Per curiam decision

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In law, a per curiam decision (or opinion) is a ruling handed down by a court with multiple judges in which the decision rendered was made by the court acting as a whole. The literal meaning of this Latin term is "by the court". However, per curiam decisions are not the only type of decision that can reflect the opinion of the court, but other types of decisions can also reflect the opinion of the court as a whole, even if not issued in per curiam form.

1 United States
- 1.1 Examples
2 See also
3 References

[edit] United States

Most cases that are decided on the merits by the U.S. Supreme Court (and other appellate courts in the U.S.), are not per curiam opinions, but rather take the form of one or more opinions signed by individual justices (and joined in by others) that are written on behalf of the court. Even when such signed opinions are unanimous, opinions of this type are not termed per curiam. Instead, per curiam decisions are given that label by the Court itself and tend to be brief in length. Usually, though not always, they deal with issues the Court views as relatively non-controversial. However, per curiam opinions are not necessarily unanimous and are sometimes accompanied by dissenting opinions. E.g., Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000).

The top appellate courts of some states (e.g., Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina) use the same terminology.