(formal) Incidentally; in passing.
Used in a Sentence
obiter
Definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for obiter.
Editorial note
They know what argument is taken from a binding precedent and which is from obiter dicta, and what that means for the case at hand.
Examples16
Definitions2
Parts of speech2
Quick take
(formal) Incidentally; in passing.
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of obiter gathered in one view.
(law) An obiter dictum; a statement from the bench commenting on a point of law which is not necessary for the judgment at hand and therefore has no judicial weight, as opposed to ratio decidendi.
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for obiter.
adverb
(formal) Incidentally; in passing.
noun
(law) An obiter dictum; a statement from the bench commenting on a point of law which is not necessary for the judgment at hand and therefore has no judicial weight, as opposed to ratio decidendi.
Example sentences
They know what argument is taken from a binding precedent and which is from obiter dicta, and what that means for the case at hand.
And here is the wikipedia page of that mission which clearly states that Chinese Mars obiter will be sent with Fobos-Grunt.
Most of the phrases I picked up en route are mostly obiter dicta, et cetera, with only limited utility.
Both cases are obiter dictum, since it's not relevant to the ruling.
What’s your take on the Slaughterhouse obiter dicta on birthright citizenship?
The issue there is that reopening the Slaughterhouse cases (which shut that line of questioning down) will reopen the obiter dicta therein on birthright citizenship.
Sometimes the facts of the case bear on obiter dicta.
In the common law tradition, obiter is not binding (and it is usually claimed in law schools that obiter is bad form for judges, but they like to talk about it anyway because judges can do whatever they want).
> Most of the phrases I picked up en route are mostly obiter dicta, et cetera, with only limited utility.
Therefore, strictly speaking, everything that this judge says about the copyrightability of programming languages is 'obiter dicta' - that is, it has no binding value because those comments were irrelevant to the ruling.
Interestingly the UK Supreme Court ruled on this in the Emotional Perception AI case - though I'd need to check if that was obiter (not part of the legal ruling itself).
I used to say that the closest I heard to college counseling was the obiter dictum of one of the secretaries that you needed a 1200 combined SAT to get into Notre Dame.
Quote examples
It's quoted "out of context" because it is generally considered to be a persuasive obiter dictum.
Certain obiter dicta are taken as "persuasive" by other courts because they form such a concise statement of a legal principle that they can't really be improved on.
> courts never stray “outside the case” They do, regularly, otherwise the entire concept of “obiter dictum” wouldn’t exist.
Yet the judge reached to inject his obiter dictum into the analysis as a sort of by-the-by, "here is what I would rule if other issues were before me." Why such an outcome?
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use obiter in a sentence?
They know what argument is taken from a binding precedent and which is from obiter dicta, and what that means for the case at hand.
What does obiter mean?
(formal) Incidentally; in passing.
What part of speech is obiter?
obiter is commonly used as adverb, noun.