LAW OF THE LAND • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Law of the land

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/lɔ əv ðə lænd/ Listen

Law of the land

noun

A phrase used in the Magna Carta to refer to the then established law of the kingdom (as distinct from Roman or civil law); today it refers to fundamental principles of justice commensurate with due process.

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Etymology of 'Law of the land'

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"Law of the land" Quotes from Famous Books

... old Canon was much affected. His brother Holworth, as he called him, was not in prison but in the Virginian plantations. He was still the only true minister of Elmwood, and Mr. Woodley, though owned by the present so-called law of the land, was not there rightly by the law of the Church, and, therefore, Stead was certainly not bound to surrender the trust to him, but rather ...

— Under the Storm - Steadfast's Charge • Charlotte M. Yonge

... nobles compelled the king to secure their consent before imposing any taxation. The second set forth that no one was to be arrested, imprisoned, or punished in any way, except after a trial by his equals and in accordance with the law of the land. The third said simply that to no one should justice be sold, denied, or delayed. These last two clauses contained the germ of great legal principles on which the English people relied for protection ...

— EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY • HUTTON WEBSTER

... If this decision be necessarily unchristian and barbarous, such, also, should we expect to be the character of other laws passed by the same body, and under the same circumstances. A declaration of war, in this country, is a law of the land, made by a deliberative body, under the high sanction of the constitution. It is true that such a law may be unjust and wrong, but we can scarcely agree that it will necessarily be so. The distinction between war, as thus duly declared, and ...

— Elements of Military Art and Science • Henry Wager Halleck

... daughter to rebel against it. This idea still lingers and the institution remains,[22] although the system has received stunning blows from the teaching of Christian ethics, the preaching of a better gospel and the improvements in the law of the land. ...

— The Religions of Japan - From the Dawn of History to the Era of Meiji • William Elliot Griffis

... carry that by going out into the streets with all the roughs of London, and putting yourself in direct opposition to the authority of the magistrates? Do you really believe that the ballot will become the law of the land any sooner because you incur this danger ...

— Phineas Finn - The Irish Member • Anthony Trollope

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