compulsory process
- noun
- /kəmˈpʌlsəri ˈprɔsɛs/
- Jargon
:
proceso obligatorio
- The defendant exercised his right to compulsory process to ensure key witnesses appeared in court.
Examples
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Without compulsory process, the defense would have been unable to present critical testimony.
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Access to compulsory process is fundamental to a fair trial in many legal systems.
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The defendant invoked the compulsory process to call witnesses.
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Under the law, a compulsory process ensures fair trials.
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The defendant exercised his compulsory process right by requesting the court to issue subpoenas for crucial witnesses.
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Under the Sixth Amendment, a defendant has the compulsory process right to summon witnesses who can support their case.
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To strengthen his defense, he utilized compulsory process to ensure that key witnesses appeared in court.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'compulsory' (mandatory) and 'process' (procedure) make it reasonably inferable as a mandatory legal procedure, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely guess a general sense of an enforced legal process. However, the specific legal meaning — the defendant's procedural right to compel witnesses or obtain subpoenas — is technical and not fully predictable from the parts alone, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
Compulsory process comes from courts having the power to make witnesses come to a trial: compulsory means forced and process means the legal steps or orders used to do it. So it means the right of a person on trial 'to require witnesses to come to court'.
