Blood Feud

What does Blood Feud mean in American Law?

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

A state of private war between groups each of which is related by blood. It is also frequently bloody in fact and, because the group identification is hereditary rather than geographic, ideological, or acquisitive, etc., it has a tendency to continue down through generations. It has been frequently suggested, and sometimes believed, that the early history of criminal law and what we now call the law of intentional torts is rooted in the social need to oust the blood feud as the primary means of protection against violence.