EXCESSIVE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

EXCESSIVEAuthored

The Law Mind • 1012 words

Definition

Exceeding what is legally permissible, proportionate, or reasonable under the circumstances. In law, "excessive" is not merely a synonym for "a lot" — it carries a specific comparative judgment against a legal standard, whether constitutional, statutory, or common law. The term appears most prominently in three distinct legal contexts:

Excessive bail or fines: Under the Eighth Amendment, bail or a fine that is unreasonably great and clearly disproportionate to the offense charged or the circumstances of the defendant. The constitutional floor forbids bail set so high as to function as a denial of bail rather than a guarantee of appearance.

Excessive force: The use of more physical compulsion than is objectively reasonable under the circumstances. Applies to law enforcement officers, private individuals claiming self-defense, and in the excessive-force tort context, to any actor whose use of force exceeds what the situation justified.

Excessive damages: A damages award so far outside the range supported by the evidence that it shocks the conscience or indicates passion, prejudice, or mistake by the finder of fact. Courts may reduce such awards through remittitur.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Exceeding the usual bounds of something; too much (of amount); extravagant; immoderate.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Characterized by, or exhibiting, excess; overmuch.

The ordinary meaning of "excessive" is comparative and subjective — one simply has more than enough of something. The legal meaning adds a formal proportionality framework and a triggering threshold. In law, calling something excessive is not a mere characterization; it is a legal conclusion that a constitutional, statutory, or common law standard has been violated. A researcher encountering "excessive" in a legal document should ask: excessive relative to what standard, and with what legal consequence?

Common Confusion

"Excessive" is sometimes used loosely in legal writing as a synonym for "unreasonable," "disproportionate," or "oppressive." These are related but not interchangeable. "Unreasonable" typically implies a failure to meet a general reasonableness standard; "disproportionate" implies a specific mismatch between magnitude and justification; "oppressive" often carries connotations of intent or abuse of power. "Excessive" in its constitutional sense requires disproportionality but does not necessarily require bad faith. In damages law, "excessive" is a term of art triggering remittitur; "unreasonable" is not.

Why It Matters in Research

The term functions differently depending on which area of law a source addresses, and conflating those contexts produces research errors.

In constitutional research, "excessive" in the Eighth Amendment context (bail and fines) has received significantly less judicial development than the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause. Sources written before the Supreme Court's modern incorporation and proportionality decisions will reflect a much narrower understanding of the clause's reach. Researchers should be alert to the fact that the Excessive Fines Clause was not held fully incorporated against the states until relatively recently, meaning state court sources before that period may treat the clause as having no state application.

In tort research, "excessive force" as a distinct cause of action — particularly against law enforcement — has undergone substantial development through federal civil rights law. Historical common law sources treat the concept differently from modern Section 1983 litigation, and the objective reasonableness standard now governing law enforcement excessive force claims is a creature of federal constitutional doctrine, not common law proportionality analysis.

In damages research, courts historically used "excessive" as the threshold for remittitur, but the standard for what constitutes excessiveness varies by jurisdiction and has shifted over time. Some jurisdictions require the award to "shock the conscience"; others apply a more structured comparative analysis. Sources from one jurisdiction should not be imported uncritically into research involving another.

Historical sources in the Law Mind corpus that discuss "excessive bail" in purely monetary terms may predate the full constitutional framework and reflect only the English common law background of the clause. The Anderson's entry on bail reflects this transitional posture — focused on the mechanics of bail bonds and surety rather than constitutional limits.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's Law Dictionary (1st Ed.) offers the clearest and most useful historical definition: to be "excessive," bail or punishment must be "per se, unreasonably great and clearly disproportionate to the offense involved," or the particular circumstances must make it so. This two-part framing — categorical disproportionality or circumstantial disproportionality — remains a fair description of the constitutional test even today, though modern doctrine has elaborated it considerably.

The 2nd Edition entry is unhelpful for this term; the portion reproduced addresses exceptions in statutory law and appears to be a misfiled or truncated extract with no relevance to "excessive." Researchers should treat that source as providing no substantive guidance here.

Anderson's Dictionary of Law, as reproduced, addresses bail mechanics rather than the concept of excessiveness, reflecting the era's emphasis on the procedural machinery of bail over its constitutional limits. This is characteristic of late 19th-century legal reference works, which treated bail primarily as a contractual and procedural matter rather than a constitutional constraint on judicial discretion.

None of the historical dictionary sources addresses excessive force in the law enforcement context or excessive damages in a structured way — both of which are areas where the corpus researcher will need to supplement with treatises and case law rather than rely on dictionary entries.

Jurisdictional Note

The Eighth Amendment's Excessive Bail and Fines Clauses apply to federal and state proceedings, but state constitutions frequently contain parallel provisions with independent development. In damages law, the standard for "excessive" verdicts and the availability of remittitur varies meaningfully across jurisdictions — federal courts sitting in diversity apply federal procedural standards for remittitur, not state law.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

constitutional_131: Excessive Fines and Bail — The Eighth Amendment's Other Clauses (The Law Mind Constitutional Law Encyclopedia)
torts_103: Intentional Torts — Persons — Excessive Force by Law Enforcement (The Law Mind Torts & Personal Injury Encyclopedia)

EXCESSIVEmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In order that bail required (or punishment inflicted) should be described as "excessive," it must be, per se, unreason- ably great and clearly disproportionate to the offense involved, or the peculiar circumstan- ces appearing must show it to be so in the particular case. 44 Cal. 558; 53 Cal. 410; 39 Conn. 484.

EXCESSIVEmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

ceeding taken by the adverse party is insuf-. ficient. Peck v. Osteen, 37 Fla. 427, 20 South.. 549; Arnold v. Slaughter, 36 W. Va. 589, 15 S. EB. 250. In statutory law. An exception in astatute is a clause designed to reserve or exempt some individuals from the general class of persons or things to which the language of the act in general attaches. An exception differs from an explanation, which, by the use of a videltcet, proviso, etc., is allowed only to explain doubtful clauses precedent, or to separate and distribute generals into poreicalers: Cutler v. Tufts, 3 Pick. (Mass.) In contracts. A clause in a deed or other conveyance by which the grantor excepts something out of that which he granted before by the deed. Morrison v. Bank, 88 Me. 155, 33 Atl. 782; Gould v. Glass, 19 Barb. (N. Y¥.) 192; Coal Creek Min. Co. v. Heck, 83 Tenn. 497; Winston v. Johnson, 42 Minn. 398, 45 N. W. 958; Bryan v. Bradley, 16 Conn. 482; Rich v. Zeilsdorff, 22 Wis. 547, 99 Am. Dec. 81. : a ‘The distinction between an exception and a reservation is that an exception is always of part of the thing granted, and of a thing én esse; a reservation is always of a thing not in esse, but newly created or reserved out of the. ed or tenement demised. Co. Litt. 47a; 4 ent, Comm. It has been also said that there is a diversity between an exception and a saving, for an exception exempts clearly, but a saving goes to the matters touched, and does not exempt. Plowd. 361. In the civil law. An caceptio or plea. Used in this sense in Louisiana. Declinatory exceptions are such. dilatory exceptions as merely decline the jurisdiction of the judge before whom the. action is brought. Code Proc. La. 334. Dilatory exceptions are such as do not tend to defeat the action, but only to retard its progress. enw Peremptory exceptions. are those which tend to the dismissal of the action. -—Exception to bail. An objection to the special bail put in by the defendant to an ac tion at law made by the plaintiff on grounds of the insufficiency of the bail. 1 Tidd, Pr. 255. ceeding the proper or reasonable Nmit or measure. Railway Co. v. Johnston, 106 Ga. 130, 32 S. E. 78. —-Excessive bail. Bail in a sum more than will be reasonably sufficient to prevent evasion of the law by flight or concealment; bail which is per se unreasonably great and clearly dispropor ionats to the offense involved, or shown to be so by the special circumstances of the reer case. In re Losasso, 15 Colo. 163, 4 Pac. 1080, 10 L. R. A. 847; Bx parte Ryan, 44 Cal. 558; Ex parte Duncan, 53 Cal. 410; Blydenburgh v. Miles, 39 Conn. 490.—Excessive damages. See DAMAGES. Excessivum in jure reprobatur. Excessus in re qualibet jure reprobatur communi. Co. Litt. 44. Excess in law is reprehended. Excess in anything is reprehended at common law.

EXCESSIVEmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

Bail is not required of a municipal corporation; nor, as a rule, of persons in a fiduciary relation, sued as such. A surety must generally be a freeholder to some amount, subject to process, and able to make a contract and to pay the amount of the bond. Ordinarily, common bail suffices from a defendant who is a freeholder. A non-resident plaintiff may have to furnish bail for the probable costs in his action. The principal is regarded as delivered to his sureties as jailers of his own choosing. Their dominion is a continuance of the original imprisonment. Whenever they choose they may seize and deliver him up, in their own discharge; and, until this can be effected, they may imprison him. In this action they may be represented by an agent. They may pursue him into another State; they may arrest him on the Sabbath; and, if necessary, they may break and enter his house to arrest him. Being like a re-arrest by a sheriff of an escaping prisoner, they need no process. Their rights are alike in civil and criminal cases. With the sureties there is an implied engagement by the principal that he will not leave the jurisdiction; and by the plaintiff, that he will do nothing to increase their risk or to affect their remedy. See JUMP. See also BIND; COMMISSIONER; DEPOSIT, In lieu, etc.; FIDEJUSSOR; JUSTIFICATION, 2; MAINPERNOR; PENALTY; PERFECT; SURETY. 1 [3 Bl. Com. 274, 287, 290, 291, 295.] 2 See 3 Bl. Com. 292, 287. 3 Chapter LII: Linn, 120. See Wash. Law Rev., Oct. 25, Nov. 1, 15, 1882. See generally 20 Cent. Law J. 464-66 (1885), cases. Constitution, Amd. Art. VIII. 4 Bl. Com. 296-99. See Taylor v. Taintor, 16 Wall. 371 (1872), Swayne, J.; Surpassing in amount, degree, or extent that which is usual, reasonable, proper or lawful in the particular case: as, excessive - bail, damage, distress, fine, taxation, qq. v. To constitute bail excessive it must be per se unreasonably great and clearly disproportionate to the offense involved, or the peculiar circumstances appearing must show it to be so in the particular case.3

EXCESSIVEa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Characterized by, or exhibiting, excess; overmuch. Excessive grief [is] the enemy to the living. Shak.

excessiveadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Exceeding the usual bounds of something; too much (of amount); extravagant; immoderate.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

Subscribe Encyclopedia Sign In