Definition
A Latin term meaning whole, entire, fresh, or untouched — as a thing originally was. Integer appears in legal usage almost exclusively as a component of Latin phrases rather than as a freestanding legal term. Its operative legal meaning derives from two primary compounds:
1. Res integra: A matter or question that is new and undecided — one that has not yet been touched by dictum or judicial decision and therefore presents itself to a court as an open question.
2. In integrum restituere: To restore a thing to its original, whole state. This phrase underlies the doctrine of restitutio in integrum, which describes the goal of restoring a party to the position they occupied before a wrong was suffered.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A number that is not a fraction; an element of the set {..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...}.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A complete entity; a whole number, in contradistinction to a fraction or a mixed number.
The common mathematical meaning and the legal Latin meaning share a common root — the idea of wholeness or completeness — but they function in entirely separate domains. Encountering integer in a legal text means whole or untouched in a qualitative sense, not a numeral. A researcher should not import the arithmetic meaning into legal materials.
Common Confusion
Integer is occasionally mistaken for a standalone legal term when it appears in older Latin-heavy texts. It is not. The term carries no independent legal doctrine of its own; its significance is always derived from the phrase in which it sits. Res integra and restitutio in integrum are the operative concepts — integer is their building block. Researchers who index or search on integer alone will miss both the substance and the context.
Why It Matters in Research
The primary research value of integer lies in recognizing it as a signal that one of its compound phrases is at work. In historical legal writing, especially treatises and chancery opinions, Latin phrases were often used without translation, and integer appears in running text without glossing. Researchers working in equity materials, contract law, or conflict of laws should be alert to both res integra (flagging an open question the court is treating as first impression) and in integrum restituere (flagging a restoration or rescission remedy).
The res integra usage in particular has practical research consequences: when a court signals that a question is res integra, subsequent case law on that point will be thin or nonexistent in the period surrounding the opinion. Researchers should not expect to find a line of authority — the point of the phrase is that none exists.
Jurisdictional variation matters here indirectly. Res integra appears more frequently in English and Commonwealth legal writing than in American materials, though Kent's Commentaries — the authority cited by both editions of Black's — gave it American circulation. In equity-derived doctrines, restitutio in integrum survived into American courts as a standard for rescission, and the underlying concept of wholeness (integer) remains embedded in modern restitution law even where the Latin has been dropped.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three historical sources are in close agreement. Both editions of Black's treat integer briefly, defining it as "whole; untouched" and immediately pivoting to res integra as the operative use, citing Kent. Burrill is the most expansive, capturing the full range of the term's Latin sense — "entire and whole; fresh; new; untouched, as a thing originally or at first was" — and adding in integrum restituere with a cross-reference to Calvinus's Lexicon Juridicum and the entries for Restitutio and Res integra. Burrill's treatment is the most useful for researchers because it makes explicit that integer's legal meaning is always relational: a thing is integer when it remains as it was at the outset, before alteration, encumbrance, or decision.
None of the historical sources address integer's appearance in civil law contexts beyond the single Kent citation, and none foreground the restitution doctrine as fully as modern scholarship does. Researchers relying solely on Black's may underestimate how active the in integrum concept was in equity practice.
Jurisdictional Note
Res integra and in integrum restituere are more prevalent in English, Scottish, and Commonwealth legal materials than in American ones. In American practice, the underlying concepts survive but the Latin phrases have largely been replaced by plain-language equivalents. Researchers in Scots law or South African law will find integer-based phrases in active contemporary use.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Res Integra
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Restitutio in Integrum