red letter law

red letter law (plural red letter laws)

1. A law that is a large-scale attempt by a government to regulate business in the interest of society at large.
   • 1912 March 20, J.FG. Beattie, “Wisconsin Agricultural Meetings”, in The Breeder's Gazette, volume 61, number 12, page 715:

     Considerable discussion was carried on with reference to the red letter law relating to the sale of stallions within the state.

   • 2002, MSR Palmer, “A Perspective on Balance and the Role of Law”, in Victoria University of Wellington Law Review, volume 33, number 3:

     Palmer explores this idea through well-established "black-letter" law (such as employment, taxation, and commercial law) and the less established "red-letter" law (such as human rights, indigenous peoples' rights, and constitutional design).

   • 2007, United States, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, The McNulty Memorandum's Effect on the Right to Counsel on Corporate Investigations, page 98:

     And before we start, I think we are in an almost corporate crime wave. There is nobody that wants to get on top of some of the criminal activity that has been going on the last, past number of years than I do. But the advantages and the below-the-radar activity that the Department can engage in is pretty clear. You can write this in red letter law all you want.

   • 2010, David L Ferstendig, “A practitioner's continued uncertainty: disclosure from nonparties”, in Albany Law Review:

     What is perhaps more troubling is that this particular issue of nonparty disclosure is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the uncertainty under which New York lawyers practice with respect to areas that should be "red letter law."

   • 2012, Megan Gall, “A seismic shift: public participation in the legislative response to the Canterbury earthquakes”, in Canterbury Law Review:

     The overall sentiment that prevailed throughout the passage of the Bill was that there was no place for "pontificating about red letter law"

   • 2015, JE Abugu, The Monster Theory: Setting the Boundaries of Corporate Financial Malpractice (Inaugural Lecture, University of Lagos Faculty of Law):

     This will elevate code provisions to red letter law that can be enforced not only by regulatory authorities but also by shareholders and other stakeholders in the corporate enterprise.