good law

English

Noun

good law (uncountable)

1. (law) A legal statute, regulation, or judicial decision that is considered still valid and applicable.

   After the criminal code came into force, the old common law offences are replaced and no longer good law.

   • 2016, David Hricik, Law School Basics: A Preview of Law School and Legal Reasoning, page 100:

     Verify that your cases are good law.

   • 2005, Suzan D. Herskowitz, James E. Duggan, Legal Research Made Easy, page 96:

     How can you be sure that these cases are good law? How do you know that these cases have not been overruled or reversed?

   • 1999, Practicing Law Institute, Tax Strategies for Corporate Acquisitions, Dispositions, Financings, Joint Ventures, Reorganizations, and Restructurings, volume 11, page 971:

     It has been strongly suggested, however, that the cited cases may no longer reflect good law, particularly when considered in light of the 1984 changes to Section 707(a) governing certain transactions between a partner and a partnership.

   • 1986, Stanley Chodorow, Hans Wilhelm Gatzke, Conrad Schirokauer, A History of the World, volume 1, page 221:

     Judges were often stymied in settling cases because both parties could cite good law.

   • 1835, Warner v. Sickles, (Ohio Sup. Ct.), Wright, J., in John Crafts Wright, Reports of Cases at Law and in Chancery: Decided by the Supreme Court of Ohio, p. 82:

     Both cases are good law, and if here, the husband were dead, and the title remained in the wife, and the bond was sought to be enforced against her, it would be held invalid.

References

• Diane Murley, Glossary of Legal Research Terms, SIU Law Library