Legal Dictionary

obiter

Legal Definition of obiter

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Definition of obiter

Etymology

    From Latin obiter.

Adverb

obiter (not comparable)

  1. Incidentally; in passing.

    * 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York 2001, p. 206:
    I will not here stand to discuss obiter, whether stars be causes, or signs; or to apologize for judicial astrology.

Noun

obiter (plural obiters)

  1. (law) An obiter dictum; a statement from the bench commenting on a point of law which is not necessary for the judgment at hand and therefore has no judicial weight, as opposed to ratio decidendi.

References:

  1. Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.



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