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In in the following sentence, what does the "v." stand for?

The new system was partially indebted to Stanley v. Georgia

Does it mean "Stanley and Georgia" or "Stanley against Georgia"?

RegDwigнt
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Arash Mousavi
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  • does initial strike a bell? – vickyace Jun 18 '14 at 20:51
  • It's a Latin abbreviation for versus, which means against. It's legal terminology, used to identify individual case decisions, and often the legal principles they define. – John Lawler Jun 18 '14 at 20:54
  • @vickyace, I can understand what do you mean? :) – Arash Mousavi Jun 18 '14 at 21:01
  • @JohnLawler, what does the convention of naming this legal decisions? Stanley and Georgia are two people in court? or what? – Arash Mousavi Jun 18 '14 at 21:03
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    Don't know in this case, but the convention is that each name is the family, corporate, or official name of one of the parties in the case. If it was a criminal case, the governmental unit prosecuting will usually be named (i.e, v. United States, v. Georgia -- State of Georgia), and such units can also be parties to civil suits, (Brown v. Board of Education -- Topeka, Kansas Board of Education). – John Lawler Jun 18 '14 at 21:09
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    "v" can be an initial for a name such as victor, van, vicky and so on. here, I think they are indebted to one man named Stanley V. Georgia for some favor he did or help he provided. unless there is more context, I'd say it is an initial. – vickyace Jun 18 '14 at 21:12
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    @vickyace Nope. See my answer. Initials are uppercase, a lowercase v. points towards a legal case. – ghoppe Jun 18 '14 at 21:17
  • Related: (particularly the answers): http://english.stackexchange.com/q/52378/8019 – Tim Lymington Jun 18 '14 at 22:47
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    Stanly Community College, (Albemarle, NC) versus University of Georgia (Athens, GA). The sport is not stated, so we can only speculate. The SEC has long been notorious for scheduling "cupcake games" against lesser opponents. But this particular mismatch looks to be truly beyond the pale. – steven king Jun 19 '14 at 02:42

1 Answers1

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In law, v. is an abbreviation for versus and law case citations are generally written in this format.

So it means the legal decision Stanley v. Georgia. The new system isn't indebted to Stanley nor Georgia, but rather the United States Supreme Court decision in that legal case.

ghoppe
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  • can you explain more about it? Georgia is the name of a person, or Georgia is the name of the State? what does the convention of naming this legal decisions? – Arash Mousavi Jun 18 '14 at 21:00
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    Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_v._Georgia and for the official syllabus and opinions http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/394/557 – Brian Donovan Jun 18 '14 at 21:11
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    @ArashMousavi If you follow the hyperlink, you'll see that the case was Robert Eli Stanley against the State of Georgia. – ghoppe Jun 18 '14 at 21:21
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    +1 The Latin term versus means against. The case name means Stanley [a person] brought a lawsuit against Georgia [a state or state agency]. While the legal community generally uses v. (in small letters), the common press often uses vs. to mean the same thing. – bib Jun 19 '14 at 00:55
  • NB: in England, lawyers pronounce the "v" as "and", as in "Walsh v Lonsdale" said as "Walsh and Lonsdale". Just so you know. – Francis Davey Apr 09 '17 at 21:02