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- Bad faith
- Intent to deceive. A person who intentionally tries to deceive or mislead
another in order to gain some advantage.
- Bail
- Criminal law: a commitment made (and possibly secured by cash or property)
to secure the release of a person being held in custody and suspected of a
crime, to provide some kind of guarantee that the suspect will appear to
answer the charges at some later date.
- Bailee
- The person who receives property through a contract of bailment, from the bailor, and who may be committed
to certain duties of care towards the property while it remains in his or her
possession.
- Bailment
- The transfer of possession of something (by the bailor)
to another person (called the bailee) for some temporary
purpose (eg. storage) after which the property is either returned to the
bailor or otherwise disposed of in accordance with the
contract of bailment.
- Bailor
- The person who temporarily transfers possession of property to another,
the bailee, under a contract of
bailment.
- Bankruptcy
- The formal condition of an insolvent
person being declared bankrupt under law. The legal effect is to divert most
of the debtor's assets and debts to the administration of a third person,
sometimes called a "
trustee in bankruptcy", from which outstanding debts are paid
pro rata.
Bankruptcy forces the debtor into a statutory period during which his or her
commercial and financial affairs are administered under the strict supervision
of the trustee.
Bankruptcy usually involves the removal of several special legal rights such
as the right to sit on a board of directors or, for some professions that form
part of the justice system, to practice, such as lawyers or judges. Commercial
organizations usually add other non-legal burdens upon bankrupts such as the
refusal of credit. The duration of "bankruptcy" status varies from state to
state but it does have the benefit of erasing most debts even if they were not
satisfied by the sale of the debtor's assets.
- Bare trust
- A trust
that has become passive for the
trustee
because all the duties the
settlor may
have imposed upon the
trustee
have been performed or any conditions or terms have come to fruition, such as
there is no longer any impediment to the transfer of the property to the
beneficiary.
- Barrister
- A
litigation specialist; a lawyer that restricts his or her practice to the
court room. In England and some other Commonwealth jurisdictions, a legal
distinction is made between barristers and
solicitors,
the latter with exclusive privileges of advising clients, providing legal
advice, and the former with exclusive privileges of appearing in a court on
behalf of a client. In other words, solicitors don't appear in court on a
client's behalf and barristers don't give legal advice to clients. In England,
barristers and solicitors work as a team: the solicitor would typically make
the first contact with a client and if the issue cannot be resolved and
proceeds to trial, the solicitor would transfer the case to a barrister for
the duration of the litigation. Lawyers in some states, such as Canada,
sometimes use the title "barrister and solicitor" even though, contrary to
England, there is no legal distinction between the advising and litigating
roles. Canadian lawyers can litigate or give legal advice, as is the case in
the USA, where lawyers are referred to as "attorneys."
- Bastard
- An illegitimate child, born in a relationship between two persons that are
not married (ie. not in wedlock)
or who are not married at the time of the child's birth.
- Bench
- A judge in court session.
- Beneficiary
- In a legal context, a "beneficiary" usually refers to the person for whom
a trust has
been created. May also be referred to as a "
donee" or, for legal tecchies, as a
cestui
que trust.
Trusts are
made to advantage a beneficiary ( ie. A
settlor
(also called a "
donor") transfers property to a
trustee,
the profits of which are to be given to the beneficiairy).
- Berne Convention
- An international
copyright
treaty called the Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
signed at Berne, Switzerland in 1886 (amended several times and as late as
1971) and to which now subscribe 77 nations including all major trading
countries including China, with the notable exception of Russia. It is based
on the principle of
national treatment.
- Bigamy
- Being married to more than one person at the same time. This is a criminal
offence in most countries.
- Bill of exchange
- A written order from one person (the
payor) to
another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is
addressed to pay on demand or at some fixed future date, a certain sum of
money, to either the person identified as
payee or to
any person presenting the bill of exchange. A
check is a
form of bill of exchange where the order is given to a bank.
- Bill of lading
- A document that a transport company possesses acknowledging that it has
received goods, and serves as title for the purpose of transportation.
- Blind trust
- A trust set up by a settlor who reserves the right to terminate the trust
but other than that, agrees to assert no power over the trust, which is
administered without account to the beneficiary/settlor or the retention of
any other measure of control over the trust's administration. In Canada, for
example, it is common for government ministers to vest all their investment
property to a blind trust to avoid any conflict of interest.
- Bona vacantia
- Property that belongs to no person, and which may be claimed by a finder.
In some states, the government becomes owner of all bona vacantia
property.
- Born out of
wedlock
- Born of parents who were not married at the time of birth.
- Breach of contract
- The failure to do what one promised to do under a
contract.
Proving a breach of
contract
is a prerequisite of any suit for
damages
based on the
contract.
- Breach of trust
- Any act or omission on the part of the trustee which is inconsistent with
the terms of the trust agreement or the law of trusts. A prime example is the
redirecting of trust property from the trust to the trustee, personally.
- Buggery
- Synonymous with sodomy and
referring to "unnatural" sex acts, including copulation, either between two
persons of the same sex or between a person and an animal (the latter act also
known as "bestiality"). Most countries outlaw bestiality but homosexual
activity is gradually being decriminalized.
- Burden of proof
- A rule of evidence that makes a person prove a certain thing or the
contrary will be assumed by the court. For example, in criminal trials, the
prosecution has the burden of proving the accused guilt because innocence is
presumed.
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