CONCEDERE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

CONCEDEREAuthored

The Law Mind • 633 words

Definition

A Latin term meaning "to grant." In legal usage, *concedere* denotes the act of conferring a right, privilege, or property upon another by formal grant. The term appears most frequently in the context of Latin maxims governing the interpretation of grants, where it supplies the operative verb establishing what passes — and what is implied to pass — when a grant is made.

The term is not typically used as a standalone legal concept but functions as the foundation of interpretive rules: when a grantor *concedit* (grants) something, the law reads the grant as carrying with it whatever is necessary to make the granted thing effective.

Common Confusion

*Concedere* (to grant) should not be conflated with *concedere* in the sense of "to concede" or "to admit," which is the term's meaning in classical and ecclesiastical Latin contexts. Legal Latin in the common law tradition uses *concedere* almost exclusively in the property/grant sense. A reader moving between canonical Latin texts and common law sources may encounter the same word carrying different freight.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering *concedere* in historical legal texts are almost never looking at the word in isolation. Its significance is almost entirely carried by the maxim built around it: *Cuicunque aliquid conceditur, conceditur et id sine quo res ipsa esse non potest* — to whomsoever anything is granted, that is also granted without which the thing itself could not exist. This maxim governs implied grants and is the ancestor of modern doctrines holding that a grant of land carries implied easements, rights of access, or other incidents necessary to the enjoyment of the thing granted.

When working through historical conveyancing documents, deed construction cases, or early property treatises, *concedere* signals that the interpretive question is not merely what words say but what the grant necessarily implies. Courts and treatise writers citing this maxim were reaching for a rule of liberal construction favoring the grantee — a research trail that leads into easement-by-implication doctrine, the law of appurtenances, and the broader principle that a grantor cannot derogate from her own grant.

Historical sources before the mid-nineteenth century will use *concedere* and its derivatives freely without translation. Later American sources tend to quote the Latin maxim and then translate it, or abandon the Latin entirely and restate the rule in English. If you are searching a corpus that spans both periods, be aware that the substantive doctrine may appear under either form.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the essential framework: *concedere* means "to grant," and the entry's substantive content is carried by the maxim *Cuicunque aliquid conceditur, conceditur et id sine quo res ipsa non esse potuit*, paraphrased by Burrill as: "When any thing is granted, all the means to attain it, and all the fruits and effects of it are granted also; and shall pass inclusive, together with the thing, by the grant of the thing itself."

Burrill's phrasing is worth noting because it is more expansive than a strict reading of the maxim alone might support. The maxim as stated addresses what is *necessary* to the existence of the granted thing; Burrill's gloss extends to "means to attain it" and "fruits and effects" — a broader construction. Researchers should treat Burrill's paraphrase as representing one strand of interpretation rather than a fixed rule, and verify against the primary source context in which the maxim appears.

No substantial divergence exists among historical dictionaries on the core meaning of *concedere* itself. The interpretive variation lies in how broadly courts and treatise writers read the maxim it anchors.

CONCEDEREmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

Lat. To grant. Cuicunque aliquid conceditur, conceditur et id sine quo res ipsa non esse potuit. To whomsoever any thing is granted, that also is granted without which the thing itself could not exist. When any thing is granted, all the means to attain it, and all the fruits and effects of it are granted also; and shall pass inclusive, together with the thing, by the grant of the thing itself, without the words cum pertinentiis, or any such like words. Shep. Touch. 89. Thus, if a man conveys a piece of ground in the midst of his estate, a right of way to come to it, over the land not conveyed, will pass to the grantee. 1 Steph. Com. 464. Co. Litt. Finch's Law, b. 1, c. 4, num. 86. Broom's Max. 198, [362]. This is one of the fundamental maxims of construction of deeds. 1 Steph. Com. 462, 463. Its phraseology is sometimes varied thus: Cuicunque aliquis quid concedit, concedere videtur et id sine quo res ipsa esse non potuit. To whomsoever any one grants a thing, he is supposed [seems] to grant that also without which the thing itself could not exist, [the grant itself would be of no effect]. 11 Co. 52. Broom's Max. 198, [362]. Thus, "if I grant you my trees in my wood, you may come with carts over my land to carry the wood." 11 Co. ub. sup. 56 a. Another form of this maxim is the following (q. v.): Quando lex aliquid alicui concedit, concedere videtur et id sine quo res ipsa esse non potest, [or id per quod devenitur ad illud.] When the law grants any thing to any one, it is supposed [it seems] to grant that also without which the thing itself could not exist, [the means of attaining it].