Definition
De integro is a Latin phrase meaning "anew," "afresh," or "as it was before." It signifies a return to the original state of a matter, or the resumption of a proceeding, examination, or consideration from the beginning — as though prior steps had not occurred or had been set aside. Courts and counsel have used the phrase to describe circumstances where a question, proceeding, or matter is to be treated as entirely fresh, without carrying forward the conclusions or effects of what preceded it.
Common Confusion
De integro and de novo are closely related but should not be treated as interchangeable, particularly when working across historical and modern sources. De novo has a robust technical existence in modern law — especially in appellate standards of review and trials de novo — with defined procedural consequences. De integro has no equivalent modern technical life; it is a historical phrase that conveyed the same general idea but without the doctrinal precision that de novo later acquired. Using modern de novo doctrine to interpret historical references to de integro risks anachronism.
Why It Matters in Research
The phrase appears most frequently in older equity and common law materials, particularly in chancery records and English reports. Researchers encountering de integro in historical sources should understand that it functions as a directional instruction — signaling that a matter is reopened or reconstituted without prejudice to a party from prior proceedings.
The most important navigational point is the relationship between de integro and de novo. These terms are sometimes used interchangeably in older texts, but they are not perfectly synonymous. De novo — the term that survived into modern legal usage — has acquired a technically precise meaning in appellate review and trial procedure. De integro, while conveying the same core idea of "starting fresh," does not carry that technical scaffolding and was used more loosely in historical sources to describe a variety of procedural resets. Researchers who encounter de integro in historical materials and assume it tracks the modern de novo standard exactly may misread the scope of what was being ordered or described.
De integro rarely appears in modern American case law or statutes. Its presence in a source is therefore itself a dating signal — its use is characteristic of pre-twentieth-century English and early American legal writing. Researchers in the Law Mind corpus working with equity materials, chancery proceedings, or early appellate records should watch for it as a procedural marker.
The Burrill citation to 1 Vern. 223, 232 points to Vernon's Reports, a foundational collection of English chancery cases from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries — precisely the milieu in which de integro was most actively deployed.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core meaning: "anew," "a second time," "as it was before." The definitions are brief and do not diverge. Burrill's is the most informative, anchoring the term in chancery authority (Vernon's Reports) and attributing a usage to Lord Ellenborough in a King's Bench context (5 M. & S. 222), which demonstrates that the phrase was not limited to equity — it appeared in common law courts as well.
What the historical dictionaries do not do is distinguish de integro from de novo, explain the procedural mechanisms that triggered its application, or describe what legal consequences followed from a court's direction to proceed de integro. Researchers should treat these definitions as entry points, not as complete accounts of the term's operative meaning in any given historical context. The surrounding case or text must supply what the dictionary omits.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Standards of Review on Appeal (De Novo, Abuse of Discretion, Plain Error) — The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia (criminal_230). The de novo standard of review is the modern successor to the conceptual work done by de integro in historical sources. Consulting this entry clarifies how the "fresh consideration" idea was formalized and where it now operates with technical precision.