Legal Definitions - communis paries

Definition: Communis paries (pronounced kuh-myoo-nis par-ee-eez) is a Latin term that means "common wall." In civil law, it refers to a party wall, which is a wall that is shared by two or more buildings.

Example: If two townhouses share a wall, that wall is considered a communis paries.

Definition: Communis patria (pronounced kuh-myoo-nis pay-tree-uh) is a Latin term that means "common country." In legal history, it referred to a place that was considered home to all.

Example: In Scotland, Edinburgh was considered a communis patria to all of Scotland. This meant that courts could be held there for cases involving heritable rights, even if the lands in question were located in a different part of the country.

Explanation: These examples illustrate how the terms communis paries and communis patria were used in legal contexts. The first example shows how communis paries was used to describe a specific type of wall in civil law. The second example shows how communis patria was used to describe a place that was considered home to all, and how this concept was used in Scottish legal history.