Definition
As a legal modifier, "existing" describes something that has legal being or recognized status at a relevant point in time. The word appears most often in statutory drafting, contract law, and corporate law, where its temporal reach — whether it means "now in force," "as of a specified date," or "including things coming into being afterward" — determines the scope of rights, obligations, or legal coverage.
Two principal uses appear in the sources:
1. In statutory construction, "existing" does not necessarily mean only what was present at the moment of enactment. Courts have held that a statute regulating "existing" entities or conditions may extend to those arising after its passage, depending on the statute's purpose and whether the charter or enactment creates an exception. This counterintuitive reading makes "existing" a word of more expansive temporal reach than its plain face suggests.
2. In saving clauses and transitional provisions, "existing laws" refers specifically to laws in force at the time of the act's passage — a narrower, fixed-point reading that preserves rights and obligations accrued under prior law.
The difference between these two readings — "existing" as ongoing/forward-looking versus "existing" as fixed at a moment in time — is the central interpretive problem the word creates.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): That exists, or has existence, especially that exists now.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Having being or existence; living; as, existing monuments of antiquity.
The ordinary meaning of "existing" anchors the word firmly to the present moment. Legal usage regularly departs from this. In statutory construction, courts may read "existing" to reach future entities or conditions when the legislature's purpose requires it. In saving clauses, the word is frozen at the enactment date rather than read as a rolling present. Neither of these legal readings matches the intuitive sense of "that which exists now."
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Common Confusion
"Existing" is often assumed to mean only what is present at the precise moment of reference. Researchers and drafters treating it as a fixed-point word of limitation will misread statutes that courts have interpreted as forward-extending. Conversely, treating it as perpetually open-ended will produce errors in reading saving clauses, where courts routinely freeze the word's meaning to the date of enactment. Context — and in particular whether the provision is regulatory/operative or transitional/saving — drives which reading applies.
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Why It Matters in Research
Temporal ambiguity is the research trap with this term. When reading historical statutes, do not assume that "existing" corporations, laws, or conditions means only those present before the statute's passage. The Bouvier entry — citing Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa authority — reflects a settled line of cases holding that regulatory statutes using this word can sweep in later-created entities absent an express charter exception. This matters enormously for corporate history research: a company incorporated after a regulatory statute's passage may still have been subject to it.
The split reading also appears in contract law research. The pre-existing duty rule — whether a party's existing legal obligation is sufficient consideration for a modification — turns directly on what "existing" means in a prior contractual relationship. Researchers working in contract modification doctrine, particularly under common law versus UCC Article 2 frameworks, will encounter "existing" as a term of art within the consideration analysis.
In corpus work, watch for "existing laws" in saving clauses as a technical term of statutory transition, not a general description of the legal landscape. Anderson's entry points researchers toward the cluster of related terms — PRIOR, PREVIOUS, PRE-EXISTING — which often appear in parallel provisions and carry overlapping but distinct meanings.
For corporate law researchers, "existing" in the context of corporate status signals a separate inquiry: whether an entity legally exists (i.e., has been validly formed and not dissolved) is a threshold question distinct from good standing. The two concepts are commonly conflated in practice.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier and Anderson approach the term from different angles that together frame the interpretive problem.
Bouvier's entry is the more practically instructive: it affirmatively warns that "existing" is not necessarily confined to the present, citing three state decisions standing for the proposition that regulatory statutes can extend to future incorporations. This was not an obvious result, and Bouvier's decision to lead with the counterintuitive reading signals that courts in the nineteenth century were regularly asked to resolve this ambiguity. The entry reflects a drafting environment in which railroad and corporate regulation was proliferating rapidly, and the question of which entities fell within new regulatory schemes was economically significant.
Anderson's entry is narrower and more technical, directing readers to the saving-clause usage and cross-referencing the cluster of temporal-modifier terms (CREDITOR, PRE-EXISTING, PREVIOUS, PRIOR). This cross-reference structure is useful: it confirms that "existing" does not stand alone in legal usage but operates within a family of terms that courts and drafters use to locate rights and obligations in time.
Neither historical source addresses the contractual pre-existing duty rule directly under this headword — that doctrine is treated elsewhere in historical sources under CONSIDERATION and MODIFICATION. Researchers should not expect either dictionary to be a complete guide to "existing" in contract law.
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Jurisdictional Note
The forward-extending versus fixed-point split in statutory construction is not uniform across jurisdictions and depends heavily on each state's own rules of statutory interpretation. The Bouvier citations are all nineteenth-century Midwestern state cases; common law jurisdictions in other regions may have developed different presumptions. Check applicable state canons of construction before relying on the Bouvier line as controlling authority.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Corporate Formation — Corporate Existence, Good Standing, and Dissolution (The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia): For the distinction between legal existence and good standing, and how "existing" functions in corporate status analysis.
Discharge — Modification (Pre-Existing Duty Rule and UCC §2-209) (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia): For "existing" obligation as a term of art in the consideration analysis for contract modifications under both common law and the UCC.
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