Definition
"Of law" is a qualifying phrase that modifies nouns to indicate something arising from, operating through, or established by legal rules and doctrine rather than by the actions, agreements, or intentions of the parties involved. The distinction it marks is fundamental to legal reasoning: a result, right, obligation, or remedy that arises "of law" comes into existence automatically by operation of the legal system itself, independent of any act or choice by the affected parties.
The phrase appears most commonly in compound constructions:
1. By operation of law: A legal consequence that attaches automatically when defined circumstances occur — for example, title passing by operation of law upon the death of a joint tenant, without any deed or conveyance.
2. Question of law: A legal issue reserved for determination by a judge rather than a jury, concerning the interpretation or application of legal rules as distinct from the resolution of disputed facts.
3. Remedy of law / remedy at law: Relief available through the common law courts (historically, as opposed to equity), typically monetary damages rather than injunctive or specific relief.
4. Presumption of law: A legal inference that a court must draw upon proof of specified predicate facts, as distinguished from a presumption of fact, which remains discretionary.
In each case, the phrase signals that the legal system — not private will, agreement, or factual inquiry — is the operative force.
Common Confusion
"Of law" and "of fact" are the phrase's natural counterpart and primary source of confusion. The distinction between questions of law and questions of fact controls which issues go to the jury, which receive de novo appellate review, and which are subject to judicial notice. The line is not always clean: mixed questions of law and fact occupy a contested middle ground in both procedural and appellate doctrine. Researchers should not assume that historical sources draw this boundary in the same place as modern doctrine does.
Why It Matters in Research
The phrase "of law" functions as a sorting mechanism throughout the Law Mind corpus, and its meaning shifts depending on which compound it appears in. Researchers face three recurring problems.
First, the law/equity divide gives the phrase "remedy at law" a technical historical meaning that is largely dissolved in jurisdictions that have merged law and equity — but the old language persists in older authorities and in some state courts. A "remedy of law" in a pre-merger source may signal procedural consequences (which court, which forms of action) that no longer apply.
Second, "by operation of law" appears across property, contract, succession, and procedure with overlapping but not identical meanings. When a historical source uses the phrase, determine the context before generalizing: operation of law in the law of retainer (a personal representative's right to retain a debt owed by a beneficiary) is a narrower technical usage than the broader modern sense.
Third, "question of law" has been reshaped by modern appellate standards of review. Historical sources do not map cleanly onto the de novo / clear error / abuse of discretion framework that modern researchers expect. A 19th-century treatise describing something as "a matter of law" was often making a point about jury exclusion, not about appellate deference.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence do not treat "of law" as a standalone entry; instead, the phrase surfaces inside the entry for REMEDY, which divides remedies into those by act of the party, by operation of law, and by agreement. The example given for operation of law is retainer and remitter — both doctrines under which a legal result followed automatically from a party's status or position, without any affirmative act.
This is representative of how 19th-century legal dictionaries handled the phrase: as a functional modifier embedded in substantive entries rather than as an independent term requiring its own definition. The underlying concept was taken for granted, treated as part of the grammar of legal reasoning rather than as a term requiring explanation. Modern researchers consulting historical dictionaries should expect to reconstruct the full sense of "of law" from context across multiple entries — remedies, presumptions, title, notice — rather than finding a single authoritative definition in one place.