Constructive

An excellent legal contrivance addressing the state of affairs — or parallel universe, more like — in which one would have been had all been well in the world. It starts with “constructive knowledge”: knowledge a prudent chap ought to have had, had he stopped to think about it, when the historical record reveals he did not. This cognitive state which pays no heed to the brute facts of his imperfect existence, in which his Vauxhall Astra is unapologetically now wrapped around a lamp post he would have, in a perfect world, known was there and diligently avoided.

Then there are constructive trusts, fabulous creatures of the courts of chancery, which deem one fellow the fiduciary of another for matters which, in plain sight, he was not.

But, like a bitey wild animal, or an ordinarily docile, if unkempt, reservoir, the concept can flood its bulwarks. So the unwilling student assures his enquiring mother that he has constructively done his homework. Plain English Anatomy™ Noun | Verb | Adjective | Adverb | Preposition | Conjunction | Latin | Germany | Flannel | Legal triplicate | Nominalisation | Murder your darlings