Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The principle that a decision by a competent court in a case fully and fairly litigated is final and conclusive as to the claims and issues of the parties and cannot be relitigated.
- noun A claim or issue that has been decided under this principle.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun law An issue that is before a court, has already been decided by another court, and that therefore must be dismissed by the current court.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a matter already settled in court; cannot be raised again
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Latin rēs iūdicāta, thing decided : rēs, thing + iūdicāta, feminine past participle of iūdicāre, to judge.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Latin rēs ("thing, matter, affair") iūdicata, past participle of iūdico ("judge")
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Examples
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Res judicata: The first is the claim that this case is barred by res judicata from the first case being dismissed with prejudice.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Oral Argument in Dartmouth College Alumni Case: 2009
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