Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "with that view," "with that intent," or "with that object in mind." Used in legal writing and argument to indicate that an act was done with a particular purpose or object as its animating motive — that the act and the intent are linked, the one done in contemplation of the other. The phrase functions as a shorthand for purposive causation: not merely that something happened alongside an intent, but that the intent was the direct occasion and rationale for the act.
Common Language
This is pure legal Latin with no meaningful counterpart in ordinary English usage. The phrase does not appear in common speech. Omitted accordingly.
Why It Matters in Research
Eo intuitu is a connective phrase, not a standalone doctrine, which means researchers rarely encounter it as a subject heading — they encounter it embedded in argument or judicial reasoning. Its function is to tie an act to a specific intent, and it appears most often in contexts where the law treats motive or purpose as legally operative: gift causa mortis (where the gift must be made eo intuitu of death), fraudulent conveyance analysis, and conditions attached to transfers of property.
The primary research trap is treating eo intuitu as ornamental Latin when it is in fact load-bearing. In older equity opinions and treatises, the phrase signals that the validity or effect of the transaction depends on whether the stated intent was genuine and present. A gift made eo intuitu mortis must have been made in contemplation of death, not merely accompanied by death; courts used this phrase to police the distinction.
Corpus researchers scanning nineteenth-century equity reports and chancery materials will find the phrase most densely in cases involving donatio mortis causa, fraudulent transfers to defeat creditors, and bequests conditioned on circumstances. The phrase also appears in constitutional and statutory construction arguments where a legislature's object or purpose is being attributed to a specific provision.
Connection to related corpus materials: entries on DONATIO MORTIS CAUSA, CAUSA, ANIMUS, and INTUITUS will provide surrounding doctrinal context. Hale's Analogy (cited in all four source dictionaries) is the classical anchor for the phrase in English legal usage.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries — Black's (1st and 2nd editions), Rapalje & Lawrence, and Burrill — are in precise agreement: the phrase means "with or in that view; with that intent or object." The consistency across sources signals that the phrase was well-settled in legal Latin usage by the time these dictionaries were compiled and had not undergone contested evolution.
Burrill adds the cross-reference "See Intuitus," pointing to the root noun form, which appears in Latin maxims and civilian sources addressing intent and contemplation. This cross-reference is useful: researchers who find eo intuitu in one source may find the doctrinal elaboration under intuitus in another.
What the historical sources do not provide is doctrinal context — none of the four dictionaries explains in which areas of law the phrase most commonly operated. They treat it as a Latin gloss rather than a term with substantive legal consequences. That gap is the reason researchers should not stop at the dictionary definition. The phrase's legal weight comes from the surrounding doctrine, not from the phrase itself.
All four dictionaries cite Hale's Analogy (§ 2) as authority, and no other source is offered. Sir Matthew Hale's Analogy of Law (posthumously published) was a foundational text in organizing English legal reasoning, and the citation suggests the phrase was absorbed into common legal usage through that channel.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Donatio Mortis Causa; Causa; Animus and Intent in Legal Transactions.