in foro conscientiae

English

Alternative forms

• in foro conscientiæ

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin in forō conscientiae (“in the court of conscience”).

Adverb

in foro conscientiae (not comparable)

1. morally, but not necessarily legally.
   • 176, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, book, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, [https:// pages 42-43]:

     Those human laws, that annex a punishment to it, do not at all increase it’s moral guilt, or superadd any fresh obligation in foro conscientiae to abstain from it’s perpetration.

   • 1911, Press Laws, entry in Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, vol. 22, p. 300

     The principle of the censorship is still uncompromisingly maintained by the Roman Catholic Church; and this, though in general binding only in foro conscientiae, has necessarily had considerable importance in states which recognize the papacy as an independent power relations with which are established by concordat.

References

• in foro conscientiae at merriam-webster.com
• Bryan A. Garner, 2001, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, second edition, →ISBN, p. 445