Justiciability

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or state of a matter being appropriate or suitable for adjudication by a court; the characteristic that allows a legal dispute to be decided judicially; the condition under which a case is capable of being reviewed and resolved through judicial processes
2. The attribute that determines whether a controversy is fit for court evaluation; the factor indicating if an issue meets criteria for judicial determination; the capacity of a claim or dispute to be heard and decided by a legal tribunal
3. The feature of a legal question being amenable to judicial resolution; the standard that defines if a matter is within the court’s jurisdiction to resolve; the property making a case subject to examination and judgment in a court of law

Etymology: The root is "justiciar," a chief judicial officer of the medieval English and Norman kings who dispensed justice in the monarch's name. The stem comes from Latin "iustitia," "justice," which also gave English "justice" itself. From the same root came "justiciable," used of a matter or person that could be brought before a court. The noun is that adjective with the suffix "-ity," which turns a quality into a thing and comes from Latin "-itas." The "-able" in the adjective comes from Latin "-abilis," meaning "able to be." Put together, the term names the quality of being able to be decided by a court.

Synonyms: judicial reviewability, legal reviewability

Antonyms: non-justiciability, non-judiciability