BLACK'S

LAW DICTIONARY
Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of
American and English Jurisprudence,
Ancient and Modern

By
HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK, M. A.
Author of Treatises on Judgments, Tax Titles, Intoxicating Liquors,
Bankruptcy, Mortgages, Constitutional Law, Interpretation
of Laws, Rescission and Cancellation of Contracts, Etc.

REVISED FOURTH EDITION

BY
THE PUBLISHER'S EDITORIAL STAFF

ST. PAUL, MINN.

WEST PUBLISHING CO.
1968
 COPYRIGHT © 1891, 1910, 1933, 1951, 1957 WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY

COPYRIGHT 0 1968
By
WEST PUBLISHING CO.

Black's Law Dictionary 4th Ed. Rev.

6-1971
 PREFACE
REVISED FOURTH EDITION

THE sustained and growing popularity of BLACK'S LAW DICTION-

ARY since its appearance more than seventy five years ago is a strik-
iig tribute to the scholarship and learning of Henry Campbell Black,
and to the essential soundness of the plan adopted by him for the
compilation of a legal lexicon.
In accordance with the original plan of this work, consistently
adhered to in all subsequent editions, the law student, confronted in
his casebooks with reports from the Year Books, or with extracts
from Glanvil, Bracton, Littleton, or Coke, will find in this dictionary
an unusually complete collection of definitions of terms used in old
English, European, and feudal law. The student will also find in this
volume, on page 1795, a useful Table of British Regnal Years, listing
the sovereigns of England for more than 900 years, together with the
date of accession to the throne, and the length of reign.

BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY has proven its value through the

years to the busy practitioner, judge and law student who requires
quick and convenient access to the meanings of legal terms and phras-
es found in statutes or judicial opinions, as well as to the special legal
meanings of standard English words—meanings which frequently can-
not be found in the ordinary English language dictionaries.

In the period of more than thirty five years since the publication
of the Third Edition, the law has undergone substantial changes and
developments. The vocabulary of the law has shown corresponding
change and growth. A word, in the often quoted dictum of Mr. Justice
Holmes, is "the skin of a living thought," and the words of statutes
and judicial opinions reflect the contemporary thinking of legislators
and jurists. In order adequately to represent this thinking in the
fourth edition, a patient examination was made of the thousands of
opinions handed down by the appellate courts each year. Some revi-
sions and additions have been included in this Revised Fourth Edi-
tion

Abbreviations of common words and phrases likely to be en-

countered by the user are explained in appropriate places throughout
the main body of the work. A Table of Abbreviations of the titles of
law reports, textbooks, and other legal literature is contained in the
back of the volume and a Guide to Pronunciation is included in the
front of the volume.

New features in this Revised Fourth Edition include the follow-

ing:
Code of Professional Responsibility
Canons of Judicial Ethics
An Outline of the Minimum Requirements for
Admission to Legal Practice in the United States
III
 PREFACE—REVISED FOURTH EDITION

In order that BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY should continue to

be a handy one-volume work of ready reference, the enlarged contents
of the Fourth Edition necessitated an improved typographical style.
The type for the Fourth Edition was accordingly completely reset and
arranged in wider columns, in a more attractive and readable manner.
The Publisher has drawn freely on its wide experience to make
the present edition of BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY superior to any
of the earlier editions. It is confidently believed that this edition, both
in content and format, sets new standards of excellence among law
dictionaries.

THE PUBLISHER
ST. PAUL, MINN.
June, 1968