Corpus might be used to mean a human body, or a body or group of laws. The term is used often in Civil Law to denote a substantial or positive fact, as opposed to one that is ambiguous. The corpus of a trust is the sum of money or property that is set aside to produce income for a named beneficiary. In the law of estates, the corpus of an estate is the amount of property left when an individual dies. Corpus juris means a body of law or a body of the law.