EXCEPTIS EXCIPIENDIS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

EXCEPTIS EXCIPIENDISAuthored

The Law Mind • 854 words

Definition

A Latin maxim meaning "with all necessary exceptions made" or "the necessary exceptions having been excepted." It is a qualifying phrase used in legal instruments, statutes, opinions, and formal legal writing to signal that a general statement or rule applies subject to whatever exceptions are properly applicable in the circumstances — without requiring the drafter to enumerate every possible exception explicitly. The phrase operates as a built-in reservation, acknowledging that a rule, grant, or proposition is not absolute and carries with it all qualifications that law or reason demands.

In practice, the phrase functions similarly to "mutatis mutandis" (with necessary changes made) but focuses specifically on exclusions rather than modifications. Where mutatis mutandis adapts a general rule to a new context, exceptis excipiendis flags that certain things are carved out of a general rule or grant, even if those carve-outs are not spelled out.

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Common Confusion

EXCEPTIS EXCIPIENDIS vs. MUTATIS MUTANDIS: These phrases are sometimes used interchangeably in older treatise literature and judicial opinions, but they perform different functions. Mutatis mutandis adapts a statement by substituting what needs to be substituted; exceptis excipiendis reserves what needs to be excluded. A grant made mutatis mutandis is adjusted for context; a grant made exceptis excipiendis excludes categories that don't pass under the grant at all. Researchers working in equity or conveyancing materials should not treat these as synonyms.

EXCEPTIS EXCIPIENDIS vs. SAVING CLAUSE: A saving clause in a statute or instrument explicitly lists what is preserved or excluded. Exceptis excipiendis is an implicit reservation — it signals that exceptions exist without specifying them. In historical conveyancing, this distinction mattered practically: a formal exception in a deed required specific language identifying the thing excepted, while exceptis excipiendis served a broader, interpretive function in legal argument and judicial writing rather than as operative drafting language.

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Why It Matters in Research

This phrase appears most frequently in three research contexts: (1) older legal opinions quoting or paraphrasing civil law or canon law authorities, where Latin maxims functioned as shorthand for established doctrinal reservations; (2) treatise literature on conveyancing, where the concept of exceptions and reservations in deeds was technically developed; and (3) comparative law or conflict-of-laws discussions where a foreign rule is being applied with necessary carve-outs for local law.

Researchers should be alert to the phrase when reading 18th- and 19th-century equity opinions, particularly those drawing on civil law traditions. Courts using this phrase are typically signaling that a general proposition they are about to state carries unstated but legally understood qualifications — the phrase is a flag to dig deeper into what those exceptions might be, not an invitation to read the proposition as absolute.

Because the phrase is Latin and untranslated in many historical sources, full-text corpus searches may miss it when researchers search only in English. Run searches for both the Latin and any paraphrase equivalents ("with all necessary exceptions," "the exceptions being duly made") when working in primary sources from before 1900.

The phrase does not appear as operative language in modern American statutory drafting or contemporary case law. Its use today is almost entirely confined to academic legal writing, comparative law scholarship, and historical analysis. A researcher encountering it in a modern context is almost certainly reading a quotation from or reference to an older authority.

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Historical Dictionary Support

Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) defines the phrase minimally: "With all necessary exceptions." Rapalje & Lawrence give the same core definition but are more useful in context, embedding the phrase within their broader treatment of exceptions in conveyancing — making clear that the concept connects to the technical doctrine of exceptions in deeds, where a grantor could carve out from a conveyance something that would otherwise pass.

None of the historical dictionaries develop the phrase's civil law ancestry or its functional role in judicial writing, which is where researchers are most likely to encounter it. The dictionary treatment reflects the phrase's status as a recognized but unremarkable piece of Latin legal vocabulary — well enough understood by the bar that extended definition was thought unnecessary.

What the historical sources collectively miss is the phrase's role as an interpretive marker rather than operative drafting language. Rapalje & Lawrence's discussion of exceptions in conveyancing is the most useful surrounding context, but it addresses formal deed exceptions rather than the broader use of exceptis excipiendis as a qualifying formula in legal argument.

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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Exceptions and Reservations in Conveyancing; Latin Maxims in Anglo-American Law.

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EXCEPTIS EXCIPIENDISmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

- With all necessary exceptions. EXCEPTOR.-In old English law, a party who entered an exception, or plea. 1. Conveyancing. - In conveyanc-810; JUSTIFICATION. ing, an exception is a clause in a deed whereby the feoffor, donor, grantor, lessor, &c., excepts something out of that which he had granted before by the deed, so that the thing excepted does not pass by the grant. An exception must be part of the thing granted, and must be in esse at the time of the grant, while a reservation (q. v.) must be of some new thing issuing out of the thing granted. Shep. Touch. 78; 1 Dav. Conv. 95. 2. Procedure. - In procedure, to except to a thing is to object to or challenge it. Thus, to except to bail or sureties is to object to their sufficiency (see BAIL, & 10; JUSTIFICATION; Sm. Ac. (11 edit.) 235); and in chancery practice, to except to an answer to interrogatories or affidavit of docEXCERPTA, or EXCERPTS. - Extracts. EXCESS.-When a defendant pleaded to an action of assault that the plaintiff trespassed on his land, and he would not depart when ordered, whereupon he, molliter manus imposuit, gently laid hands on him; the replication of excess was to the effect that the defendant used more force than necessary. EXCESSIVE DAMAGES.-Damages assessed by a jury in an amount unreasonably large, and beyond the warrant of law. Excessive damages is one of the uments is to object to its sufficiency, which grounds for a new trial. is done by applying to the court or judge on summons or motion to consider the sufficiency of the answer or affidavit. Excessivum in jure reprobatur. Excessus in re qualibet jure reprobatur communi (Co. 44): Excess in law is reprehended. Excess in anything is reprehended at common law.