in personam
1
9.9
- adjective
- /ɪn ˈpɜrsənæm/
- Formal
- For the lawsuit to proceed, the attorney needed to establish in personam jurisdiction over the defendant.
- in personam jurisdiction
Examples
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The reason for this may be that there has been little or no occasion to do so, or that the responsible government officials have concluded that, for practical reasons related to gaining jurisdiction in personam and enforcement of orders, attempts at enforcement against corporations and individuals with no presence in Canada would be futile.
Academic text (1991) -
The court issued an in personam judgment requiring the debtor to pay the outstanding debts directly to the creditor.
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You wouldn't file an in personam suit against me... if I asked you to table all this for a while, would ya?
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The jurisdictional considerations referred to above are based to some extent on the distinctions between actions in rem and actions in personam.
Academic text (1992) -
In May, a Wisconsin court did not have in personam jurisdiction in a dissolution necessary to validate a child custody order with personal service on the mother living in Ohio with her children.
Academic text (2002) -
An in personam ruling ensures that the legal obligations are directed specifically at the individual involved.
Surface Forms
Morphology
in + personam
The second element 'personam' is a Latin form not recoverable as a regular English word, so a B1 learner who knows only 'in' would not be able to derive the technical legal sense 'directed at a specific person'. This is a specialized legal Latin fixed phrase whose meaning is language-specific and requires prior exposure or legal knowledge, so it is not compositionally transparent.
Etymology
The Latin phrase in personam comes from the words in and personam, which together mean 'against the person'. So today in personam describes a court case or order that applies to one person, not to property.