United States Law/Terminology quiz

Choose the sentence that best defines the legal term given.

Exercise 1 (Multiple Choices)
1. Act

(A) something done, a deed

(B) a division of a theatrical performance

(C) a product of a legislative body, a statute

2. Advance sheets

(A) pamphlets with the updates of recent decisions of a court or several courts

(B) a document filed to move to the next round of competition

(C) type of musical manuscript used in the Medieval period

3. Annotated code

(A) A version of a code with relevant references added to it

(B) upcoming book by Dan Brown, a sequel to the Da Vinci Code

(C) A complex master password that can bring down Wikimedia

4. Appeal

(A) resort to physical means

(B) the act, by the fielding side, of asking an umpire for a decision of whether a batsman is out or not.

(C) An application for the removal of a cause or suit from an inferior to a superior judge or court for reexamination or review.

5. Appellant

(A) someone who repels

(B) a litigant or party that is making an appeal in court.

(C) a substance or treatment for a fabric etc to make it impervious to something

6. Appellate court

(A) a hardcover book

(B) the law of reported judicial opinions

(C) Court full of sex appeal

7. Appellee

(A) a compilation of statues

(B) a directive to another term or synonym in an index

(C) ad hoc amicus curiae

8. Black letter law

(A) including what came before

(B) an expression of the reasons why a certain decision was reached in a case

(C) any law that is not black in color

9. Bluebook

(A) blank notebook used in the final exams in college

(B) a rule book for legal citation published by a group of law reviews

(C) any book that is painted blue and sold throughout the U.S.

10. Case

(A) a private publisher's collection of brief summaries of court holdings on points of law from cases

(B) something that helps you find what you are looking for

(C) a container used to house an object

11. Citation

(A) a brief summary of a legal rule or significant facts in a case (B) a parmanent number given a specific topic or point of case law

(C) A ticket issued by a police officer for minor offenses, such as traffic matters

12. Cite

(A) a paperback update

(B) a citation reference to the same case printed in two or more different reporters

(C) a place or location

13. Civil

(A) res ipsa loquitur

(B) a single book or section of a book in a statue index that contains

(C) prima facie

14. Code

(A) lean white flesh of important North Atlantic food fish; usually baked or poached (B) pod: the vessel that contains the seeds of a plant (not the seeds themselves)

(C) A systematic collection of laws by category

15. Common law

(A) Law that is widely accessible and widely spread

(B) A domestic quarrel prevalent among the laymen

(C) The law developed over centuries and derived from judicial opinions rather than from legislative enactments.

16. Controversy

(A) A dispute or case

(B) quid pro quo

(C) habeas corpus

17. Court

(A) the United States Supreme Court

(B) dicta

(C) in personam

18. court

(A) courts in a general sense

(B) pinpoint references

(C) a place where one plays tennis

19. Criminal law

(A) any law that is injurious and evil

(B) the public law regarding crimes and their prosecution

(C) the method of citing consecutive pages

20. Decision

(A) An authoritative ruling that a court makes

(B) administrative codes

(C) Administrative registers

21. Defendant

(A) The person against whom a lawsuit or prosecution has been brought

(B) agency decisions

(C) A.L.R. annotations

22. Descriptive Word Index

(A) A bibliographic tool used for finding cases by subject in a print digest

(B) Books and treatises

(C) Constitutions

23. Digests

(A) Finding tools that provide subject access to cases. Digests are usually a multi-volume publication and the entries are arranged according to a subject outline.

(B) Encyclopedia

(C) Local court citation rules

24. Dissent

(A) A judge's disagreement with the majority opinion of a court

(B) Lowering of the bench in the courtroom

(C) West regional reporter coverage

25. Et seq

(A) Latin phrase for "I hate lawyers"

(B) and the following

(C) I have no idea

26. Headnote

(A) South Eastern Reporter

(B) summaries that state a decision's principles or ruling

(C) Southern Reporter

27. Hornbook

(A) A general reference to the series of treatises published by Thomson West or to other introductory texts written primarily for students (B) Order of Cited Authorities

(C) Heart rate monitors

28. Index to Legal Periodicals & Books

(A) known as ILP, an index of law reviews articles

(B) harass with persistent criticism or carping

(C) A shipment for which the carrier is responsible for collecting the sale price of the goods shipped prior to delivery

30. Judgment

(A) A court's formal ruling or decision

(B) text references

(C) Commercially published CD-ROM material

31. Key number

(A) Number given to each sub-topic in the West digest system

(B) de jure

(C) numeric value coded on a key

32. Looseleafs

(A) Organic outgrowth of tropical forest

(B) A frequently supplemented tool that specializes in a particular area of law and often contains primary legal sources, finding aids, and secondary source material.

33. LegalTrac

(A) An index of periodical literature that indexes most English-language legal periodical literature from 1980 to the present

(B) The amount of oxygen consumed by the chemical breakdown of organic and inorganic matter

(C) documents without footnote

34. Nutshell

(A) A protective shield used by naughty law professors during class

(B) A general reference to the series of treatises published by Thomson West

(C) Chris scored 145 on the December LSAT

35. Unannotated code

(A) A version of a code without reference to law review articles, case summaries

(B) Unending sequence of numbers and letters

(C) Unmarked page of a code

36. Unofficial publications

(A) Pirated copy of commercial texts published in China

(B) published work without statutory authority designating them as an official version.

(C) Books sold illegally without the cover

37. Official publications

(A) What links here

(B) Related changes

(C) authorized by statute or governmental ruling

38. Online sources

(A) Upload file

(B) Special pages

(C) Westlaw and LexisNexis

39. Opinion

(A) The reasons given for a court's judgment, finding or conclusion.

(B) Content that violates any copyright will be deleted

(C) Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia

40. Panel

(A) In reference to a court, it is a group of judges (usually three judges) among those sitting on an appellate court who hear a particular appeal

(B) Lexis's Jurisprudence of Viriginia and West Virginia

(C) Michigan Civil Jurisprudence

41. Parallel citation

(A) Black's Law Dictionary

(B) A reference to a document’s citation when the document is printed in more than one source

(C) Dictionary of International and Comparative Law

42. Plaintiff

(A) The person or entity that initiates a lawsuit against another

(B) Pinpoint reference

(C) American Law Reports

43. Pocket part

(A) A paper-back pamphlet inserted into a book through a slit in its cover (usually the back cover), that updates the information in the book itself

(B) ALWD Citation Manual

(C) Comparative legal philosophy

44. Precedent

(A) A judicial decision that a court should follow when deciding a similar case

(B) where the mineral water is bottled

(C) Statutes at large

45. Primary sources

(A) where the mineral water is bottled, Evian, France is the good example

(B) The actual law itself whether constitutional, statutory, administrative (regulations) or case law.

(C) anything that is neither secondary or tertiary

44. Regulation

(A) A rule or order issued by a government agency to carry out the intent of the law

(B) unpublished memorandum

(C) ABA model ethics codes

46. Reporter

(A) Court opinions from a particular court or group of courts are published in books referred to as reporters

(B) Uniform law and sentencing guidelines

(C) American Jurisprudence

47. Ruling

(A) An official or authoritative determination, statement, or interpretation (as by a judge on a question of law)

(B) Corpus Juris Secondum

(C) West's Maryland Law Encyclopedia

48. Secondary source

(A) law review articles, encyclopedias, and books

(B) On the federal level, the highest court in the judicial branch of government

(C) Chemical oxygen demand

49. Slip opinion

(A) An individual judicial opinion that is published separately, either in print or online, shortly after it is issued by the court

(B) italics to show emphasis

(C) Any court that requires a writ of certiorari to review a case

50. Statute

(A) A law enacted by the legislative branch of a government

(B) websites without permission

(C) Text that is licensed under a Free Content License

Exercise 2 (Free Responses)
Define the following terms in your own words.

1. Treatises

2. Slip opinion

3. Reporter

4. Pocket part

5. Nutshell

6. Looseleafs

7. Digests

Exercise 3 (Common Latin Phrases)
Click the follow Latin terms and look up their definitions.


 * ad hoc
 * amicus curiae
 * certiorari
 * de facto
 * de jure
 * de novo
 * dicta, dictum
 * en banc
 * et al.
 * et seq.
 * habeas corpus
 * in personam
 * in rem
 * inter alia
 * passim
 * prima facie
 * quantum meruit
 * quid pro quo
 * res gestae
 * res ipsa loquitur
 * res judicata