legal memory

noun

, Law.

1. a period of time, now usually established by statute, during which custom, conduct, or a state of affairs must have existed or continued in order for it to have taken on the force of law or to establish a legal right or title not otherwise provable.

Word History and Origins

Origin of legal memory¹

First recorded in 1760–70

Example Sentences

Wade was “wrong from the start,” he wrote, and must be erased from the court’s legal memory despite serving as precedent for nearly the past 50 years.

From Washington Times

Perry, the publicity campaign to shape the cultural and legal memory of their effort continues.

From New York Times

For the first time in British legal memory, a private citizen has just used this approach against an allegedly obscene book�and his victory may be Britain's biggest pornography precedent since a jury cleared Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1960.

From Time Magazine Archive

With respect for the legal memory of Boswell, we would venture to urge, that the forma pauperis is not the most available mode of addressing an English court; and, therefore, Johnson is not clearly proved wrong by the above argument brought against him.

From Project Gutenberg

This is a cause of thorough orthodox equity standing, having commenced before the time of legal memory, with every prospect of obtaining a final decree on its merits somewhere about the next Greek Kalends.

From Project Gutenberg