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- Nation
- A group or race of people that share history, traditions and culture. The
United Kingdom is comprised of four nations or national groups: the English,
Scots, Irish and Welsh. Canada includes French-Canadians, English-Canadians
and a number of aboriginal nations. Thus, states may be
comprised of one or several nations. It is common English to use the word
"nation" when referring to what is known in law as "states."
- National treatment
- A tenet of international trade agreements whereby nations must afford
imported goods the same treatment that they afford domestic or "national"
products (no discrimination).
- Natural justice
- A word used to refer to situations where
audi alteram partem (the right to be heard) and
nemo judex in parte sua (no person may
judge their own case) apply. The principles of natural justice were derived
from the Romans who believed that some legal principles were "natural" or
self-evident and did not require a statutory basis. These two basic legal
safeguards govern all decisions by judges or government officials when they
take quasi-judicial or judicial decisions.
- NCND Agreement
- An international trade instrument; "non circumvention/non disclosure
agreement" used in the preliminary stages of a business transaction where the
Seller and Buyer do not know each other, but are brought into contact with
each other by one or more intermediaries (also known as brokers or middlemen),
to fulfill the transaction. Non Circumvention/Non Disclosure Agreements ensure
that the intermediaries in the transaction are not circumvented and excluded
from the transaction by the Buyer and/or Seller and/or the other
intermediaries. Many trade transactions are chain-like. Product flows like
this: seller-broker-broker-broker-buyer. The brokers in the middle use NCNDs
to ensure that they are not circumvented by anyone else in the chain; also, to
ensure that information on the other parties in the chain is not disclosed to
outside parties. They are valid for a specified term; usually two years.
- Negligence
- Not only are people responsible for the intentional harm they cause, but
their failure to act as a reasonable person would be expected to act in
similar circumstances (i.e. "negligence") will also give rise to compensation.
Negligence, if it causes injury to another, can give rise to a liability suit
under tort.
Negligence is always assessed having regards to the circumstances and to the
standard of care which would reasonably be expected of a person in similar
circumstances. Everybody has a duty to ensure that their actions do not cause
harm to others. Between negligence and the intentional act there lies yet
another, more serious type of negligence which is called
gross
negligence. Gross
negligence is any action or an omission in reckless disregard of the
consequences to the safety or property of another. See also
contributory negligence and
comparative negligence.
- Negotiate
- To communicate on a matter of disagreement between two parties, with a
view to first listen to the other party's perspective and to then attempt to
arrive at a resolution by consensus.
- Nemo judex in parte sua
- Latin and a fundamental principle of natural
justice which states that no person can judge a case in which he or she is
party. May also be called nemo judex in sua causa or nemo debet esse
judex in propria causa.
- Next of kin
- The nearest blood relative of a deceased. The expression has come to
describe those persons most related to a dead person and therefore set to
inherit the deceased's property.
- Nolo contendere
- Latin for "I will not defend it." Used primarily in criminal proceedings
whereby the defendant declines to refute the evidence of the prosecution. In
some jurisdictions, this response by the defendant has same effect as a plea
of guilty.
- Non est factum
- Latin for "not his deed" and a special defense in contract law to allow a
person to avoid having to respect a contract that she or he signed because of
certain reasons such as a mistake as to the kind of contract. For example, a
person who signs away the deed to a house, thinking that the document signed
was only a guarantee for another person's debt, might be able to plead non
est factum in a court and on that basis get the court to void the
contract.
- Nonfeasance
- Not doing something that a person should be doing. Compare with
malfeasance
and misfeasance.
- Non-joinder
- When a person who should have been made a party to a legal proceedings has been
forgotten or omitted. This is usually addressed by asking the court to amend
documents and including the forgotten party to the proceedings. It is the
opposite of
mis-joinder.
- Notary
- Also known as "notary public": a legal officer with specific judicial
authority to attest to legal documents usually with an official seal. Most
countries do not have notaries vesting administrative legal authority in
lawyers or court officers. Jurisdictions which do have notaries include the
Canadian provinces of Quebec and British Columbia and Australia.
- Notwithstanding
- In spite of, even if, without regard to or impediment by other things.
- Novation
- Substitute a new debt for an old debt canceling the old debt. (Compare
with "subrogation")
- Nudum pactum
- A contract-law term which stands for those agreements which are without
consideration, such as a unilateral undertaking, which may bind a person
morally, but not under contract law, in those jurisdictions which still
require consideration.
- Nuisance
- Excessive or unlawful use of one's property to the extent of unreasonable
annoyance or inconvenience to a neighbor or to the public. Nuisance is a
tort.
- Nunc pro tunc
- Latin: now for then. It refers to the doing of something late (after it
should have been done in the first place), with effect as if it had been done
on time.
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