Legal Locutions to Class Up Your Exam Writing

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Honghu Wang (1L), with translations by the UV Editorial Board

Whereas the writers for Ultra Vires desire to help students complete their examinations with a style and verve which might showcase their most fulsome potential; and

Whereas the writers draw inspiration from cases past;

Therefore we present a brief guide containing phrases that you can drop on your way to an HHH, with translations provided for those who have not attended a British boarding school.

 

  • Now the boot is on the other foot.
    • (Your foot is going to hurt because boots are cut for specific feet.)
  • That is a distinction without a difference.
    • (The heaviest academic shade you can throw against a nitpicking argument.)
  • Carry the day.
    • (Sweeeeeeeeeet, sweet victoryyyy, ya.)
  • Intimated
    • (Getting your point across without really “going there,” not to be mistaken for intimidated.)
  • It doesn’t lie in your mouth to say…
    • (Shut up and let me talk…)
  • My learned brother.
    • (This asshole over here.)
  • With respect.
    • (Fuck you.)
  • …, without more, …
    • (This argument should not have been advanced.)
  • Shocks the conscience of the court.
    • (Wash your hands—they’re dirty.)

 

  • Inter alia

 

    • (A subgenre of Tropicália, the 1960s Brazilian art movement.)

 

  • Ex ante

 

    • (She was your aunt until she and your uncle split up.)

 

  • Ex post facto

 

    • (She was your post facto until she and your ipso split up.)
  • &c
    • (I’m so busy and important that I can’t even be bothered to write out “etc.”)
  • Viz
    • (Lookit that.)
  • A priori knowledge.
    • (You knew what you were getting into.)
  • This party is now trying to have his cake and eat it too.
    • (Nobody came to my birthday.)
  • Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
    • (Throw them out separately.)
  • While the ship of state now sails on larger ventures and into foreign waters she still retains the watertight compartments which are an essential part of her original structure.
    • (Antonin Scalia was right.)
  • Our Constitution is a living tree which, by way of progressive interpretation, accommodates and addresses the realities of modern life.
    • (We’re really just making this up as we go along.)
  • The length of the Chancellor’s foot.
    • (As opposed to the length of his [redacted].)
  • Enter contracts with eyes wide open.
    • (Always drop acid before any big negotiation.)
  • Liability in an indeterminate amount for an indeterminate time to an indeterminate class.
    • (You’re going to lose your shirt.)
  • Straws in the wind.
    • (I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.)
  • Donning the cloak of a soothsayer to plumb the intent of the legislature.
    • (Who the hell knows what those commoners are really thinking.)
  • Sounding like Molly Bloom’s eulogy in the final chapter of Ulysses.
    • (I am very smart and I have definitely read all of Ulysses.)
  • Do indirectly what you can’t do directly.
    • (How I got my Panamanian pass-through corporation set up.)
  • What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
    • (Translation lost to the ages. What kind of weirdo feeds sauce to geese?)
  • In summertime village cricket is the delight of everyone.
    • (It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune, must be in want of a cricket game.)
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