Defnition of a month

Victor

Discussion here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056624224 where the landlord is looking for 13 months rent per year, stating that one month is 4 weeks.

Milk & Honey has the following to say, which I don't doubt.

Milk & Honey wrote: »

There are solar months and lunar months. The first is calendar month and the second is 4 weeks. A contract can say which is being used. The primary meaning of month in this jurisdiction is in fact lunar month.
This was held by the Supreme Court in
Vone Securities v Cooke [1979] IR 68 " in this country the primary meaning of ‘month’ is lunar month, "
http://slr.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/1/43.extract


See also


http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/MONTH
Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Definition:
\Month\, n. [OE. month, moneth, AS. m[=o]n?, m[=o]na?;
akin to m[=o]na moon, and to D. maand month, G. monat, OHG.
m[=a]n[=o]d, Icel. m[=a]nu?r, m[=a]na?r, Goth. m[=e]n[=o]?s.
[root]272. See {Moon}.]
One of the twelve portions into which the year is divided;
the twelfth part of a year, corresponding nearly to the
length of a synodic revolution of the moon, -- whence the
name. In popular use, a period of four weeks is often called
a month.

Note: In the common law, a month is a lunar month, or
twenty-eight days, unless otherwise expressed.
--Blackstone. In the United States the rule of the
common law is generally changed, and a month is
declared to mean a calendar month. --Cooley's
Blackstone.

Milk & Honey wrote: »

In the RTA a month means a calendar month. That is because of the Interpretation Act 2005. A week is 7 days and there is no controversy.
Month has at least 7 different meanings, three of them mainstream in this jurisdiction. In banking and accounting there is a definition of a month as 30 days. Some banks pay 30 days interest every month and thus 360 days in a year. Most of them charge interest 365 days a year however. Some pay out 360 days and charge 365 days.

How can such situations exist in this day and age, save for the creation of confusion (and payment of fat fees to lawyers )?

It seems to have as much sense as the Indiana Pi Bill.

Carawaystick

How can they get away with defining a lunar month to be less than 29 days?

I suppose they'll be using sidereal and synodic days to suit themselves.

I can't see how a month can be defined as 28 days, as that's shorter than any month, even February has 28.24 days on average

Milk & Honey

Carawaystick wrote: »

How can they get away with defining a lunar month to be less than 29 days?

I suppose they'll be using sidereal and synodic days to suit themselves.

I can't see how a month can be defined as 28 days, as that's shorter than any month, even February has 28.24 days on average

The common law definition of a month is 28 days. The origins of common law go back to the 11th century. Calendars have nothing to do with it.

Carawaystick

In what Victor quoted of you, you stated a lunar month as being 4 weeks, but it is not, it's over 29 days from new moon to new moon

Anyway how is a week defined? If that relies on days, how is a day defined?
If a day is based on some thousand year old non-english custom, how do leap seconds fit in?

Milk & Honey

Carawaystick wrote: »

In what Victor quoted of you, you stated a lunar month as being 4 weeks, but it is not, it's over 29 days from new moon to new moon

A period of 4 weeks is called a lunar month to distinguish it from a calendar month. You have described a lunar cycle which has nothing to do with a lunar month. The phrase "lunar month" is not a statement of the length of the lunar cycle which is a matter of astronomy not law. This is a legal discussion forum.

Carawaystick wrote: »

Anyway how is a week defined? If that relies on days, how is a day defined?
If a day is based on some thousand year old non-english custom, how do leap seconds fit in?

Is this a quiz?