Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

896

DR0FDE2T

DROIT DE PRISE

DROFDEN, or DROFDENNE. A grove or woody place where cattle are kept. Jacob. DROFLAND. Sax. A quit rent, or yearly payment, formerly made by some ten ants to the king, or their landlords, for driv ing their cattle through a manor to fairs or markets. Cowell; Blount. DROIT. In French law. Right, jus tice, equity, law, the whole body of law; also a right. This term exhibits the same ambiguity which is discoverable iD the German equiv alent, "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 jus tice 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 case they may be paraphrased by the expres sions "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 inci dent upon another. In the latter significa tion, droit (or recht or right) is the correla tive 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 JTJS; REOHT; EIGHT. In old English law. A writ of right, so called in the old books. Co. Litt. 1586. Law. The common law is sometimes termed "common droit." Litt. § 213; Co. Litt. 142a. DROIT-CLOSE. An ancient writ, di rected to the lord of ancient demesne on be half of those of his tenants who held their lands and tenements by charter in fee-sim ple, in fee-tail, for life, or in dower. Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 23. DROIT D'ACCESSION. In French law. That property which is acquired by making a new species out of the material of another. It is equivalent to the Roman "speeiflcatio." DROIT D'AUBAINE. In French law. A rule by which all the property of a de

ceased foreigner, whether movable or im movable, was confiscated to the use of the state, to the exclusion of his heirs, whether claiming ab intestato or under a will of the deceased. Finally abolished in 1819. DROIT D'EXECUTION. In French law. The right of a stockbroker to sell the securities bought by him for account of a cli ent, if the latter does not accept delivery thereof. The same expression is also applied to the sale by a stockbroker of securities de posited 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 DE 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 bris 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 en titled. Steph. Lect. 250. DROIT DE GITE. 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 GREFFE. In old French law. The right of selling various offices con nected with the custody of judicial records or notarial acts. Steph. Lect. 354. A priv ilege of the French kings. DROIT DE MAITRISE. In old French law. A charge payable to the crown by any one who, after having served his apprentice ship 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 king on credit, during a certain period, such articles of domestic con sumption as might be required for the royal household. Steph. Lect. 351.

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