A Glossary of Constitutional Terms: English / Nepali

Drafters usually stick with the older phrases and words like thoseabove because if a word in a statute has been interpreted by a court,drafters and lawyers will assume that the word will be given thesame meaning by a later court, at least when dealing with a statuteon a similar topic. This practice of using old language tends toperpetuate somewhat out of date English.LatinismEnglish law is not much based on Roman law, but because of Englishhistory rather a lot of Latin phrases (and occasionally mediaevalFrench phrases) appear in law, though less often in statutes. Amongthese are:ad hoc (which means literally 'to that' and refers to a body or a rulefor a particular occasion, like an ad hoc committee set up for aparticular matter);habeas corpus (which means 'may you have the body' and refers to aspecific legal procedure to investigate a suggestion that a person isdetained against the law);nolle prosequi (which means 'do not prosecute' and is a special processin some countries under which prosecutions for criminal cases arestopped);VIIIquo warranto (which means 'by what warrant or permission' andrefers to a specific legal procedure in the Supreme Court broughtinto Nepal from India, a procedure abolished in the mid-twentiethcentury in England).A Glossary of Constitutional Terms