- dictum
- /diktam/ A statement, remark, or observation.@ gratis dictuma gratuitous or voluntary representation; one which a party is not bound to make.+ gratis dictum/greytas diktam/ A voluntary assertion; a statement which a party is not legally bound to make, or in which he is not held to precise accuracy@ simplex dictuma mere assertion; an assertion without proof. The word is generally used as an abbreviated form of obiter dictum, "a remark by the way;" that is, an observation or remark made by a judge in pronouncing an opinion upon a cause, concerning some rule, principle, or application of law, or the solution of a question suggested by the case at bar, but not necessarily involved in the case or essential to its determination; any statement of the law enunciated by the court merely by way of illustration, argument, analogy, or suggestion. Statements and comments in an opinion concerning some rule of law or legal proposition not necessarily involved nor essential to determination of the case in hand are obiter dicta, and lack the force of an adjudication. Wheeler v. Wilkin, 98 Colo. 568, 58 P.2d 1223, 1226.@Dicta are opinions of a judge which do not embody the resolution or determination of the court, and made without argument, or full consideration of the point, are not the professed deliberate determinations of the judge himself. In old English law, dictum meant an arbitrament, or the award of arbitrators. In French law, the report of a judgment made by one of the judges who has given itSee also dicta
Black's law dictionary. HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK, M. A.. 1990.