Definition
In civil law and property law, cant is a method of dividing property held in common by two or more joint owners or co-tenants. The division is effected through a judicial sale conducted at the request of the parties, with proceeds allocated among the co-owners according to their respective interests. Because cant is a consensual judicial proceeding, it may be set aside or avoided by the agreement of all interested parties, in the same manner as any other contract entered into by mutual consent.
Cant is closely associated with the term licitation, and the two are used interchangeably in the civil law tradition to describe the same mechanism of forced or consensual partition by sale.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A slope, tilt, or angle; a corner or edge of a structure; a sudden push or thrust that alters direction; also, in a distinct but related sense, insincere or formulaic speech.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A corner or external angle; an inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a sudden impulse producing a change of direction.
The legal meaning of cant has no meaningful connection to the geometric or rhetorical senses familiar in ordinary English. In law, cant refers exclusively to a mode of co-ownership division through judicial sale — a procedural concept drawn entirely from civilian sources. A researcher encountering the word in a legal document should not assume any relationship to tilt, angle, or insincere speech.
Common Confusion
Cant and partition are related but distinct. Partition is the broader term encompassing all methods of dividing co-owned property, including physical division in kind. Cant (or licitation) refers specifically to partition by judicial sale, where physical division is impractical or refused, and the property is sold with proceeds distributed among the owners. In civilian jurisdictions, licitation is the preferred term; cant appears more frequently in older Louisiana materials and civil law treatises drawing on French and Spanish sources. Researchers should not assume that every reference to partition implies a sale, nor that cant implies any form of physical division.
Why It Matters in Research
Cant is a term almost entirely confined to civil law jurisdictions, most notably Louisiana, and to legal materials drawing on French or Spanish civilian traditions. It rarely appears in common law sources, and its absence from most American legal dictionaries outside the civilian context means researchers working in common law archives may never encounter it — while those working in Louisiana territorial and early statehood records may find it frequently.
The pairing cant/licitation is diagnostically useful: when both appear together in a source, that source is almost certainly operating within a civilian framework. Researchers tracing partition law in Louisiana should note that the mechanisms and terminology shifted as Louisiana courts absorbed more common law influence over the nineteenth century; early territorial sources will use cant and licitation with precision, while later sources may use partition generically.
The civil law angle also matters for understanding who could initiate the proceeding. Because cant is a judicial sale made at the request of the parties and avoidable by consent, the procedural posture differs from a court-ordered partition in kind. This distinction affects how researchers should classify dispute records, probate filings, and co-ownership dissolution documents in civilian jurisdictions.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core meaning: cant is a civil law method of dividing commonly held property, effected through judicial sale. Bouvier's Law Dictionary is the most complete on the legal mechanics, explicitly noting that cant may be avoided by the consent of all interested parties and equating it with licitation. Both editions of Black's anchor the definition to the civil law tradition without elaborating on procedure. None of the three sources discuss the common law equivalents or explain when cant applies versus partition in kind — a gap researchers must fill from treatise sources. The citation to Hayes v. Cuny, 9 Mart. O.S. (La.) 87, appearing in both Black's editions, is the primary case authority referenced across the historical dictionary record.
Jurisdictional Note
Cant as a legal term is effectively limited to civil law jurisdictions. It appears with regularity in Louisiana legal materials from the territorial period through the nineteenth century. Common law jurisdictions do not use the term; researchers working outside Louisiana or other civilian traditions are unlikely to encounter it in operative legal usage.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Partition; Co-Ownership and Common Property; Louisiana Civil Law Tradition.