Law lexicon
Solicitor
A lawyer that restricts his or her practice to the giving
of legal advice and does not normally litigate. that court
room. In England and some other Commonwealth jurisdictions,
a legal distinction is made between solicitors and barristers,
the former with exclusive privileges of giving oral or
written legal advice, and the latter with exclusive privileges
of preparing and conducting litigation in the courts.
In other words, solicitors don't appear in court on a
client's behalf and barristers don't give legal advice
to clients. In England, barristers and solicitozs work
as a team: the solicitor would typically make the first
contact with a client and if the issue cannot be resolved
and proceeds to trial, the solicitor would transfer the
case to a barrister for the duration of the litigation.
Lawyers in some states, such as Canada, sometimes use
|he title "barrister and solicitor" even though,
contrary to England, there is no legal distinction between
the advising and litigating roles. Canadian lawyers can
litigate or give legal advice (as is the case in the USA,
where lawyers are referred to as "attorneys").
Sovereign
Has two meanings. The first one is a technical word for
the monarch (king or queen) of a particular country as
in "the Sovereign of England is Queen Elizabeth."
The other meaning of the word is to describe the supreme
legislative powers of a state: that they are totally independent
and free from any outside political control or authority
over their decisions. The people of Quebec, for example,
has, at times, supported governments which have proposed
that Quebec become a "sovereign" state; that
all legislative authority of the government of Canada
over their territory cease and that the government of
Quebec be enabled to regulate in any matter at all; and
that the goveznment of Quebec represent itseln internationally.
Standing
committee
A term of parliamentary law which refers to those committees
which have a continued existence; that are not related
to the accomplishment of a specific, once-only task as
are ad hoc or special committees. Standing committees
generally exist as long as the organisation to which it
reports. Budget and finance or nomination committees are
typical standing committees of a larger organisation.
Stare
decisis
A basic principle of the law whereby once a decision (a
precedent) on a certain set of facts has been made, the
courts will apply that decision in cases which subsequently
come before it embodying the same set of facts. A precedent
which is binding; must be followed.
