Today at work I was writing some submissions on whether breach of an undertaking made to a court amounted to contempt of court. One of the issues was that the consequence of the breach was not “de minimis”, ie, it was not an insignificant matter.
The full legal expression is “de minimis non curat lex“.
De minimis is a Latin expression meaning about minimal things, which is mostly used as part of de minimis non curat praetor or de minimis non curat lex, in the sense that law is not interested in trivial matters.
De minimis, in a more formal legal sense, means something which is unworthy of the law’s attention.
- Source: Wikipedia
Anyway, there is a limerick associated with this latin phrase. I think I will never forget this phrase now XD
There was a law student called Rex,
With diminutive organs of sex,
When charged with exposure,
He replied with composure,
“de minimis non curat lex“.
P.S. As stated in the flickr description of this photo, the book is open at the decision of United States ex rel. Mayo v. Satan & His Staff, 54 F.R.D. 282 (W.D. Pa. 1971). This is an extremely hilarious case and is only a couple of paragraphs long. I wish Australia had more wacky cases XD