Collection
The Law's Latin
Roman legal Latin that never left the courtroom — or the boardroom.
- 01
bona fide (idiom)
Genuine and honestly meant — the real thing, not a pretence.
The Roman standard of good faith.
- 02
caveat emptor (idiom)
Let the buyer beware — checking what you are buying is your own problem.
What Rome did not actually say.
- 03
quid pro quo (idiom)
Something given in return for something else, usually as an understood trade.
From the apothecary's substitute.
- 04
de facto (idiom)
In practice, whatever the official position says.
The question of fact.
- 05
de jure (idiom)
According to the law, whether or not that is what actually happens.
The question of law.
- 06
ipso facto (idiom)
By that very fact — the consequence follows automatically, with no further step.
Consequences that need no hearing.
- 07
the status quo (idiom)
The way things currently are, especially when someone wants to keep them that way.
In statu quo ante bellum.
- 08
ad hoc (idiom)
Made for this one situation, with no general rule behind it.
For this case only.
- 09
cui bono (idiom)
Who benefits? — asked to find out who is really behind something.
The judge Cassius's question.
- 10
ignorance of the law is no excuse (idiom)
Not knowing a rule existed will not get you out of having broken it.
Straight out of the Digest.
- 11
modus operandi (idiom)
A person's characteristic way of doing something, recognisable across occasions.
How the thing was done.
- 12
persona non grata (idiom)
Someone who is no longer welcome, and has been told so.
Vienna Convention, Article 9.