QUESTION OF LAW
question of law. 1. An issue to be decided by the judge, concerning the application or
interpretation of the law <a jury cannot decide questions of law, which are reserved for the
court>.2. A question that the law itself has authoritatively answered, so that the court may not
answer it as a matter of discretion <under the sentencing guidelines, the punishment for a
three-time offender is a question of law>.3. An issue about what the law is on a particular point; an
issue in which parties argue about, and the court must decide, what the true rule of law is <both
parties appealed on the question of law>.4. An issue that, although it may turn on a factual point,
is reserved for the court and excluded from the jury; an issue that is exclusively within the
province of the judge and not the jury <whether a contractual ambiguity exists is a question of
law>. — Also termed legal question; law question. ] [Blacks Law 8th]