Definition of "dispositive"

dispositive

/dɪˈspɒzɪtɪv/

adjective
comparative more dispositive, superlative most dispositive
1. Intending to or resulting in or capable of disposition (disposing of or settling a matter).
  Quotations
  ...the acquittal of the respondent on the charge of sexual assault causing bodily harm is not dispositive of the question of whether he used an object "in causing... injury" so as to make that object a weapon.
  2002, Louise Arbour (Supreme Court of Canada), “R. v. Lamy, 2002 SCC 25”, in CanLII‎
2. (obsolete) By natural disposition, having such an inclination.
3. (Euro-English or non-native speakers' English) Being a statutory provision not mandatory to the parties, as in ius dispositivum.
  Quotations
  The second salient feature of the new Labour Code was an increase in the proportion of dispositive provisions at the expense of cogent provisions which, as the subsequent legal development showed, was not quite adequate.
  2006, prof. JUDr. Helena Barancová, DrSc., Termination of Employment Relationship: Legal Situation in the Slovak Republic‎, Brussels: European Commission – Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, pages 1–2
  The VCLT is also applicable to treaties that are the constituent instrument of an international organisation and to treaties that have been adopted within an international organisation (Art 5 VCLT). However, in this (as well as other respect(s)), the VCLT is of a dispositive nature. The rules that apply in the first place are the rules of the international organisation itself as established under its constituent instrument and internal law. Thus, when a constituent treaty of an international organisation does not contain any provisions concerning the termination of membersip, the rules of the VCLT become relevant (Art. 56 VCLT).
  2019, Jan Wouters, Cedric Ryngaert, Tom Ruys, Geert De Baere, International Law. A European perspective, Oxford and Portland, Oregon: Hart, page 62
noun
plural dispositives
1. Alternative form of dispositif
  Quotations
  Apollinaire thus used some of the characteristics of the cinematographic and phonographic dispositives and their variables related to viewing or listening apparatuses that preceded or are contemporary to the cinema.
  2010, François Albéra, Maria Tortajada, Cinema Beyond Film: Media Epistemology in the Modern Era, page 35
  The scene of jumping on an invisible bridge is then to be seen as a discourse fragment that builds a discourse strand together with other elements (e.g., in the context of other jump'n'runs) that lead into a shared discourse that itself can be integrated into an elementary discourse or a dispositive (cf. Jäger 2004, 117). In the framework of a discourse analysis, Lara Croft's death jump would not be conceived as a unique moment or narrative.
  2014, Jason Thompson, The Game Culture Reader, page 69