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lex non scripta

[ leks non skrip-tuh, nohn ]

noun

, Law.
  1. unwritten law; common law.


lex non scripta

/ nɒn ˈskrɪptə /

noun

  1. the unwritten law; common law
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of lex non scripta1

From Latin lēx nōn scrīpta
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Word History and Origins

Origin of lex non scripta1

from Latin
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Example Sentences

"The common law or lex non scripta," says Blackstone, "depends upon its having been used time out of mind; or, in the solemnity of our legal phrase, time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary."

Juggins was too dumbfoundered to reply to the accusation, and several spectators came forward to testify that they had personally witnessed him curbing his steed, and—it being contrary to the lex non scripta of turf etiquette to pull at a horse's head when he is winning—Juggins was very ignominiously plucked by the Jockey's Club.

But the Recorder refused to tell him, saying it was lex non scripta, and it was not to be expected that he could say at once what it was, for some had been thirty or forty years studying it.

Little difficulty, however, is there experienced from the want of written laws, the lex non scripta of every parish or county being perfectly understood where it is in force.

Blackstone divides the civil law of England into lex scripta or statute law, and lex non scripta or common law.

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lex locilex scripta