Legal Maxims
Unit 8. Meanings with illustrations. Covers Maxims on crime and liability; Maxims on justice and procedure; Maxims on precedent and interpretation; Maxims on rights and remedies; Maxims on property, contracts and knowledge.
About this unit
Legal maxims are short, mostly Latin, phrases that express settled principles of law. Judges and lawyers use them as shorthand in judgments and arguments. This unit explains important maxims on crime and liability, natural justice and procedure, precedent and interpretation, rights and remedies, and property, contracts and knowledge of law, each with a simple illustration.
Key ideas
- Maxims summarise principles; they are guides, not statutes.
- Criminal liability usually needs actus reus and mens rea.
- Natural justice rests on audi alteram partem and nemo judex in causa sua.
- Precedent works through stare decisis and the ratio decidendi of a case.
- Interpretation aids such as ejusdem generis and noscitur a sociis help read statutes.
- Maxims like ubi jus ibi remedium and caveat emptor shape civil law.
How to prepare
Learn each maxim's literal meaning and one example. Practise matching a short fact situation to the right maxim – this is the most common question style. Watch for pairs that are easily confused, such as damnum sine injuria and injuria sine damno.
Topics in this chapter
Maxims on crime and liability
Actus reus and mens rea, corpus delicti, doli incapax, qui facit per alium facit per se.
5 questionsMaxims on justice and procedure
Audi alteram partem, nemo judex in causa sua, locus standi, amicus curiae, res judicata.
5 questionsMaxims on precedent and interpretation
Stare decisis, ratio decidendi, obiter dicta, per incuriam, ejusdem generis, noscitur a sociis, pari materia.
5 questionsMaxims on rights and remedies
Ubi jus ibi remedium, damnum sine injuria, injuria sine damno, res ipsa loquitur, salus populi suprema lex.
5 questionsMaxims on property, contracts and knowledge
Caveat emptor, nemo dat quod non habet, bona fide, bona vacantia, quid pro quo, assensus mentium, ignorantia juris non excusat, ad valorem, de minimis, ex post facto.
5 questions