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Webster 1913 Edition

Noun.

[Perh. fr.

Brocardica

Brocardicorum

opus, a collection of ecclesiastical canons by

Burkhard

, Bishop of Worms, called, by the Italians and French,

Brocard

An elementary principle or maximum; a short, proverbial rule, in law, ethics, or metaphysics.

The legal

brocard

, “Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus,” is a rule not more applicable to other witness than to consciousness.

Sir W. Hamilton.

brocard ‎(plural brocards)

(law) A legal principle usually expressed in Latin, traditionally used to concisely express a wider legal concept or rule.
- 1860, The Journal of Jurisprudence, Edinburgh, vol. IV, p. 414:
  The other question was as to the proper legal meaning of the brocard, “heres heredis mei est heres meus.”
- 1853, Samuel Owen, The New York Legal Observer, vol. XI, pp. 73-4:
  Blackstone, with a like tenderness of conscience, endeavors to withdraw a single case, a sale of provisions, from the old brocard caveat emptor, and tells us that in such a contract there is a warranty that the provisions are wholesome.

A legal principle usually expressed in Latin

brocard m ‎(plural brocards)