BILL - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

BILLAuthored

The Law Mind • 1695 words

Definition

A formal written statement, complaint, or instrument. "Bill" is among the most versatile terms in legal vocabulary, appearing across procedural law, legislative practice, commercial law, equity practice, and constitutional law. Context determines meaning. The principal senses are:

LEGISLATIVE BILL. A proposed law presented to a legislature for enactment. A bill becomes a statute upon passage and executive approval (or veto override). The term is universal in American and British legislative practice.

BILL IN EQUITY (CHANCERY BILL). A written complaint addressed to a court of equity (chancery), setting out the plaintiff's grievance and seeking equitable relief. This was the foundational pleading in equity practice before law and equity were merged. It named the parties, stated the facts, alleged the defendant's anticipated defenses (the "charging part"), asserted that the plaintiff had no adequate remedy at law (the "jurisdiction clause"), and prayed for specific relief. Numerous subtypes existed, including bills of discovery, bills for injunction, bills quia timet, and supplemental bills.

BILL OF INDICTMENT. A formal written accusation of crime presented to a grand jury. If the grand jury finds sufficient evidence, they endorse the bill as a "true bill"; if not, they return "no bill" (ignoramus). Upon endorsement, the bill becomes an indictment.

BILL OF EXCHANGE. A written, unconditional order by one party (the drawer) directing a second party (the drawee) to pay a specified sum to a third party (the payee) at a fixed or determinable future time. A foundational instrument of commercial law, distinct from but related to promissory notes and checks.

BILL OF LADING. A document issued by a carrier acknowledging receipt of goods for shipment, serving simultaneously as a receipt, a contract of carriage, and (when negotiable) a document of title.

BILL OF ATTAINDER. A legislative act directed against specific named individuals, imposing punishment — historically, conviction of treason or felony and forfeiture — without judicial trial. Expressly prohibited by Article I of the U.S. Constitution (Sections 9 and 10) against both Congress and the states.

BILL OF RIGHTS. A formal declaration enumerating fundamental rights reserved to individuals against government action. In the American context, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

BILL OF PARTICULARS. A written statement furnished by one party to another (or ordered by a court) specifying in greater detail the allegations or claims in a pleading, used to prevent surprise at trial.

COMMERCIAL BILL / ACCOUNT. In older commercial usage, an itemized statement of money owed; an invoice.

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Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): In ordinary modern English, "bill" most commonly means a banknote (paper currency), an invoice or statement of charges, or a proposed piece of legislation. It is also a given name and British slang for the police.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 leads with the zoological sense — a beak of a bird or turtle — reflecting how the word's primary popular meaning once had nothing to do with law or commerce.

The legal uses of "bill" do not map cleanly onto any single common meaning. A researcher encountering "bill" in a legal source must immediately ask which domain is at play: a legislative bill, a pleading in equity, a commercial instrument, or a constitutional prohibition. The banknote sense (common in everyday speech) has no legal analog here. The invoice sense approaches the commercial bill but is not equivalent to a bill of exchange.

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Common Confusion

Three confusions arise with regularity:

BILL vs. ACT: A bill is a proposed law; an act is what the bill becomes upon enactment. Historical sources sometimes use the terms loosely or interchangeably after passage, which can create ambiguity about the operative status of a legislative measure.

BILL OF EXCHANGE vs. PROMISSORY NOTE: A bill of exchange is a three-party instrument (drawer, drawee, payee) involving an order to pay. A promissory note is a two-party instrument — a direct promise by the maker to pay the payee. Rapalje & Lawrence distinguishes these carefully; earlier sources sometimes blur them. A check is a specialized bill of exchange drawn on a bank payable on demand.

BILL OF ATTAINDER vs. EX POST FACTO LAW: Both are constitutionally prohibited legislative acts targeting individuals. A bill of attainder imposes punishment on named persons without trial; an ex post facto law criminalizes or increases punishment for conduct already past. The two concepts overlap but are analytically distinct.

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Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

In equity practice, bills were formally classified:

- Original bill: Initiates new equity litigation; the standard complaint in chancery.
- Bill of review: Seeks re-examination of a final decree on grounds of error or new evidence.
- Bill of revivor: Revives a suit abated by death or other cause.
- Supplemental bill: Adds matter arising after the original bill was filed.
- Bill quia timet: Seeks preventive relief against a feared future injury before it occurs.
- Bill of discovery: Seeks disclosure of facts or documents within the opposing party's knowledge, without seeking other relief.
- Bill of interpleader: Filed by a stakeholder who faces competing claims to the same fund or property, asking the court to determine the rightful claimant.
- Bill of peace: Seeks to settle in one proceeding a right disputed in multiple suits.

In commercial law, bills are further classified as inland bills (drawn and payable within the same jurisdiction) and foreign bills (crossing national or state lines), with different rules historically governing protest and notice requirements.

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Why It Matters in Research

The multiplicity of "bill" meanings is a research trap in historical sources. A digest entry or index reference to "bill" without further specification may lead a researcher into entirely the wrong body of doctrine. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century treatises, court reports, and statutes use the term without prefatory explanation, assuming the reader knows from context which bill is meant.

In equity practice research, the bill was the entire foundation of the proceeding. Understanding the type of bill filed — original, supplemental, quia timet, interpleader — dictates which procedural rules, defenses, and remedies applied. After the merger of law and equity (in federal courts, 1938; in most states across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries), equitable "bills" were replaced by civil "complaints." Pre-merger sources use bill where post-merger sources say complaint; they are functionally equivalent in most contexts but carry different procedural baggage.

For legislative research, "bill" and "act" appear in tandem throughout session law archives. Researchers must track whether the instrument in question was ever enacted — a bill that died in committee looks identical to an enacted bill in some early legislative records.

In commercial law research, the rules governing bills of exchange evolved substantially across the nineteenth century and were codified in the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Law (1896) and later the Uniform Commercial Code (Article 3). Historical sources predate that codification and reflect common law rules that may have been superseded.

The Bill of Attainder Clause has seen renewed litigation in modern constitutional law. Research on this clause requires attention to the Supreme Court's evolving definition of "punishment" for constitutional purposes — a definition not visible in the historical dictionaries.

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Historical Dictionary Support

Black's Law Dictionary (1st Ed.) treats "bill" as one of its longest entries, cataloguing the multiple meanings and noting that the term "has many meanings and applications." It gives pride of place to the equity bill and the bill of indictment, reflecting the procedural world of the era. The commercial bill of exchange receives separate treatment. Black's correctly identifies the bill in king's bench practice as functionally analogous to a declaration or complaint.

Bouvier's Law Dictionary is particularly thorough on the chancery bill, carefully distinguishing the charging part from the jurisdiction clause and cross-referencing procedural rules. Bouvier's entry on the Bill of Attainder is notable for emphasizing that the prohibition covers both treason attainders and the imposition of "pains and penalties beyond or contrary to the common law" — a framing important for understanding the constitutional clause's scope.

Rapalje & Lawrence focuses heavily on the commercial dimensions — bills of exchange, indorsement mechanics, the position of the holder without indorsement — and provides useful period-specific detail on the rights of a purchaser of a dishonored bill. Their treatment reflects the commercial law concerns of the late nineteenth century practitioner.

What the historical dictionaries miss: the modern constitutional law of the Bill of Attainder Clause, which has expanded considerably through twentieth-century litigation; the GI Bill and its educational benefits framework (a wholly modern legislative creation); and the full codification of negotiable instruments law under the UCC.

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Jurisdictional Note

The procedural "bill" in equity is historically significant in jurisdictions that maintained separate courts of equity (notably Delaware, New Jersey, and historically Virginia and South Carolina). In states that merged law and equity earlier, the equity bill was replaced by a unified complaint, and the procedural distinctions carry less weight in practice. The Bill of Attainder Clause applies to both Congress (Art. I, §9) and state legislatures (Art. I, §10), making it a fully nationalized constitutional prohibition regardless of the forum.

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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Incorporation of the Bill of Rights Against the States — Constitutional Law Encyclopedia
Bills of Lading — Document of Title, Receipt, and Contract of Carriage — Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia
VA Education Benefits — Post-9/11 GI Bill, Montgomery GI Bill, and VR&E — Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia

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BILLmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

By-laws of towns; mu-

BILLmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

A formal declaration, complaint, or statement of particular things in writing. As a legal term, this word has many mean- ings and applications, the more important of which are enumerated below.

BILLmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

1. A formal written statement of com- plaint to a court of justice. In the ancient practice of the court of king's bench, the usual and orderly method of beginning an action was by a bill, or orig- inal bill, or plaint. This was a written state- ment of the plaintiff's cause of action, like a declaration or complaint, and always alleged a trespass as the ground of it, in order to give the court jurisdiction. 3 Bl. Comm. 43. 2. A formal written declaration by a court to its officers, in the nature of process; as the old bill of Middlesex. 3. A record or certified written account of the proceedings in an action, or a portion of the same; as a bill of exceptions. 4. In equity practice. A formal writ- ten complaint, in the nature of a petition, addressed by a suitor in chancery to the chancellor or to a court of equity or a court having equitable jurisdiction, showing the names of the parties, stating the facts which make up the case and the complainant's alle- gations, averring that the acts disclosed are contrary to equity, and praying for process and for specific relief, or for such relief as the circumstances demand. Bills are said to be original, not original, or in the nature of original bills. They are original when the circumstances constituting the case are not already before the court, and relief is demanded, or the bill is filed for a subsidiary purpose. 5. In legislation and constitutional law, the word means a draft of an act of the legislature before it becomes a law; a proposed or pro- jected law. A draft of an act presented to the legislature, but not enacted. An act is the appropriate term for it, after it has been acted on by, and passed by, the legislature. 26 Pa. St. 450. Also a special act passed by a legislative body in the exercise of a quasi judicial power. Thus, bills of attainder, bills of pains and penalties, are spoken of. In England, "bill" also signifies the draft of a patent for a charter, commission, dignity, office, or appointment; such a bill is drawn up in the at- torney general's patent bill office, is submitted by a secretary of state for her majesty's signature, when it is called the "queen's bill;" it is counter- signed by the secretary of state, and sealed by the privy seal, and then the patent is prepared and sealed. Sweet. 6. A solemn and formal legislative declara- tion of popular rights and liberties, promul- gated on certain extraordinary occasions; as the famous Bill of Rights in English history. 7. As a contract. An obligation; a deed, whereby the obligor acknowledges himself to BILL IN NATURE, ETC. or some other thing, in which, besides the names of the parties, are to be considered the sum or thing due, the time, place, and man- ner of payment or delivery thereof. It may be indented or poll, and with or without a penalty. West, Symb. §§ 100, 101. 8. A written statement of the terms of a contract, or specification of the items of a de- mand, or counter-demand. Also the creditor's written statement of his claim, specifying the items. 9. By the English usage, it is applied to the statement of the charges and disburse- ments of an attorney or solicitor incurred in the conduct of his client's business, and which might be taxed upon application, even though not incurred in any suit. Thus, conveyanc- ing costs might be taxed. Wharton.

BILLn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A beak, as of a bird, or sometimes of a turtle or other animal. Milton.

BILLv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To strike; to peck. [Obs.] To join bills, as doves; to caress in fondness. "As pigeons bill." Shak. To bill and coo, to interchange caresses; -- said of doves; also of demonstrative lovers. Thackeray.

BILLn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The bell, or boom, of the bittern The bittern's hollow bill was heard. Wordsworth.

Billname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC 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.

A diminutive of the male given name William. | A diminutive of the male given name Bilal. | A surname. | A nickname for the British constabulary. Often called "The Bill" or "Old Bill"

billnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

The beak of a bird, especially when small or flattish; sometimes also used with reference to a platypus, turtle, or other animal. | A beaklike projection, especially a promontory. | Of a cap or hat: the brim or peak, serving as a shade to keep sun off the face and out of the eyes.

billverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To roll up a marijuana cigarette.

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