BULLETIN

8 definitions found across Law Mind sources

BULLETINAuthored
The Law Mind • 963 words
Definition
An official notice or announcement issued by a government authority or authorized body, reporting on matters of public importance. In its classic legal sense, a bulletin is distinguished from informal announcements by its official character — it carries the weight of the issuing authority and typically serves as a vehicle for promulgating decisions, updates, or directives to the public or to a regulated community. In immigration law, the term carries a specific and consequential modern meaning: the Visa Bulletin is a monthly publication issued by the U.S. Department of State that establishes the priority dates controlling when immigrant visa applicants may advance in the queue toward lawful permanent residence. The Visa Bulletin is not a statute or regulation but functions as a critical operational document governing the pace at which immigrant visa numbers become available under congressionally imposed per-country limits. In French law, the bulletin historically referred to the official registry of laws — the Bulletin des lois — the publication through which statutes and decrees were formally promulgated and given legal effect. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A short report released through official channels for immediate broadcast; a time-sensitive news item; a short printed publication issued regularly by an organization. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A brief statement of facts respecting some passing event — military operations, the health of a distinguished personage — issued by authority for public information; also, a periodical publication containing the proceedings of a society. The common and legal meanings share a family resemblance: both involve official or authoritative publication of information. The legal gap lies in consequence. An ordinary bulletin informs. A legal bulletin — particularly the Visa Bulletin — governs. A researcher treating the Visa Bulletin as merely informational will miss its operative role: the priority dates it publishes determine whether an applicant may file for adjustment of status at all during a given month. ---
Why It Matters in Research
The word bulletin appears in legal sources at two very different levels of significance, and conflating them is a research trap. In historical legal sources — Black's, Bouvier's, Rapalje & Lawrence — bulletin means little more than an official public notice. The French law reference (Bulletin des lois, Bulletin des arrêts) receives more attention than any domestic American application, reflecting the term's European administrative heritage. Researchers consulting these sources for a modern U.S. immigration question will find almost nothing useful. In contemporary immigration practice and scholarship, the Visa Bulletin is among the most operationally significant administrative documents in the field. It is issued monthly by the State Department's Visa Office and establishes cut-off dates for each preference category and country of chargeability. Because immigrant visa numbers are numerically capped per country and per preference category, applicants must wait until their priority date becomes "current" according to the Bulletin before they may complete their immigration process. The Bulletin also periodically publishes two separate charts — Dates for Filing and Final Action Dates — a distinction with significant procedural implications that is entirely absent from historical dictionary sources. Researchers working in immigration law must locate the Visa Bulletin within the corpus of administrative publications, not statutory or regulatory text. Its authority derives from the Immigration and Nationality Act's visa allocation provisions, but the Bulletin itself has no independent regulatory status. Priority date retrogression — when the Bulletin moves cut-off dates backward, stranding applicants who believed they were close to filing — is a recurring research issue documented in the Law Mind Encyclopedia entry linked above. For historical research: the French Bulletin des lois reference in older dictionaries is authentic and worth following for comparative administrative law work. Promulgation through official bulletins was a civil law mechanism with no close common law analog. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in close agreement and essentially repeat one another. Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, and Rapalje & Lawrence all define bulletin as an officially published notice or announcement concerning matters of public importance, and all note the French law usage as the registry or publication of laws. Black's 2nd Edition is the most detailed, adding the specific phrase Bulletin des lois and explaining that publication in it constituted formal promulgation of a law or decree — a functionally important point for understanding how the concept differs from common law approaches to statutory publication. None of the historical sources anticipate the modern immigration law usage, which is expected: the modern visa preference and per-country numerical limitation system postdates these dictionaries by decades. Their definitions are historically accurate but of limited utility for researchers working on contemporary immigration matters. Rapalje & Lawrence's entry is notably brief and transitions abruptly to a definition of BULLION, suggesting the compilers treated bulletin as a minor term not requiring extended analysis. This reflects the term's relatively modest footprint in 19th-century American legal practice. ---
Jurisdictional Note
The Visa Bulletin is a federal administrative publication with no state-law equivalent. Its legal significance is specific to U.S. immigration law. In civil law jurisdictions, the bulletin as a vehicle for official legal promulgation remains a meaningful concept — the French model referenced in historical dictionaries continues in various forms across civil law systems. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Immigration Law Encyclopedia: Per-Country Limits and Visa Bulletin — Priority Date Retrogression, Cross-Chargeability, and the Visa Queue (immigration_42) ---
Related Terms
Visa Bulletin — Priority Date — Priority Date Retrogression — Final Action Date — Date for Filing — Per-Country Limits — Immigrant Visa — Adjustment of Status — Promulgation — Administrative Notice — Regulation — Gazette — Bulletin des lois
BULLETINmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
An officially published no- tice or announcement concerning the progress of matters of public importance. In France, the registry of the laws.
BULLETINmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
An official account of public transactions on matters of impor- tance. In France, it is the registry of the laws.
BULLETINmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
- An official notice of a public transaction or matter of public importance. BULLION.- Uncoined gold and silver in the mass. Those metals are called so, either when smelted from the native ore, and not perfectly refined; or when they are perfectly refined, but melted down into bars or ingots, or into any unwrought body 5. Co-operative building society.- A society may be formed under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act, 1876 (repealing the Acts of 1862 and 1871), for the purpose of buying and selling land, with power to mortgage, lease or build upon land bought or taken on lease by it. Such societies are sometimes of any degree of fineness.-Wharton. called "co-operative building societies." Dav. B. Soc. 278 et seq. 6. Freehold land societies are only in form within the scope of the Building Societies Acts. In a society of this kind "subscriptions are received from the members in the way generally adopted by building societies, and, with the funds thus acquired, an estate is purchased in some eligible situation. The property is then laid out in lots of a size suited to the wants of the members; roads are made, and other improvements effected, the cost of which, and of the conveyance to the society, is added to the amount of the purchase-money. The total sum thus expended upon the whole estate is then equitably apportioned amongst the several lots, and determines their price. The members are thus enabled to obtain a small quantity of land at wholesale price." (Dav. B. Soc. 63.) As a building society formed under the Building Societies Acts cannot legally hold land, except as security for advances, such an arrangement as the one above described is in reality ultra vires, and has to be effected through the medium of trustees, on whose honor the members must rely. This kind of society was invented principally to give the working classes votes in the days when the franchise was higher than it is now. Second Rep. of Com. 16. BUILDING, WHARF OR OTHER SUPERSTRUCTURE, (does not include a "ditch"). 12 Cal. 542. BUILDINGS, (in covenant to repair). 2 Barn. C. 608. ("sheds" held to be). 10 Bing. 69. BUILT, (in a contract). 38 Iowa 33. (in a subscription for railroad stock). 20 Ohio St. 190. 14. (ship, under navigation act). 1 Stark. (when a railroad is). 38 Iowa 33; 20 Ohio St. 190. BULL.-(1) A cant term of the stock exchange, signifying one who speculates for a rise BURDEN OF PROOF.-A phrase used to denote the duty of proving a fact or facts in dispute on an issue raised between the parties in an action. This duty lies upon the party who substantially asserts the affirmative of the issue, and is imposed upon him, not because it is impossible to prove a negative, but because the affirmative is capable of more simple and direct proof. 1 Greenl. Ev. & 74. See
BULLETINn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A brief statement of facts respecting some passing event, as military operations or the health of some distinguished personage, issued by authority for the information of the public. Any public notice or announcement, especially of news recently received. A periodical publication, especially one containing the proceeding of a society. Bulletin board, a board on which announcements are put, particularly at newsrooms, newspaper offices, etc.
bulletinnoun
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.
A short report, especially one released through official channels to be immediately broadcast or publicized. | A time-sensitive news item or short news report. | A short printed publication, especially one produced regularly by an organization.
bulletinverb
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.
To announce (something) by means of such a report or publication.
bulletinintj
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.
Introduces a fact (presumed to be obvious) of which the person addressed is ostensibly not aware.

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