Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "in kind," "specifically," or "in its own form and essence." The phrase carries two related but distinct legal senses that researchers must distinguish by context:
1. Specific performance / precise form. To perform an obligation in specie is to perform it exactly as agreed — delivering the specific thing promised, not a monetary substitute or equivalent. A court decree requiring performance in specie is a decree of specific performance: the promisor must deliver the very land, chattel, or act contracted for, not damages in lieu thereof.
2. In kind / in its actual form. A thing is said to exist in specie when it retains its individual identity as a particular object rather than being absorbed into a fungible fund or converted to another form. The phrase appears most commonly in this sense in the law of trusts, estates, and corporate distributions: assets distributed in specie are distributed as they are — shares of stock, parcels of land, specific goods — rather than being liquidated and distributed as cash proceeds.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "In the actual form, especially in the context of a distribution of assets or a loan repayment; in coin or monetary metal, in contrast to fiat currency or other paper."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; "specie" in common usage denoted coined metallic money as distinguished from paper currency.
The gap between common and legal usage is significant. Ordinary English has largely reduced "specie" to a synonym for gold and silver coin. Legal usage is broader: in specie describes any performance or delivery of the precise thing itself — land, securities, goods, a contractual act — with no requirement that money be involved at all. A researcher encountering the phrase in a trust instrument or a corporate liquidation should not assume monetary metals are meant.
Common Confusion
In specie is frequently conflated with "in kind" and, separately, with "specie" (metallic currency). The three concepts overlap but are not identical. "In kind" in modern usage often means simply "in the same category" (e.g., a payment of wheat for wheat). In specie is more precise: it emphasizes individual identity and exact form, not merely categorical sameness. A distribution of fifty randomly selected shares from a pool is in kind; a distribution of a specifically identified certificated block of shares is more precisely in specie. The distinction matters in trust accounting, bankruptcy distributions, and estate administration. Do not let the common monetary meaning of "specie" bleed into legal analysis of in specie clauses.
Why It Matters in Research
The phrase functions as a signal term in at least three distinct legal domains, and sources from different periods foreground different ones:
Equity and contract law. Pre-twentieth-century sources use in specie almost exclusively in the specific performance context. Chancery opinions directing conveyance of a unique parcel, delivery of a chattel, or execution of an instrument routinely invoke performance in specie. Researchers tracing the development of specific performance doctrine will encounter the phrase constantly in reports from the English Court of Chancery and early American equity courts. It is essentially synonymous with "specific performance" in those sources.
Trust and estate administration. Modern practitioners encounter in specie most often in trust instruments, will drafts, and corporate distribution resolutions. A trustee power to distribute in specie allows the trustee to allocate actual assets rather than first liquidating. An in specie transfer of assets between funds or entities avoids a taxable disposal in many jurisdictions. Researchers reading modern trust documents should treat this as the presumptive operative sense when the context involves property allocation rather than breach of contract.
Corporate and insolvency law. Liquidators and administrators frequently distribute assets in specie to creditors or shareholders when a cash sale would destroy value or where court approval requires transfer of specific property. The phrase appears in scheme of arrangement documents, corporate restructuring plans, and cross-border insolvency proceedings.
Historical trap: Burrill and the first edition of Black's tie the phrase tightly to specific performance without fully developing the broader distributional sense that predominates in modern transactional drafting. A researcher using only older dictionaries may underestimate how widely the term appears in trust, estate, and corporate contexts.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries agree on the core meaning — exact, specific, in its own form — but differ in emphasis. Black's (both editions) leads with the specific performance gloss and defines the phrase with identical language across editions, suggesting the equity-court sense was dominant when those editions were compiled. Rapalje & Lawrence offer the most analytically precise formulation: "in its own form and essence, not in the form of an equivalent" — a definition that captures the identity-preservation concept at the heart of both the specific performance and the distributional senses. Burrill is the most expansive, providing multiple Latin glosses (in shape or form, in the same form, in precise form, specifically, identically) and citing a Chancery report. Burrill also runs the entry into a broader digression on stipulation law, reflecting his encyclopedic method but providing limited additional utility on this particular term. None of the historical dictionaries address the modern trust-and-corporate-distribution sense with any depth, which is the most practically significant gap in the shelf sources.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase appears across common law jurisdictions without significant variation in core meaning, but its practical salience in tax and regulatory treatment of in specie distributions varies materially by jurisdiction. In the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, in specie transfers between related entities and in specie pension contributions have specific tax treatments developed by statute and HMRC/ATO guidance. U.S. practitioners should not assume Commonwealth tax rules apply, and vice versa.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
No single Law Mind Encyclopedia entry maps directly to this term's primary legal senses. The matched entries (Endangered Species Act, Environmental Restrictions on Property) reflect a keyword collision on "species" and are not relevant.