Definition
Communication is the act of imparting, transmitting, or exchanging information between persons. In law, the term carries several distinct meanings depending on context:
(1) General sense: The transfer of information or knowledge from one person to another, whether by words, writing, conduct, or any other means. Includes conference, consultation, or bargaining preliminary to forming a contract — the exchange itself, not yet an agreement.
(2) Evidence law — privileged communication: A statement or disclosure made within a legally protected relationship — attorney-client, spousal, physician-patient, or clergy-penitent — that the law shields from compelled disclosure in judicial proceedings. The privilege belongs to the relationship, not merely to the content.
(3) Defamation law — communication as publication: A defamatory statement "communicated" to a third party satisfies the publication element required for a libel or slander claim. A privileged communication in this context is a defamatory statement made in discharge of a duty — political, judicial, social, or personal — that the law protects from liability under qualified or absolute privilege.
(4) French law (historical): The court-ordered production of a merchant's books — delivering them to a party or court-designated person for examination as needed in litigation. This is a procedural mechanism, not an evidentiary privilege.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The act or fact of communicating anything; transmission; an instance of information transfer; a conversation or discourse; a passageway or opening between two locations.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act or fact of communicating; intercourse by words, letters, or messages; interchange of thoughts or opinions by conference or other means; means of passing from place to place.
The common definitions treat communication as broadly synonymous with any transmission or exchange. Legal usage narrows and specializes the term depending on context: in evidence law, the word triggers a body of privilege doctrine tied to relationship and confidentiality; in defamation law, it operates as a term of art for the publication element. The ordinary word "communication" imports none of these structural consequences.
Common Confusion
COMMUNICATION, PUBLICATION, AND DISCLOSURE
In defamation, "communication" to a third party is functionally equivalent to "publication" — both describe the moment a statement reaches someone beyond the original speaker and target. The terms are often used interchangeably in older authorities, but "publication" is the more precise term of art in modern defamation doctrine. In evidence law, "communication" and "disclosure" are not the same: a communication may be protected as privileged even if the underlying fact is discoverable by other means; the privilege shields the communicative act, not necessarily the underlying information.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Confidential communication: A communication made within a relationship of trust and legal duty — attorney and client, spouses, physician and patient — where both parties understand the exchange to be private. The confidentiality is a precondition for the privilege, not a consequence of it.
Privileged communication: A confidential communication that the law specifically shields from compelled disclosure in legal proceedings. The privilege may be absolute (as in certain judicial and legislative contexts) or qualified (as in many professional relationships, where it can be overcome by sufficient countervailing interests). In defamation, "privileged communication" describes a statement protected from liability rather than from disclosure.
Marital communication: A statement made between spouses during a valid marriage, in reliance on the marital relationship. Distinct from the spousal testimonial privilege (which applies to in-court testimony generally) — the marital communications privilege protects only confidential interspousal exchanges and typically survives the marriage's end.
Why It Matters in Research
The word "communication" operates as an umbrella term in the historical dictionaries, grouping together concepts that modern law treats as structurally distinct. A researcher must identify which legal context is operative before the word carries analytical weight.
In the Law Mind corpus, the most significant uses are in evidence and privilege law. Historical dictionary entries for "communication" consistently fold together what modern doctrine separates: the general act of imparting information, the privileged communication doctrine, and the defamation publication requirement. Rapalje & Lawrence and Burrill are useful for identifying the pre-agreement, conferencing sense of the word in contract formation — "communication" as the negotiation phase short of agreement — which appears in older commercial cases and equity proceedings.
The French law meaning (production of merchant's books) is a false cognate: readers encountering "communication" in translated French commercial materials or treatises influenced by civil law tradition should not import the common-law evidentiary meaning.
For privilege research, the critical navigational move is distinguishing the holder of the privilege, the relationship that generates it, and whether the privilege is absolute or qualified. Historical sources tend to define privileged communication in terms of duty — Burrill's and Black's both frame it as information imparted between persons "who occupy a relation of trust and duty" — rather than in the modern doctrinal framework of holder and waiver. That framing can obscure who controls the privilege and under what circumstances it is lost.
In defamation research using historical sources, "communication" often substitutes for "publication." This matters because older cases addressing whether a defamatory statement was "communicated" to a third party may be analyzing what modern courts would call the publication element; the same precedents may be cited for privilege doctrine, where a "privileged communication" is analyzed on entirely different grounds.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge on the core general sense: information imparted from one person to another, preliminary conference or consultation, and intercourse or connection. Burrill's is the most analytically precise of the group, distinguishing "a talking or conferring with" — mere discourse without agreement — from the act of imparting information, and cross-referencing the privileged communication doctrine as a separate heading. This two-part structure (general act; specialized legal doctrine) reflects the split that modern law formalizes.
Black's (both editions) and Rapalje & Lawrence add the contract-formation sense — communication as the consultation or bargaining phase preparatory to agreement, not yet agreement itself — which is not prominent in Burrill's. This usage appears in equity and commercial contexts and is worth flagging for researchers working in those areas.
Anderson's is notably less systematic, mentioning confidential and privileged communications briefly and cross-referencing related headings rather than providing independent analysis. The historical entries are largely silent on the defamation-law meaning of communication as publication, which must be assembled from entries on libel, slander, and privilege rather than found here.
None of the historical dictionaries address the evidentiary and constitutional dimensions of privilege that dominate modern doctrine — including waiver, the crime-fraud exception, or the distinction between absolute and qualified privilege. Researchers relying on the historical definitions for privilege analysis will need to supplement with treatise and case law sources.
Jurisdictional Note
Marital communications privilege varies significantly: some jurisdictions recognize a joint privilege requiring both spouses to consent to waiver; others vest it in the communicating spouse alone. Federal courts follow the Federal Rules of Evidence, which treat marital privilege narrowly. The historical dictionary definitions do not reflect these variations.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Spousal Privileges — Testimonial Privilege and Marital Communications (The Law Mind Civil Procedure & Evidence Encyclopedia)