DROIT
THELAW.COM LAW DICTIONARY & BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 2ND ED.
In French law. Right justice, equity, law, the whole body of law; also a right.
This term exhibits the same ambiguity which is discoverable in the German equivalent, “recht” and
the English word “right” On the one hand, these terms answer to the Roman “jus” and thus indicate
law in the abstract, considered as the foundation of all rights, or the complex of underlying moral
principles which impart the character of justice to all positive law, or give it an ethical content. Taken
in this abstract sense, the terms may be adjectives, in which case they are equivalent to “just,” or
nouns, in which cade they may be paraphrased by the expressions “Justice,” “morality,” or “equity.”
On the other hand, they serve to point out a right; that is, a power, privilege, faculty, or demand,
inherent in one person, and incident upon another. In the latter signification, droit (or recht or right) is
the correlative of “duty” or “obligation.” In the former sense, it may be considered as opposed to
wrong, injustice, or the absence of law. Droit has the further ambiguity that it is sometimes used to
denote the existing body of law considered as one whole, or the sum total of a number of individual
laws taken together. See Jus; RECHT; RIGHT. Droit d’acoession. That property which is acquired by
making a new species out of the material of another. It is equivalent to the Roman “ceci catio.” Droit
d’aubalne. A rule by which all the property of a deceased foreigner, whether movable or immovable,
was confiscated to the use of the state, to the exclusion of his heirs, whether claiming ah intestato or
under a will of the deceased. Finally abolished in 1819. Opel v. Shoup, 100 Iowa, 407, 69 N. W. 560,
37 L. R. A. 583 Droit d’exeention. The right of a stockbroker to sell the securities bought by him for
account of a client, if the latter does not accept delivery thereof. The same expression is also applied
to the sale by a stockbroker of securities deposited with him by his client in order to guaranty the
payment of operations for which the latter has given instructions. Arg. Fr. Merc. Law, 557. Droit do
bris. A right formerly claimed by the lords of the coasts of certain parts of France, to shipwrecks, by
which not only the property, but the persons of those who were cast away, were confiscated for the
prince who was lord of the coast. Otherwise called “droit de oris sur le naufrage” This right prevailed
chiefly in Bretagne, and was solemnly abrogated by Henry III. as duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and
Guienne, in a charter granted A. D. 1226, preserved among the rolls at Bordeaux. Droit de garde. In
French feudal law. Right of ward. The guardianship of the estate and person of a noble vassal, to
which the king, during his minority, was entitled. Steph. Lect 250. Droit de cite. In French feudal law.
The duty incumbent on a roturier, holding lands within the royal domain, of supplying board and
lodging to the king and to his suite while on a royal progress. Steph. Lect. 351. Droit de grene. In old
French law. The right of selling various offices connected with the custody of judicial records or
notarial acts. Steph. Lect. 354. A privilege of the French kings. Droit de malefese. In old French law.
A charge payable to the crown by any one who, after having served his apprenticeship in any
commercial guild or brotherhood, sought to become a master workman in it on his own account.
Steph. Lect 354. Droit de prise. In French feudal law. The duty (incumbent on a roturier) of supplying
to the ldng on credit during a certain penod, such articles of domestic consumption as might be
required for the royal household. Steph. Lect 351. Droit de quaint. In French feudal law. A relief
payable by a noble vassal to the king as his seigneur, on every change in the ownership of his fief.
Steph. LectTSSO. Droit de snite. The right of a creditor to pursue the debtor’s property into the
hands of third persons for the enforcement of his claim. Droits civils. This phrase in French law
denotes private rights, the exercise of which is independent of the status (qualiti) of citizen.
Foreigners enjoy them; and the extent of that enjoyment is determined by the principle of reciprocity.
Conversely, foreigners may be sued on contracts made by them in France. Brown. Droit cerit. In
French law. (The written law.) The Roman civil law, or Corpus Juris Civilis. Steph. Lect. 130. Droit
International. International law Droit maritime. Maritime law. In old English law. Law; right; a writ of
right. Co. Litt 1586. Antre droit. The right of another. Droit-close. An ancient writ, directed to the lord
of ancient demesne on behalf of those of his tenants who held their lands add tenements by charter
in fee simple, in fee-tail, for life, or in dower. Fitzh. Nat Brev. 23. Droit common. The common law.
Litt. s 213; Co. litt 142a. Droit-droit. A double right; that is, the right of possession and the right of
property. These two rights were, by the theory of our ancient law, distinct; and the above phrase was
used to indicate the concurrence of both in one person, which concurrence was necessary to
constitute a complete title to land. Mosley A Whitley. Droits of admiralty. Rights or perquisites of the
admiralty. A term applied to goods found derelict at sea. Applied also to property captured in time of
war of non-commissioned vessels of a belligerent nation. 1 Kent, Comm. 06.
Droit ne done pluis quo solt de mannde. The law gives not more than is demanded. 2 Inst 286.
Droit ne poet pas morier. Right cannot die. Jenk. Cent. 100, case 95.
Related Legal Terms & Definitions
RECHT Ger. Right; justice; equity; the whole body of law; unwritten law; law; also a right.…
DROIT DAUBAINE (Droit D'Aubaine) jus albinatus. This was a rule by which all the property of
a…
RIGHT As a noun, and taken In an abstract sense, the term means justice, ethical
correctness,…
JUS Lat. In Roman law. Right; justice; law; the whole body of law; also a right.…
DROIT DACCESSION (Droit D'Accession) French civil law. Specificatio. That property which
is acquired by making a new…
IN AUTRE DROIT In another's right. An executor, administrator or trustee, is said to have the
property confided…
AUTER DROIT or more properly, Autre Droit, another's right. A man may sue Or be sued in…
DREIT-DREIT Droit-droit Double right. A union of the right of possession and the right of
property.
