Definition
Completed; fully performed; carried into full effect. EXECUTED is the past-tense adjective form of "execute" and is applied across a wide range of legal contexts to describe something that has been done, signed, delivered, or otherwise brought to completion—as opposed to something that remains to be done.
The term carries distinct meanings depending on context:
1. Contracts and instruments. An executed contract is one in which all parties have performed all obligations, or one that has been signed and delivered and is now legally operative. An executed instrument (a deed, will, or agreement) has been signed, witnessed, and delivered in the manner required by law.
2. Consideration. Executed consideration is past consideration—value given or an act performed before the making of the agreement rather than as part of it. Because it precedes the bargain, executed consideration is generally insufficient to support a new contract at common law.
3. Estates and interests in property. An executed estate or interest is one that is vested and presently enjoyable, conveying an immediate right of possession. This contrasts with an executory interest, which is contingent on a future event.
4. Trusts. An executed trust is one in which the trust instrument completely defines the interests of all beneficiaries without requiring further acts to perfect them.
5. Criminal law and process. A warrant, judgment, or writ is executed when it has been carried out by the officer charged with its enforcement—the officer has served, seized, arrested, or otherwise fulfilled the command of the document.
The unifying thread: EXECUTED marks the end state, the point at which legal effect is complete. Its opposite in every context is EXECUTORY.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Simple past and past participle of "execute"—meaning carried out, performed, or put to death.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To execute is to carry out, to perform, to put into effect; also to put to death pursuant to legal sentence.
The ordinary language use of "executed" (performed, signed, killed) substantially overlaps with legal usage, but creates two traps for the legal researcher. First, in ordinary speech an "executed document" simply means a signed one; in law, execution of an instrument involves signature, acknowledgment, witnessing, delivery, and sometimes recording—each step potentially contested. Second, the capital punishment meaning of "executed" is legally distinct from all contract and property uses and produces acute confusion in historical sources that use the same word across all three senses on the same page.
Common Confusion
EXECUTED vs. EXECUTORY. These terms are antonyms, not variants, but historical sources and courts have used them loosely. An executed contract has been fully performed; an executory contract has obligations remaining on one or both sides. The distinction matters for remedy (specific performance is more readily available for executory contracts), for bankruptcy treatment of obligations, and for the classification of property interests. Researchers should treat these as a pair: wherever historical sources discuss one, the other's definition typically governs by contrast.
EXECUTED vs. EFFECTIVE DATE. An instrument may be executed (signed and delivered) on a date different from its effective date (when its operative provisions begin to run). The two concepts are frequently merged in lay drafting and in older instruments, creating dating ambiguities that affect the construction of contracts and the computation of statutory deadlines.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Executed contract: All obligations performed; alternatively, a signed and delivered agreement now in legal force.
Executed consideration: Past consideration; generally insufficient to support a new promise at common law.
Executed estate/interest: A vested, immediately enjoyable property interest.
Executed trust: A trust fully defined by its instrument, requiring no further acts to vest beneficiaries' interests.
Executed writ or warrant: A process document that has been served or carried out by the appropriate officer.
Why It Matters in Research
Polysemy is the central hazard. EXECUTED means fundamentally different things in contract law, property law, trust law, and criminal/procedural law. A historical case discussing an "executed" instrument may be addressing signature formalities, the completion of performance, or the character of a property interest—and the distinction is critical to how the holding applies. Read the surrounding context carefully before importing a definition from one doctrinal area into another.
The executed/executory distinction is load-bearing in several research areas researchers frequently enter mid-stream:
— Property. The Statute of Uses (1535) executed certain uses, converting equitable interests into legal ones. Historical sources on uses and trusts use "executed" in this technical statutory sense, which is narrower and more specific than the general property-law meaning. Confusion between the two has generated significant doctrinal error in secondary literature.
— Contracts. The common law rule that executed (past) consideration is insufficient is frequently stated as absolute in older dictionaries. Jurisdictions vary, and the rule has exceptions (the moral obligation doctrine, part performance). Researchers relying on Bouvier or early Blacks for this principle should check whether later case law has qualified it in the jurisdiction under study.
— Criminal procedure. "Executed" as applied to warrants is a term of art in Fourth Amendment doctrine: an unexecuted warrant remains pending; an executed warrant terminates the officer's authority under it. Historical sources often treat this operationally rather than doctrinally, so the procedural significance may be understated.
— Document dating. In transactional research and historical document analysis, "executed" and "dated" are not synonymous. An instrument may bear an execution date that does not match the date it was delivered, acknowledged, or recorded, each of which may be legally significant.
Historical Dictionary Support
The core definition is consistent across all five sources: completed, done, carried into full effect, conveying an immediate right, opposite of executory. Burrill offers the most complete formulation and the useful citation to Finch distinguishing "things executed and done" from "things executory and to do"—a pairing that clarifies the conceptual structure. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier align without meaningful divergence on the general definition.
Black's 2nd Ed. adds the most analytical value by articulating the subtypes—executed consideration, executed contract, executed estate—as distinct entries within the headword. This structure reflects that by the late nineteenth century the term had sufficiently differentiated meanings across doctrinal areas to require separate treatment, a signal to researchers that context-specific definitions were already recognized as non-interchangeable.
Rapalje & Lawrence's surviving excerpt addresses execution (the process of enforcement) rather than "executed" (the completed state), reflecting the procedural strand of the term's usage and providing useful background on the mechanics by which writs and judgments are carried out—a context where "executed" means the writ has been served and returned.
What the historical dictionaries collectively understate: the executed/executory distinction in trust law (the Statute of Uses context), the Fourth Amendment significance of warrant execution, and the contract-drafting problem of distinguishing an executed agreement from an effective one.
Jurisdictional Note
The legal sufficiency of executed consideration as a basis for contractual obligation varies by jurisdiction; some courts recognize the moral obligation exception broadly. Execution formalities for instruments (number of witnesses, acknowledgment requirements, delivery rules) are governed by state statute and differ substantially across jurisdictions, particularly for deeds, wills, and powers of attorney.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Search Warrants — Issuance, Execution, and Scope (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia, criminal_146) — for the procedural meaning of an executed warrant and Fourth Amendment implications.