Word.ws English Dictionary

red letter law

red letter law noun: a law that is a large-scale attempt by a government to regulate business in the interest of society at large.

Noun

red letter law (plural red letter laws)

  1. A law that is a large-scale attempt by a government to regulate business in the interest of society at large.
    • Considerable discussion was carried on with reference to the red letter law relating to the sale of stallions within the state.1912 March 20, J.FG. Beattie, “Wisconsin Agricultural Meetings”, in The Breeder's Gazette, volume 61, number 12, page 715
    • Palmer explores this idea through well-established "black-letter" law (such as employment, taxation, and commercial law) and the less established "red-letter" law (such as human rights, indigenous peoples' rights, and constitutional design).2002, MSR Palmer, “A Perspective on Balance and the Role of Law”, in Victoria University of Wellington Law Review, volume 33, number 3

Examples of red letter law in a sentence

  • You can write this in red letter law all you want.2007, United States, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security...
  • The overall sentiment that prevailed throughout the passage of the Bill was that there was no place for "pontificating about red letter law"2012, Megan Gall, “A seismic shift: public participation in the legislative response to the Canterbury earthquakes”, in Canterbury Law...
  • This will elevate code provisions to red letter law that can be enforced not only by regulatory authorities but also by shareholders and other stakeholders in the corporate enterprise.2015, JE Abugu, The Monster Theory: Setting the Boundaries of Corporate Financial Malpractice (Inaugural Lecture, University of Lagos...

Forms of red letter law

pluralred letter laws

Questions about red letter law

What does red letter law mean?
Red letter law means a law that is a large-scale attempt by a government to regulate business in the interest of society at large.
How do you use red letter law in a sentence?
You can write this in red letter law all you want.
What part of speech is red letter law?
Red letter law is a noun.
What is the plural of red letter law?
The plural of red letter law is red letter laws.

Words near red letter law in the dictionary

  1. red letter
  2. red letter date
  3. red letter dates
  4. red letter day
  5. red letter days
  6. red letter law
  7. red letter laws
  8. red letters
  9. red licorice
  10. red licorices
  11. red light

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: red letter law (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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