before themRules of procedure. Rules made by a legislative body concerning the mode and manner of conducting its business, and for the purpose of making an orderly and proper disposition of the matters before it, such as rules prescribing what committees shall be appointed, on what subjects they shall act, what shall be the daily order in which business shall be taken up, and in what order certain motions shall be received and acted on. Hei skell v. Baltimore, 65 Md. 125. 4 Atl. 116, 57 Am. Rep. 308; Heyker v. McLaughlin, 108 Ky. 509, 50 S. W. 859. Rule of property. A settled rule or principle, resting usually on precedents or a course of decisions, regulating the ownership or devolution of property. Yazoo & M. V. R. Co. v. Adams, 81 Miss. 90, 32 South. 937; Edwards v. Davenport (C. C.) 20 Fed. 763. Rule of the road. The popular English’ name for the regulations governing the navigation of vessels in public waters, with a view to preventing collisions. Sweet. Rule to plead. A rule of court, taken by a plaintiff as of course, requiring the defendant to plead within a given time, on pain of having judgment taken against him by default. Rule to show cause. A rule commanding the party to appear and show cause why he should not be compelled to do the act required, or why the object of the rule should not be enforced; a rule nisi. Special rule. Rules granted without any motion in court, or when the motion is only assumed to have been made, and is not actually made, are called “common” rules; while the rules granted upon motion actually made to the court in term, or upon a judge’s order in vacation, are termed “special” rules. Brown. The term may also be understood as opposed to “general” rule; in which case it means a particular direction, in a matter of practice, made for the purposes of a particular case.
(verb) – This verb has two significations: (1) to command or require by a rule of court; as, to rule the sheriff to return the writ, to rule the defendant to plead. (2) To settle or decide a point of law arising upon a trial at nisi prius; and, when it is said of a judge presiding at such a trial that he “ruled” so and so, it is meant that he laid down, settled, or decided such and such to be the law.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
This has several meanings: 1. To determine or decide; as, the court rule the point in favor of the plaintiff. 2. To order by rule; as rule to plead. 3. This is a metaphorical expression borrowed from mechanics. The rule, in its proper and natural sense, is an instrument by means of which may be drawn from one point to another, the shortest possible line, which is called a straight line. 4. The rule is a means of comparison in the arts to judge whether the line be straight, as it serves in jurisprudence, to judge whether an action be just or unjust, it is just or right, when it agrees with the rule, which is the law. It is unjust and wrong, when it deviates from it. It is the same with our will or our intention.