 a brocard is a legal principle expressed in latin (and often derived from past legal authorities or roman law), which is traditionally used to express concisely a wider legal concept or rule. the name comes from the latinized name of burchard (died 1025), bishop of worms, germany, who compiled 20 volumes of ecclesiastical rules. ==history== begun in 1008, the materials took burchard four years to compile. he wrote it while living in a small structure on top of a hill in the forest outside worms, after his defeat of duke otto and while raising his adopted child. the collection, which he called the "collectarium canonum" or "decretum", became the primary source for canon law. along with numerous documents from a variety of sources, including the old testament and augustine of hippo, burchard included the canon episcopi in this collection, under the belief that it dated from a bishop's "council of anquira" in 314, but no other evidence of this council exists. because of this inclusion, burchard has been described as something of a rationalist. as the source of canon law, burchard's decretum was supplanted around 1150 by the decretum gratiani, a much larger collection that further attempted to reconcile contradictory canon law. burchard spent the years 1023 to 1025 promulgating "leges et statuta familiae s. petri wormatiensis", a collection of religious laws he endorsed as fair and hoped to see adopted with official approval. ==examples== ;dura lex, sed lex : "the law [is] harsh, but [it is] the law". it follows from the principle of the rule of law that even draconian laws must be followed and enforced; if one disagrees with the result, one must seek to change the law. ;ignorantia legis non excusat : "ignorance of the law is no excuse." not knowing that one's actions are forbidden by the law is not a defense. ;in claris non fit interpretatio : when a rule is clearly intelligible, there is no need of proposing a (usually extensive) interpretation. ;inadimplenti non est adimplendum : "one has no need to respect his obligation if the counter-party has not respected his own." this is used in civil law to briefly indicate a principle (adopted in some systems) referred to as the synallagmatic contract.http://www.jusbelli.com/bouvier/bouvier1856_sw.html ; lex specialis derogat legi generali : "a law governing a specific subject matter overrides a law which only governs general matters." ; iura novit curia : the judge knows the law (technically, there is no need to "explain the law" or the legal system to a judge/justice in any given petition). ; nemo dat quod non habet:http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110
Latin_legal_terms Legal_history