🔒 For private use ⚖️ Private law 🏠 Made private

in privatum

9.9

Under private law about rights between people

idiom

Formal

: en privado

The judge clarified that the case would proceed in privatum under civil law.

Examples

Legal disputes between citizens are usually settled in privatum rather than in criminal courts.
The contract was interpreted in privatum, focusing on the rights of the individuals involved.
The contract was signed in privatum to protect the parties' interests.
Many agreements are made in privatum to ensure confidentiality.
Legal disputes between citizens are usually settled in privatum rather than in public courts.
The judge clarified that the case would proceed in privatum, focusing on private rights.
Many agreements are made in privatum to ensure that individual interests remain confidential.

How Private

in privatum

Formal

9.9

public law

Specialized

173 4.6

Surface Forms

in privatum main

Morphology

in + privatum

This is a Latin legalism: 'privatum' is not an English lexical item and would be unknown to an average B1 learner, so the meaning 'into private ownership' cannot be derived from the familiar English preposition 'in' alone. Because one constituent is a non‑English/technical form and the phrase occurs in specialized register, the expression is effectively idiomatic and unpredictable for B1 learners.

Etymology

In privatum was used to mark legal matters that belonged to private people, not the state, so the case stayed between the individuals. That's why in law it now points to 'private' or civil matters rather than public ones.