statute of limitations

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A legal restriction, as by law or court decision, on the time that is allowed to elapse between the arising of a legal claim and the filing of a suit based on such legal claim.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun law Any law that sets a time limit, after which a person may not be tried for a crime, or after which some other legal action may not take place.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a statute prescribing the time period during which legal action can be taken