Category: J

To declare the law; to say what the law is. The province of a court or judge. 2 Eden, 29; 3 P. Wins. 485.

The right of disposing. An expression used either generally to signify the right of alienation, as when we speak of depriving a married woman of the jus disponendi over her separate estate, or specially in the law relating to sales of goods, where it is often a question whether the vendor of goods has the intention of re- serving to himself the jus disponendi; i. e., of preventing the ownership from passing to the purchaser, notwithstanding that he (the veudor) has parted witli the possession of the goods. Sweet.

The right of disposing of realty by will. Du Cange.

Lat In Roman law. Right; justice ; law; the whole body of law; also a right. The term is used in two meanings: 1. “Jus” means “law,” considered in the abstract; that is, as distinguished from any specific enactment, the science or department of learning, or quasi personified factor in human history or conduct or social development, which we call, in a general sense, “the law.” Or it means the law taken as a system, an aggregate, a whole; “the sum total of a number of individual laws taken together.” Or it may designate some one particular system or body of particular laws; as in the phrases “jus civile,” “jus yentium,” “jus pratorium.” 2. In a second sense, “jus” signifies “a right;” that is, a power, privilege, faculty, or demand inherent in one person and incident upon another; or a capacity residing in one person of controlling, with the assent and assistance of the state, the actions of another. This is its meaning in the expressions “jus in rem,” “jus accrescendi,” “jus possessionis.” It is thus seen to possess the same ambiguity as the words “droit,” “recht,” and “right,” (which see.) Within the meaning of the maxim that “ig- norantia juris non excusat” (ignorance of the law is no excuse), the word “jus” is used to denote the general law or ordinary law of the land, and not a private right. Churchill v. Bradley, 58 Vt. 403, 5 Atl. ISO, 56 Am. Rep. 563; Cooper v. Fibbs, L. R. 2 H. L. 149; Freichnecht v. Meyer, 39 N. J. Eq. 561. The continental jurists seek to avoid this ambiguity in the use of the word “jus,” by calling its former signification “objective,” and the latter meaning “subjective.” Thus Mackeldey (Rom. Law,

The right of renunciation; the right of an heir, under the Roman law, to renounce or decline the inheritance, as, for example, where his acceptance, in consequence of the necessity of paying the debts, would make it a burden to him. See Mackeld. Rom. Law,

The right to abuse. By this phrase is understood the right to do exactly as one likes with property, or having full dominion over property. 3 Toul- lier, no. 80.

The right of survivorship. The right of the survivor or survivors of two or more joint tenants to the tenancy or estate, upon the death of one or more of the joint tenants. Jus accrescendi inter mcrcatores, pro beneficio commercii, locum non babet. The right of survivorship has no place between merchants, for the benefit of commerce. Co. Litt. 182a; 2 Story, Eq. Jur.

A term of the civil law, meaning “a right to a thing;” that is, a right exercisable by one person over a particular article of property in virtue of a contract or obligation incurred by another person In respect to it, and which is enforceable only against or through such other person. It is thus distinguished from jus in re, which Is a complete and absolute dominion over a thing available against all persons. The disposition of modern writers is to use the term “jus ad rem” as descriptive of a right without possession, and “jus in re” as descriptive of a right accompanied by possession. Or, iu a somewhat wider sense, the former denotes an inchoate or incomplete right to a thing; the latter, a complete and perfect right to a thing. See The Carlos F. Roses, 177 U. S. 655, 20 Sup. Ct. 803, 44 L Ed. 929; The Young Mechanic, 30 Fed. Cas. 873. In canon law. A right to a thing. An inchoate and imperfect right, such as is gained by nomination and institution; as distinguished from jus in re, or complete and full right, such as is acquired by corporal possession. 2 Bl. Comm. 312.

The droit d’aubaine, (q. v.) See ALUINATUS JUS.

The laws and customs of the West Saxons, in the time of the Heptarchy, by which the people were for a long time governed, and which were prefer- red before all others. Wharton.