debate

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debate

in Scottish civil procedure, that part of an action where legal argument takes place only on the pleas-in-law. It can take place before any proof if the plea is preliminary, such as a plea to the relevance or specification or after the case if it was impossible to answer the plea-in-law until evidence had been heard. For example, in ordinary negligence cases where, until the facts have been heard, it is not possible to say that the defender has or has not been legally negligent.
Collins Dictionary of Law © W.J. Stewart, 2006

DEBATE, legislation, practice. A contestation between two or more persons, in which they take different sides of a question, and maintain them, respectively, by facts and arguments; or it is a discussion, in writing, of some contested point.
     2. The debate should be conducted with fairness, candor and decorum, and supported by facts and arguments founded in reason; when, in addition, it is ornamented by learning, and decorated by the powers of rhetoric, it becomes eloquent and persuasive. It is essential that the power of debate should be free, in order to an energetic discharge of his duty by the debator.
     3. The Constitution of the United States, art. 1, s. 6, provides, that for any speech or debate, in either house, the senators and representatives shall not be questioned in any other place.
     4. It is a rule of the common law, that counsel may, in, the discharge of professional duty, use strong epithets, however derogatory to the character of the opponent, or his attorney, or other agent or witness, in commenting on the facts of the case, if pertinent to the cause, and stated in his instructions, without any liability to any action for the supposed slander, whether the thing stated were true or false. 1 B. & Ald. 232; 3 Dow's R. 273, 277, 279; 7 Bing. R. 459; S. C. 20 E. C. L. R. 198. Respectable and sensible counsel, however, will always refrain from the indulgence of any unjust severity, both on their own personal account, and because browbeating a witness, or other person, will injuriously affect their case in the eyes of a respectable court and jury. 3 Chit. Pr. 887, 8.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.
References in periodicals archive ?
Debating society president Michael Craig then chaired the second debate with the motion, "This House does not believe in experts".
At a meeting of the debating society of the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, held on Friday evening, the question of which town should be the capital of Wales and the location of the university offices was discussed.
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They are members of the Junior Debating Society at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield, and are getting an insider tour at No 10, allowing the boys to see the home and headquarters to the nation's leader.
In turn, critical thinkers of this calibre with top engineering degrees will propel Qatar toward its goal of becoming a knowledge-based economy." CODE vice president and participant Hisham Uddin recalled how he and fellow member Taha Syed worked in 2010 at rebuilding a defunct debating society, which had been lying dormant for three years.
Mohsin Ehsan Literary Week 2010 organised by Literary and Debating Society (LDS) UET here Tuesday.
Turkey's Koc University and its Debating Society will host the Antalya event.
Irving - a controversial historian who was jailed in Austria for "glorifying the German Nazi Party" - had been invited to speak to the university's Literary and Debating Society this month.
The Oxford Union Debating Society members yesterday voted by a margin of two-to-one to invite Mr Griffin.
Girls' voices help demonstrate how individuals negotiated this tension between Americanization and dedication to Jewish tradition, whether struggling to attend synagogue and still participate in a high school debating society on Friday evenings or forgoing relationships with non-Jewish suitors.
Aubrey Herbert (1905-1981) was also President of the Oxford Union, a university-wide debating society, in 1928.