LAW-GAT flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Pakistan Bar Council

Statutory apex body for the legal profession in Pakistan, constituted under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973, with Provincial Bar Councils for each province and Islamabad.

Advocate enrolment

Formal admission to the roll of advocates after an LL.B., character certificate, training and the Bar admission examination conducted by the Pakistan Bar Council.

Professional misconduct

Breach of the Bar Council conduct rules, such as touting, advertising, betraying client confidence or mishandling client funds, punishable by reprimand, suspension or removal.

Article 8 Constitution

Provides that any law inconsistent with fundamental rights is void to the extent of inconsistency, and bars the State from actions that violate those rights.

Article 199 writs

Confers High Court jurisdiction to issue certiorari, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and habeas corpus against persons or authorities acting in excess of lawful power.

Article 184(3)

Gives the Supreme Court original jurisdiction in matters of public importance involving the enforcement of fundamental rights, exercisable on its own initiative.

Basic structure doctrine

Judicial principle that certain salient features of the Constitution, such as judicial review and the federal parliamentary system, cannot be abrogated by constitutional amendment.

Section 2(h) Contract Act

Defines a contract as an agreement enforceable by law; the agreement must satisfy Section 10 requirements of free consent, lawful object and consideration, and competence.

Consideration adequacy

Consideration must be real and lawful but need not be adequate; inadequacy goes only to the question of free consent, not to validity of the contract.

Minor's agreement

An agreement with a person below the age of majority is void ab initio, as held in Mohori Bibee v Dharmodas Ghose; no ratification follows on attaining majority.

Section 73 damages

Compensation for loss naturally arising in the usual course of things or within the parties' knowledge, excluding remote and indirect loss.

Res ipsa loquitur

Evidential doctrine where the accident would not ordinarily occur without negligence and the thing was under the defendant's exclusive control, allowing negligence to be inferred.

Volenti non fit injuria

Complete defence to a tort claim where the claimant freely and knowingly consented to the risk of the harm suffered, with full knowledge of its nature.

Vicarious liability

An employer's liability for torts committed by an employee in the course of employment, based on control and the relationship of master and servant.

Rylands v Fletcher rule

Strict liability for escape of a dangerous thing brought onto land in a non-natural use, subject to defences such as act of God and act of a stranger.

Section 300 PPC

Defines murder as causing death with intention, or with intention to cause injury likely to cause death, or with knowledge that the act is imminently dangerous.

Qisas and diyat

Islamic punitive scheme in the Pakistan Penal Code under which death or hurt may be compounded by the victim or heirs, with the State retaining power to prosecute tazir offences.

FIR Section 154 CrPC

First Information Report registered by police on information of a cognizable offence, setting the criminal investigation process in motion.

Bail under Section 497

Discretionary bail in non-bailable offences; the accused is presumed innocent and bail is the rule unless there are reasonable grounds to believe guilt.

Res judicata Section 11

Bars a subsequent suit on the same matter between the same parties where a competent court has already decided it on merits, including matters that ought to have been raised.

Temporary injunction test

Order XXXIX CPC requires a prima facie case, irreparable injury not compensable in damages, and a balance of convenience favouring the applicant.

Qanun-e-Shahadat Order

The 1984 statute governing the law of evidence in Pakistan, covering relevance, burden of proof, oral and documentary evidence, and electronic records.

Confession to police

Under Article 129 QSO, a confession to a police officer is inadmissible, and a confession in police custody is inadmissible unless made before a magistrate.

Mahr

Dower payable by the husband to the wife under Muslim law; it is her property, may be prompt or deferred, and is recoverable as a debt.

Talaq notice under MFLO

Section 7 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961 requires written notice of talaq to the Union Council Chairman, with effect after the iddat period.

Khula

Divorce at the wife's instance, usually with return of mahr; the court may grant it where the marriage has irretrievably broken down, without the husband's consent.

Iddat period

Waiting period after divorce or death: three menstrual cycles, until delivery if pregnant, or four months ten days for a widow, during which remarriage is barred.

Ijma and qiyas

Ijma is consensus of qualified jurists on a rule; qiyas is analogical reasoning extending an established rule to a new case sharing its effective cause.

Wasiyyat one-third limit

A bequest to a non-heir is valid only up to one-third of the estate without the heirs' consent; a bequest to an heir requires their consent.

Fara'id inheritance

Islamic rules of fixed shares under which a son takes twice the share of a daughter, after funeral expenses, debts and valid bequests are paid.

Ratio decidendi

The legal principle necessary to a court's decision, which binds lower courts in the same hierarchy; obiter dicta are persuasive only.

Ejusdem generis

Interpretive rule that general words following specific words are read as limited to the same class as the specific words.