BAL

5 definitions found across Law Mind sources

BALAuthored
The Law Mind • 656 words
Definition
BAL is an abbreviation appearing in older legal texts and annotations as a short form of BAILMENT or, in certain contexts, BAILEE or BAILOR. It is not a substantive legal term in its own right but functions as a citation shorthand, most commonly encountered in marginal notations, digests, and legal manuscripts referencing bailment law. Researchers encountering "Bal." in historical legal sources should treat it as a pointer to bailment doctrine rather than a standalone legal concept.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): BAL appears as an initialism for Bangladesh Awami League (a political party) and Benguet Auto Line (a Philippine transportation company). Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed as a legal or common term. The gap is complete: common usage of BAL has no connection to legal usage. A researcher seeing "BAL" in a 19th-century legal digest or footnote should not interpret it through any modern initialism. The legal shorthand predates and is wholly independent of the political and commercial uses now attached to the abbreviation.
Common Confusion
BAL as an abbreviation can be confused with BAL. as a reference to Balthazar or other non-legal uses in historical manuscripts. In legal research contexts, the critical distinction is between BAL used as a subject-matter abbreviation (pointing to bailment doctrine) and BAL used as a reporter or treatise abbreviation pointing to a specific volume or authority. Context — particularly whether a page or section number follows — usually resolves the ambiguity.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus will encounter BAL primarily in two situations: (1) as an inline shorthand in 19th-century American and English legal digests where bailment cases are indexed, and (2) in marginalia or cross-reference notations within treatise literature, particularly works following or citing Story on Bailments. The key navigational point: BAL in historical legal sources is almost never a standalone headword. It is an indexing artifact. When tracing bailment doctrine through older digests, searching for BAL as a term will surface cross-reference chains rather than primary doctrine. Follow those chains to the bailment entries proper. The Burrill source fragment reproduced here is instructive — it captures Burrill's synthesis of bailment definitions, including the influential formulations of Sir William Jones and Story, indicating that BAL as shorthand appears in precisely this kind of doctrinal synthesis context. Researchers should note that Burrill's treatment reflects mid-19th-century consolidation of bailment doctrine and may not capture later refinements distinguishing gratuitous from compensated bailments, or the evolution of constructive bailment concepts in 20th-century American law.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary treats BAL in the context of bailment doctrine, presenting competing definitions that trace to Sir William Jones's foundational formulations and Story's Commentaries on Bailments. The fragment preserved in the Law Mind corpus places BAL adjacent to language defining bailment as a delivery of goods in trust for a special purpose, upon an express or implied condition of return — the classic bilateral-obligation framing that dominated 19th-century treatise literature. What Burrill does not address, and what researchers should supply from other sources: the shift in American courts toward analyzing bailment through negligence principles rather than the older Jones/Story categorical framework (ordinary care, slight care, extraordinary care). Historical dictionaries uniformly reflect the categorical approach; modern doctrine has largely abandoned it in favor of a unified reasonable-care standard.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See BAILMENT for full doctrinal treatment, including the delivery and return requirements, categories of bailment, and the transition from categorical to unified negligence analysis.
Related Terms
Bailment — the substantive doctrine BAL abbreviates Bailee — the party receiving goods under a bailment Bailor — the party delivering goods under a bailment Constructive bailment — bailment arising by operation of law without voluntary delivery Custody — related concept distinguished by absence of possessory rights Pledge — specific subtype of bailment as security for a debt Story on Bailments — primary treatise authority in 19th-century sources where BAL appears
BALmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
( 177 ) in trust for some special object or purpose, and upon a contract, express or implied, to conform to the object or purpose of the trust. Story on Bailm. § 2. -- **All these definitions, except the last, are based, with some variation, upon the two definitions of Sir William Jones:- "A delivery of goods on a condition, expressed or implied, that they shall be restored by the bailee to the bailor, or according to his directions, as soon as the purpose for which they were bailed shall be answered." Jones on Bailm. 1. A delivery of goods in trust, on a contract expressed or implied, that the trust shall be duly executed, and the goods re-delivered as soon as the time or use for which they were bailed shall have elapsed or be performed." Id. 117. A very prominent feature of these definitions is the restoration or re-delivery of the article bailed to the bailor, which they declare to be one of the objects of the contract on the part of the bailee. This idea of restoration is entirely dropped by Sir William Blackstone in his definition, but is taken up again by Mr. Stephen, though with considerable modification, and is expressly adopted by Chancellor Kent, while, on the other hand, no reference is made to it in the definition of Judge Story. It is clear that the restoration of the thing bailed to the bailor, either in specie, or in a new form agreed upon, does in fact constitute a part of the contract in nearly all the varieties of bailment; but it is no less clear that one species of bailment, and that perhaps the most important of all, (the locatio operis mercium vehendarum, or bailment of goods to be carried for hire,) is quite free from any such contract on the part of the bailec. The difficulty in defining bailment is to explain, with sufficient clearness, what the contract is, and to avoid at the same time going into particulars not common to every one of its varieties. Among the older definitions, that of Finch is the most simple and comprehensive. "Bailment is a delivery of goods in possession, and is either to keep or employ." Finch's Law, b. 2, ch. 18. (178) writ was issued to the sheriff to take possession of a whale which had come ashore in the county of Essex, the proper Latin word cete is made use of. Mem. in Scacc. H. 24 Edw. I.
BALname
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
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Initialism of Bangladesh Awami League, a major political party. | Initialism of Benguet Auto Line, a Manila Railroad Company subsidiary which formerly serviced buses that connected Baguio to the Damortis, La Union train line.
BALadj
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
Abbreviation of bald (no hair).
balnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
The surface of a mine.

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