Definition
Latin: "during good pleasure." A tenure or term of office held at the will of the appointing authority, meaning the office may be terminated at any time without cause, for any reason satisfying the appointing power. An officeholder serving durante bene placito has no fixed term and no legal claim to continued service; their continuance in office depends entirely on the ongoing favor of whoever granted the appointment.
The phrase describes a condition of tenure, not a type of office. Any office — judicial, administrative, or otherwise — may be held on this basis when the granting authority reserves the right to remove the holder at pleasure.
Common Confusion
Durante bene placito is the historical counterpart to quamdiu se bene gesserit — "so long as he shall behave himself well," or good behavior tenure. These two phrases define opposite ends of the tenure spectrum and are frequently encountered together in constitutional and historical literature. Confusion between them has real stakes: durante bene placito means removable at will; quamdiu se bene gesserit means removable only for cause (misconduct). The shift in English judicial tenure from the former to the latter, and the later adoption of good behavior tenure in Article III of the U.S. Constitution, is one of the central narratives of Anglo-American judicial independence. A researcher who conflates these phrases will misread that entire history.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in historical and constitutional contexts. Modern offices are rarely described using the Latin phrase, but the underlying concept — at-will tenure — remains central to administrative law, separation of powers, and removal power doctrine.
For corpus researchers, the primary significance of durante bene placito is as a marker in the history of judicial independence. Pre-1701 English judges held office at the Crown's pleasure; the Act of Settlement of 1701 converted judicial tenure to quamdiu se bene gesserit for superior court judges. Blackstone's treatment of this transition, cited in the historical entry here, is the canonical reference point and appears repeatedly in early American constitutional commentary. When researching founding-era materials on the judiciary, encounters with durante bene placito signal arguments about dependence and independence of courts.
In American administrative law, the conceptual twin of this phrase — at-will removal — runs through the long line of cases on the President's removal power. The Latin is rarely used, but researchers tracing removal power doctrine backward through English constitutional history will find durante bene placito doing significant work in the older sources.
Watch for the phrase in letters of administration and probate materials as well, though here the more common variant is durante minore ætate (during minority) or durante absentia. The historical entry from Black's conflates these variants in a single block; they are distinct concepts applied in different contexts and should not be treated as synonymous.
The phrase is essentially obsolete in modern legal drafting. In contemporary sources, "at pleasure," "at will," or "at the discretion of the appointing authority" replaces it. Researchers working in historical materials, especially English legal history before 1800 or early American constitutional debates, are most likely to encounter it.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary provides only a brief treatment, defining the phrase as "during good pleasure" and citing Blackstone's Commentaries at volumes 1 and 2 for the historical tenure of English judges. The citation to 1 Bl. Comm. 267 and 342 points to Blackstone's discussion of judicial office and its transformation under the Act of Settlement. Black's does not develop the constitutional significance of the phrase or explain its contrast with good behavior tenure — that work is left to the reader.
The entry in Black's groups durante bene placito immediately with durante minore ætate in a way that may mislead a casual reader into thinking them closely related. They share the structural Latin form (durante + condition) but operate in entirely different legal contexts: one concerns the tenure of royal officers and judges, the other concerns administration of estates during a beneficiary's minority. Historical dictionaries generally treat them separately when giving full coverage; Black's compressed format obscures the distinction.
No meaningful divergence among historical sources on the core definition: the phrase has always meant tenure at the will of the grantor. The historiographical weight lies not in the definition but in its application — specifically, the argument that judicial independence requires replacing this form of tenure with good behavior tenure.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase originates in English constitutional law and is most significant there. In the United States, Article III judges hold office during good behavior — the opposite of durante bene placito — while Article I judges and most executive officers serve on terms or at presidential discretion, making the concept functionally relevant even where the Latin is not used. Commonwealth jurisdictions inherited the post-1701 English framework.