Posts by admin

ancient wall.See WALL. [Blacks Law 8th]

ancient serjeant.Hist. English law. The eldest of the Crown’s serjeants. • The last serjeant to hold this office died in 1866. [Blacks Law 8th]

ancients.Hist. Certain members of seniority in the Inns of Court and Chancery. • In Gray’s Inn, the  society  con-sisted  of  benchers,  ancients,  barristers,  and  students  under  the  bar,  with  the ancients  being  the  oldest barristers.  In  the  Middle  Temple,  those  who  passed  the  readings  were termed ancients. The Inns of Chancery consisted of both ancients…

ancient-lights  doctrine.The  common-law  principle  by  which  a  landowner  acquired,  after  20 years of uninter-rupted use, an easement preventing a neighbor from building an obstruction that blocks light  from  passing  through  the  landowner’s  window.  • The window  (or  other  opening)  is termed an ancient light. This doctrine has rarely been applied in the United States. —…

ancient rent.Hist. The rent reserved at the time the lease is made, if the  estate was not then under lease. [Blacks Law 8th]

ancient readings.Hist. Lectures on ancient English statutes, formerly having substantial legal authority. [Blacks Law 8th]

ancient law.The law of antiquity, considered esp. either from an anthropological standpoint or from the stand-point of tracing precursors to modern law. “Ancient law uniformly refuses to dispense with a single gesture, however grotesque; with a single  syllable,  however  its  meaning  may  have  been  forgotten;  with  a  single  witness,  however superfluous  may  be  his  testimony. …

ancient house.See HOUSE. [Blacks Law 8th]

ancient fact.See FACT. [Blacks Law 8th]

ancient document.See DOCUMENT. [Blacks Law 8th]