Quick question about this maxim

[kenw232]

Jurisdiction

Other

Blacks law has this maxim:
"Qui tacet consentire videtur ubi tractatur de ejus commodo" ~ A party who is silent is considered as assenting, when his advantage is debated.

What exactly does "when his advantage is debated" mean? Does it mean when all things and points of view are considered type of thing?

 

[flyingron]

Here's a dime. Go call your mother and tell her there are serious doubts about you becoming a lawyer.

In other words, we don't do homework here.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Blacks law has this maxim:
"Qui tacet consentire videtur ubi tractatur de ejus commodo" ~ A party who is silent is considered as assenting, when his advantage is debated.

What exactly does "when his advantage is debated" mean? Does it mean when all things and points of view are considered type of thing?

If you substitute the word "uncertain" or "contested" for "debated" you'll get the same meaning.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Here's a dime. Go call your mother and tell her there are serious doubts about you becoming a lawyer.

In other words, we don't do homework here.

If it's law school homework, it's an odd assignment to be sure as I'd see little value in it. The definition the OP quoted is not from the current version of Black's Law Dictionary, which is in its 10th edition. It does appear in my 6th edition of Blacks, but was gone in my 8th edition. The difference? Bryan Garner, one of the leading legal writing experts in the country and a co-author of several books on legal writing with the late Supreme Court Justice Scalia, took over editing Blacks between the 6th and 8th editions, and he modernized the dictionary, removing terms that no longer had much use in the law. This was one of them that got taken out. The modern trend has been to move away from circumstances in which silence is assent and few, if any, jurisdiction would apply the maxim the OP quoted today. Even when I was in law school this maxim was never taught because it was not considered relevant in the law even then. So I'd be surprised if any law school would think it important to teach today.

Besides, in modern legal writing the use of old Latin phrases is discouraged except for those expressions that cannot be succinctly expressed in English or that are so well known by lawyers that resort to a dictionary to understand them wouldn't be necessary. It's not a good idea in court filings to put in stuff that forces the judge or his clerk to run for Black's if you can avoid it.

 

[army judge]

Blacks law has this maxim:
"Qui tacet consentire videtur ubi tractatur de ejus commodo" ~ A party who is silent is considered as assenting, when his advantage is debated.

What exactly does "when his advantage is debated" mean? Does it mean when all things and points of view are considered type of thing?

There are thousands of legal beagles or legal eagles in the Canadian province of Ontario, from where you are posting, ask one or a dozen of them.

Thread closed ..............