# de jure

idiom · CEFR C2 · Formal

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/de-jure
Updated: 2026-08-03

## Meaning

According to the law, whether or not that is what actually happens.

## Examples

- De jure the island belongs to them; de facto it does not.
- The practice was abolished de jure in 1965 and carried on in several districts for another twenty years.
- Recognising the new administration de jure would have committed three governments to a position none of them wanted to defend, so they dealt with it de facto instead and said nothing in public.

## Origin

De jure is the other half of the pair — from the law, by right — and it is the older and grander of the two. Ius, the Latin word behind it, is the whole body of law and right, the word that gives English jurist, jurisdiction, justice and injury. Roman jurists needed the distinction because a person could very obviously possess something without being entitled to it, and the entire law of possession is built on keeping the two questions apart. Later international lawyers put the same distinction to work on governments and borders. In English the two almost always travel together, and the interesting sentences are the ones where they come apart: segregation that was outlawed de jure and continued de facto, a monarch who reigns de jure while somebody else governs.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.