Latin Legal Terms Study Guide: 101 Maxims, Writs and Doctrines in Plain English

Latin is the part of legal vocabulary that cannot be guessed. Res judicata and res ipsa loquitur share a word and share nothing else; jus soli and jus sanguinis decide opposite citizenship regimes. Deck WW2599 — Latin Legal Terms (101 cards on Flip It) gives every term a literal translation and its working legal sense, which is what makes it learnable.

Start with the opposing pairs

Roughly a quarter of the deck comes in couples, and learning the couple costs barely more than learning one half:

The rest of the ground covered

Writs and procedure: habeas corpus, certiorari, mandamus, subpoena, subpoena duces tecum, nolle prosequi, nolo contendere, nihil dicit, nunc pro tunc, decree nisi, lis pendens, pendente lite, ex parte, in camera, in absentia, de novo, per curiam, forum non conveniens, locus standi. Contract and interpretation: ab initio, consensus ad idem, ad idem, nudum pactum, non est factum, contra proferentem, ejusdem generis, caveat emptor, quid pro quo. Liability and causation: corpus delicti, novus actus interveniens, res ipsa loquitur, respondeat superior, onus probandi, prima facie, doli incapax, animus nocendi. Status and estates: in loco parentis, parens patriae, ad litem, inter vivos, per stirpes, per capita, bona vacantia, nulla bona, ferae naturae, a mensa et thoro. Principles: stare decisis, res judicata, jus cogens, erga omnes, Nullum crimen sine lege, Nemo iudex in causa sua, contra legem, lex loci, ipso facto, ipso jure, sui generis, de minimis, mutatis mutandis, inter alia, a fortiori, cui bono, ad hoc, ad hominem, ad valorem, amicus curiae, persona non grata, pro bono, pro forma, pro hac vice, modus operandi, post mortem, per se, status quo, affidavit, fiat, in flagrante delicto, in terrorem.

Use the literal translation as the mnemonic

Every back opens with the word-for-word Latin before the legal gloss, and that first half does real work. Certiorari means to be apprised — the higher court asking to be informed, hence the review writ. Duces tecum means bring with you, so that subpoena is for documents. Contra proferentem means against the one bringing forth: ambiguity is read against whoever drafted the clause. Cover the gloss, recall the literal, derive the doctrine.

Two things to correct as you go

The alter ego card gives the everyday psychological sense (a second identity within a person). In legal use it is a doctrine: treating a company and its controller as one, the standard route to piercing the corporate veil. Rewrite that back before it sticks wrong.

The deck also runs alphabetically and stops at sui generis: nothing after S appears — no ultra vires, no voir dire, no res gestae. So turn shuffle on (otherwise a fortiori opens every session) and fill that tail from another source.

Pair this deck with Legal English Vocabulary for the doublets and drafting language that sit alongside the Latin.

Deck code: WW2599, in the Legal Systems and Terminology category on Flip It.