per curiam
- adjective
- /pɜr ˈkjʊəriˌæm/
- Formal
:
por unanimidad
- The Supreme Court granted certiorari and heard oral argument in Dollar General while Justice Scalia was still on the Court, but in the wake of Scalia's death, it granted a four-four per curiam affirmance of the Fifth Circuit, leaving its decision intact.
Examples
-
In a unanimous (5-0) per curiam decision, the Court declared the federal natural gas tax ultra vires as it applied to the specific fact situation contained in the Reference.
Academic text (2004) -
The Court issued a per curiam ruling, indicating that all justices participated in the decision.
-
The majority's brief, per curiam decision treated the matter as fairly self-evident.
Blog text (15) -
424 U.S. 1 (1976) (per curiam). See id. at 17.
Academic text (1997) -
In a per curiam opinion, the judges collectively expressed their agreement without attributing the decision to any single member.
-
The case resulted in a per curiam statement that underscored the unanimous view of the entire bench.
Surface Forms
Morphology
per + curiam
This is a Latin legal formula whose meaning ('a court decision issued collectively') cannot be derived from the English preposition 'per' alone, and the second constituent 'curiam' is not a common English word (missing from the dictionary). Because it is specialized legal/Latin vocabulary rather than a transparent composition of known English words, a B1 learner knowing the listed constituents would not be able to predict its meaning.
Etymology
The phrase per curiam comes from Latin: per means 'by' and curiam means 'the court'. The picture to remember is the whole group of judges speaking together, not one named judge, so per curiam is used to describe something done 'by the court' and often 'unsigned'.
