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?Juridical? and ?Juridicial?

By Maeve Maddox

Peter Ki asks:

What’s the difference between juridical process and juridicial
process?

My first reaction to the question was “juridicial” isn’t even a word!

However, juridicial is a word and a Google search brought up several thousand uses of it, although the list of hits was headed by Google’s little red

Did you mean:

followed by the word juridical.

The OED acknowledges the existence of juridicial with this curt entry:

a. Relating to the legality of an action.  b. = JURIDICAL

Merriam-Webster, on the other hand, doesn’t even have an entry for juridicial,

My conclusion is that juridicial means the same thing as juridical, so, unless lawyers attach some specialized meaning to juridicial, I’d go with juridical.

A juridical process is a process determined by law.

Juridical differs from judicial.

The adjective juridical means “relating to the administration of the law.”

The adjective judicial means “relating to courts of law or judges.”

We can talk about the judicial system (the organization of courts and judges) or a judicial decision (one made by a judge).

We can talk about a juridical interpretation of an action (strictly according to the law) or a juridical system (a body of laws by which a state or organization is governed).

Then there’s the word judicious which, although derived from the same origin as the legal terms, is a word for general use.

A judicious person has sound judgment. It’s to be hoped that judges will hand down judicious decisions from the bench, but they’re not the only ones who can be judicious. Careful shoppers can make judicious decisions about what to spend their money on.

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“Juridical” and “Juridicial”

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on July 27, 2009 (boomark / email).