dead_letter

kuollut kirjain

perille toimittamaton kirje An item of mail that cannot be delivered to its intended recipient; after some time it is returned to the sender, or destroyed
puhekieltä A law or other measure that is no longer enforced
1787, Alexander Hamilton, w:Federalist Papers|Federalist Papers, s:The Federalist (Dawson)/22|Federalist no. 22:

Laws are a dead letter, without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation.

The most formidable obstacle in the way of Japanese railway enterprise is that conflicting interests and local intrigues are apt to render the law of expropriation for public benefit little more than a dead letter.

I have thought proper to premise thus much, lest the incredible tale I have to tell should be considered rather the raving of a crude imagination, than the positive experience of a mind to which the reveries of fancy have been a dead letter and a nullity.