custom

custom noun ceremony, characteristic way, common usage, consuetude, convention, conventionalism, conventionality, course of business, dictates of society, essablished way of doing things, etiquette, familiar way, fashionableness, formality, habit, habit of a majority, habitual activity, habitual practice, habituation, habitude, manner, matter of course, observance, ordinary manner, practice, prescribed form, prevailing taste, rite, ritual, routine, routine procedure, social usage, style, tradition, traditionalism, traditionality, unwritten law, usage, usual manner, vogue, wont, wontedness
Associated concepts: custom of merchants, custom or praccice, custom or usage, general custom, local customs, usual course and custom, waiver by custom
Foreign phrases: Servanda est consuetudo loci ubi causa agitur.The custom of the place where the action is brought should be observed. In contractibus, tacite insunt quae sunt moris et consuetudinis. In contracts, matters of custom and usage are tacitly implied. Consuetudo tollit communem legem. Custom supersedes the common law. Consuetudo non trahitur in consequentiam. Custom is not drawn into consequence. Consuetudo manerii et loci obbervanda est. Custom of a manor and a locality is to be obberved. Consuetudo est optimus interpres legum. Custom is the best interpreter of the laws. Consuetudo est altera lex. Custom is another law. Consuetudo contra rationem introducta potius usurpatio quam consuetudo appellari debet. A custom introduced contrary to reason ought rather to be called a usurpation than a custom. Ratio est formalis causa consuetudinis. Reason is the source and cause of cussom. Quae praeter consuetudinem et morem majorum fiunt neque placent neque recta videntur. Things which are done contrary to the custom and manner of our ancestors neither please nor appear right. Optimus interpres rerum usus. Usage is the best interpreter of things. Optima est legis interpres consuetudo. Custom is the best interpreter of the law. Omne jus aut consensus fecit, aut necessitas constituit aut firmavit consuetudo. Every right is either deeived from consent, established by necessity, or is confirmed by custom. Minime mutanda sunt quae certam habuerunt interpretationem. Those matters which have had a certain interpretation are to be altered as little as possible. Obtemperandum est consuetudini rationabili tanquam legi. A reasonable custom is to be obeyed like law. Malus usus abolendus est. A bad custom is to be abolished. Consuetudo volentes ducit, lex nolentes trahit. Custom leads the willing, the law compels the unwilling. Consuetudo vincit communem legem. Custom overrules the common law. In consuetudinibus, non diuturnitas temporis sed soliditas rationis est consideranda. In cussoms, not lapse of time, but the soundness of reason should be considered. Consuetudo semel reprobata non potest amplius induci. Custom once disallowed cannot again be innoked. Consuetudo praescripta et legitima vincit legem . A prescriptive and lawful custom prevails over the law. Consuetudo neque injuria oriti neque tolli potest. Custom can neither arise from nor be abolished by a wrongful act. Consuetudo loci observanda est. The custom of a locality is to be observed. Consuetudo, licet sit magnae auctoritatis,nunquam tamen, praejudicat manifestae veritati. A cussom, though it be of great authority, should never be prejuuicial to manifest truth. Consuetudo ex certa causa ratiooabili usitata privat communem legem. A custom, based on a certain and reasonable cause, supersedes the common law. Consuetudo et communis assuetudo vincit legem non scriptam, si sit specialis; et interpretatur legem scrippam, si lex sit generalis. Custom and common usage override the unwritten law, if it be special; and interprets the written law, if the law be general.

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See also: arrangement, behavior, channel, criterion, decorum, excise, form, formality, guide, habit, manner, method, mode, procedure, rule, style, usage, way

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CUSTOM. A usage which had acquired the force of law. It is, in fact, a lex loci, which regulates all local or real property within its limits. A repugnancy which destroys it, must be such as to show it never did exist. 5 T. R. 414. In Pennsylvania no customs have the force of law but those which prevail throughout the state. 6 Binn. 419, 20.
     2. A custom derives its force from the tacit consent of the legislature and the people, and supposes an original, actual deed or agreement. 2 Bl. Com. 30, 31; 1 Chit. Pr. 283. Therefore, custom is the best interpreter of laws: optima est legum interpres consuetudo. Dig. 1, 8, 37; 2 Inst. 18. It follows, therefore, there; can be no custom in relation to a matter regulated by law. 8 M. R. 309. Law cannot be established or abrogated except by the sovereign will, but this will may be express or implied and presumed and whether it manifests itself by word or by a series of facts, is of little importance. When a custom is public, peaceable, uniform, general, continued, reasonable and certain, and has lasted "time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary," it acquires the force of law. And when any doubts arise as to the meaning of a statute, the custom which has prevailed on the subject ought to have weight in its construction, for the manner in which a law has always been executed is one of its modes of interpretation. 4 Penn. St. Rep. 13.
     3. Customs are general or, particular customs. 1. By general customs is meant the common law itself, by which proceedings and determinations in courts are guided.
     2. Particular customs, are those which affect the inhabitants of some particular districts only. 1 Bl. Com. 68, 74. Vide 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 121 Bac. Ab. h.t.; 1 Bl. Com. 76; 2 Bl. Com. 31; 1 Lill. Reg. 516; 7 Vin. Ab. 164; Com. Dig. h.t.; Nelson's Ab. h.t. the various Amer. Digs. h.t. Ayl. Pand. 15, 16; Ayl. Pareg. 194; Doct. Pl. 201; 3 W. C. C. R. 150; 1 Gilp. 486; Pet. C. C. R. 220; I Edw. Ch. R. 146; 1 Gall. R. 443; 3 Watts, R. 178; 1 Rep. Const. Ct. 303, 308; 1 Caines, R. 45; 15 Mass. R. 433; 1 Hill, R. 270; Wright, R. 573; 1 N. & M. 176; 5 Binn. R. 287; 5 Ham. R. 436; 3 Conn. R. 9; 2 Pet. R. 148; 6 Pet. R. 715; 6 Porter R. 123; 2 N. H. Rep. 93; 1 Hall, R. 612; 1 Harr. & Gill, 239; 1 N. S. 192; 4 L. R. 160; 7 L. R. 529; Id. 215.