in personam

[ in per-soh-nam ]

adverb

, Law.

1. (of a legal proceeding or judgment) directed against a party or parties, rather than against property.

in personam

/ ɪn pɜːˈsəʊnæm /

adjective

1. law (of a judicial act) directed against a specific person or persons Compare in rem

Word History and Origins

Origin of in personam¹

Borrowed into English from Latin around 1880–85

Word History and Origins

Origin of in personam¹

Latin

Example Sentences

Rights, in personam or in rem, are objects of economic value, and the exchange of these rights makes up the bulk, if not the whole, of economic exchange.

From Project Gutenberg

Obligation, the Roman term, meaning the relation of the parties to what the analytical jurists have called a right in personam is an exotic in our law in that sense.

From Project Gutenberg

In modern times, thinking, whether he knows it or not, in terms of natural rights and by derivation of legal rights, the analytical jurist speaks of rights in personam.

From Project Gutenberg

The phrase "right in personam" and its co-phrase "right in rem" are so misleading in their implications, as any teacher soon learns, that we may leave them to the textbooks of analytical jurisprudence.

From Project Gutenberg

In Roman law, the condiction, which is the type of actions in personam, and thus the starting point historically of rights in personam and of theories of obligation, was at first a recovery of a thing certain or a sum certain due upon a promise of this sort.

From Project Gutenberg