matter of law
8
7.4
- noun
- Formal
:
cuestión de derecho
- There can be, as a matter of law and principle, only one valid patent having a given claim scope.
I mean, I, I don't understand what, what jury instructions, those are matters of law, not factual determinations.
- I mean, I, I don't understand what, what jury instructions, those are matters of law, not factual determinations.
- And essentially, you know, like the, the, the, the, the way that we treat software as a matter of law is that it is a, a good, not a service.
Examples
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As such, as a matter of law, the hospital can't stop him from exercising his parental rights.
Blog text (19) -
A right gives its owner a claim to insist on his due as a matter of law.
Academic text (2003) -
We could easily imagine a challenge to a decision to treat such a risk as "significant" as a matter of law.
Academic text (2001) -
Most courts hold as a matter of law that prices above average total cost cannot be predatory.
Academic text (1991) -
For the defendant, you want the court to rule as a matter of law that you're not liable.
Academic text (2001) -
It's a matter of law that a payment between accomplices isn't an element of a conspiracy.
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In the past, courts used precedent to uphold amortization periods as a matter of law.
Academic text (1996) -
In 1999, the question was not whether a state could violate another state's sovereignty as a matter of law; rather, the challenge was identifying when cyber operations do so.
Academic text (2017) -
I'm instructing you, as a matter of law, ladies and gentlemen... ...that you are entitled to consider the prosecution's failure... ...to make the glass available to the defense.
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The judge will decide the case based on the evidence presented and the matter of law involved.
Synonyms
1
7.7
A matter a judge decides about how to understand a law
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'matter' + 'of' + 'law', so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer it refers to an issue concerning the law (i.e., a legal issue). However, the specific procedural nuance that it is decided by a judge rather than a jury is specialized legal knowledge not predictable from the words alone, so the transparency is partial.
Etymology
Matter of law comes from work in court and means a matter about the law itself, not the facts, so it is decided by a 'judge' rather than a 'jury', which is why it now means a legal question the 'judge' must decide.