good law

noun

A legal statute, regulation, or judicial decision that is considered still valid and applicable.

“After the criminal code came into force, the old common law offences are replaced and no longer good law.”

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Meanings

noungood law (uncountable)
  1. uncountablelawA legal statute, regulation, or judicial decision that is considered still valid and applicable.

    After the criminal code came into force, the old common law offences are replaced and no longer good law.

    5 more examples

    Verify that your cases are good law.

    2016, David Hricik, Law School Basics: A Preview of Law School and Legal Reasoning, page 100

    How can you be sure that these cases are good law? How do you know that these cases have not been overruled or reversed?

    2005, Suzan D. Herskowitz, James E. Duggan, Legal Research Made Easy, page 96

    It has been strongly suggested, however, that the cited cases may no longer reflect good law, particularly when considered in light of the 1984 changes to Section 707(a) governing certain transactions between a partner and a partnership.

    1999, Practicing Law Institute, Tax Strategies for Corporate Acquisitions, Dispositions, Financings, Joint Ventures, Reorganizations, and Restructurings, volume 11, page 971

    Judges were often stymied in settling cases because both parties could cite good law.

    1986, Stanley Chodorow, Hans Wilhelm Gatzke, Conrad Schirokauer, A History of the World, volume 1, page 221

    Both cases are good law, and if here, the husband were dead, and the title remained in the wife, and the bond was sought to be enforced against her, it would be held invalid.

    1835, Warner v. Sickles, (Ohio Sup. Ct.), Wright, J., in John Crafts Wright, Reports of Cases at Law and in Chancery: Decided by the Supreme Court of Ohio, p. 82
Cite this entry
APA

good law. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good%20law

MLA

“good law.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good%20law. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “good law,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good%20law.

Source: good law on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.