In English law, a black letter law is the area of law characterized by technical rules, rather than those having a more conceptual basis. These laws establish the basic standard elements for a particular field of law, and are generally known and free from doubt or dispute. It may be, for example, the standard elements for a contract or the technical definition of battery; contract, tort, and land law are typical black letter law subjects, whereas administrative law, for example, would be considered considerably less black letter.
In the American legal system, a black-letter law is instead just a well-established case law.
Read more about Black Letter Law: History and Etymology, Similar Phrases
Famous quotes containing the words black, letter and/or law:
“O God, oh! of thine only worthy blood,
And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood,
And drown in it my sins’ black memory.
That thou remember them, some claim as debt;
I think it mercy, if thou wilt forget.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)
“...that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”
—Bible: Hebrew, 2 Kings 5:8.
Elijah to the king of Israel who has received a letter from the king of Syria looking for someone to cure his commander of leprosy.
“Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality,—that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient? chooses the available candidate,—who is invariably the devil,—and what right have his constituents to be surprised, because the devil does not behave like an angel of light? What is wanted is men, not of policy, but of probity,—who recognize a higher law than the Constitution, or the decision of the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)