Legal Definition and Related Resources of Abuse Of Discretion

Failure to exercise a sound reasonable discretion ; arbitrary , untenable. The term is commonly used to justify an interference by a higher court with exercise of Discretionary power by a lower court.

Browse or run a search for Abuse Of Discretion in the American Encyclopedia of Law, the Asian Encyclopedia of Law, the European Encyclopedia of Law, the UK Encyclopedia of Law or the Latin American and Spanish Encyclopedia of Law.

Abuse Of Discretion in Historical Law

You might be interested in the historical meaning of this term. Browse or search for Abuse Of Discretion in Historical Law in the Encyclopedia of Law.

Search for legal acronyms and/or abbreviations containing Abuse Of Discretion in the Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms Dictionary.

You might be also interested in these legal terms:

What does Abuse of discretion mean in American Law?

The definition of Abuse of discretion in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

In numerous legal contexts, it is said that a person, usually but not necessarily a governmental official, has the discretion to do one thing or another, or not to act at all. Thus, many things are said to be “within the sound discretion” of a trial judge, or that it is “within the discretion of a district attorney” whether to prosecute or not. Moreover, there are arrangements called discretionary trusts, the trustees of which may be almost untrammeled in their discretion as to investments and disbursements. But no legal discretion is ever total, i.e., subject to no corrective action by any hierarchically superior institution. A trial judge or district attorney or

trustee of a discretionary trust who made his “discretionary” decision as he did because he had been bribed to do so, would clearly be subject to correction (and discipline). The term “abuse of discretion,” then, has no fixed meaning. It is what one calls a discretionary decision when one is about to set it aside for one reason or another. Depending on the context, those reasons will vary. Some discretionary powers may be so broadly conceived that only proven corruption will suffice to work an “abuse of discretion.” Others may be considerably more circumscribed, so that a mere finding of “gross error” or even “lack of sufficient evidentiary support” will amount to an “abuse.” But the word “discretion” would have no scope at all if the superior agency could successfully describe what was merely a decision different that the one it would have made as “an abuse of discretion.”

Meaning of Abuse of Discretion

Resources

See Also