ITA - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

ITAAuthored

The Law Mind • 799 words

Definition

A Latin adverb meaning "so" or "thus." In legal usage, ITA appears almost exclusively as a component of Latin maxims and brocard phrases rather than as a standalone legal term. Its significance lies in the maxims it anchors, particularly those governing statutory construction, deed interpretation, and the favoring of valid legal dispositions over void ones.

The most frequently cited maxim is: Ita semper fiat relatio ut valeat dispositio — "The relation should always be so made that the disposition may prevail." This principle instructs courts interpreting deeds, wills, and other instruments to construe the document in a manner that gives effect to the grantor's or testator's intent, rather than adopting a reading that renders the disposition void or ineffective. It is a rule of construction favoring validity.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A kind of palm tree (Mauritia flexuosa) growing near the Orinoco River.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not recorded as an English word in Webster's 1913; ITA in ordinary English contexts is either a proper noun or borrowed directly from Latin.

The gap here is total. The botanical use and the legal use share nothing but spelling. A researcher encountering ITA in a legal text should recognize it immediately as Latin and look to the maxim or phrase in which it appears rather than treating it as an English word.

Common Confusion

ITA is sometimes treated as if it were a term unto itself when it appears in case reports or treatises. It is not. It is a grammatical particle within a larger Latin phrase. Researchers who isolate ITA from its maxim context will find no useful standalone definition; the legal content resides in the complete phrase. Anderson's Dictionary of Law, for instance, simply redirects: "See LEX, Ita, etc.," confirming that ITA functions as a cross-reference prefix rather than an independent entry.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers in the Law Mind corpus will encounter ITA almost entirely in one of two contexts: (1) cited brocard maxims in treatises and early case reports, particularly those addressing deed construction and relation back doctrine; and (2) as a prefix or particle within compound Latin phrases (Ita lex scripta est, Ita semper, etc.).

The practical trap is terminological fragmentation. Early legal dictionaries and case reporters sometimes indexed Latin maxims under their first significant word rather than their opening particle, meaning a maxim beginning with Ita may be catalogued under semper, relatio, dispositio, or valeat depending on the editor's preference. A search for ITA alone will underperform; researchers should search the full maxim or its key substantive term.

The principle embedded in Ita semper fiat relatio ut valeat dispositio connects directly to the broader favor-validity canon that runs through English and American property and testamentary law. That canon is active doctrine — not merely historical curiosity — and the Latin maxim is still occasionally cited in modern courts interpreting ambiguous instruments.

For historical corpus research: pre-1800 English reports and equity treatises are the richest sources. The maxim appears in Coke's Reports (6 Co. 76, as cited by Burrill) and was transmitted into American practice through chancery and equity channels. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts sources are particularly well-represented in the historical citation record.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the most substantive entry, supplying both the Latin text and a clean English translation of the maxim, with the citation to Coke's Reports as authority. This is the baseline source for the term.

Anderson's Dictionary of Law offers no independent definition, directing the reader instead to the LEX family of entries — a common editorial shortcut in 19th-century legal dictionaries when a term was considered too grammatical to merit standalone treatment.

Rapalje & Lawrence's entry for ITA does not appear as a discrete lemma; the source material extracted under this query captures entries surrounding ISSUE, which suggests the ITA entry, if one existed, was either minimal or folded into a compound phrase entry. Rapalje & Lawrence's overall coverage of Latin maxims is strong but organized by the maxim's subject-matter term rather than its grammatical particles.

None of the historical dictionaries treats ITA as a term of art in its own right. All treat it as incidental to the maxims it introduces. Modern legal dictionaries follow the same practice. This is the correct approach: ITA has no legal meaning independent of its maxim context.

ITAmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

(684) ISSUE, (may be a word of purchase or limitation). 2 Str. 731; Love. Wills 155. (as a word of limitation). 1 Yeates (Pa.) 332, 340; 3 Atk. 397; 1 P. Wms. 397. (as meaning "children"). 121 Mass. 303, 306; 2 Whart. (Pa.) 451; 2 Beav. 551; 9 Eng. L. & Eq. 193, 194; 7 L. J. N. S. Ch. 273; 1 Madd. 388; 9 Sim. 372; 13 Id. 52; 3 T. R. 484; 7 Ves. 522; 10 Id. 195. (distinguished from "children"). 103 Mass. 289; 1 Hen. & M. (Va.) 289; 10 Jur. 578, 580; 10 Mod. 376. (as meaning "heirs"). 47 Md. 439; 1 U. S. L. J. 612. (as distinguished from "heirs"). Wend. (N. Y.) 521. (as meaning "heirs of the body"). Halst. (N. J.) 39; 63 Pa. St. 481; 8 Mod. 257; 10 Id. 376; 4 T. R. 88. (when includes "grandchildren"). 1 Ves. 150; 2 Id. 348; 3 Id. 421. (when does not include "grandchildren"). 17 How. (U. S.) 417. (as including "all descendants"). 2 8 Com. Dig. 428, 473. C. E. Gr. (N. J.) 475; 3 Ves. 257; 13 Id. 340; (in a deed). 3 Wall. Jr. (U. S.) 32; 2 Atk. 582. (in a marriage settlement). L. R. 5 H. L. 688; 3 T. R. 372. (in a statute). 7 Ind. 44; 4 Halst. (N. J.) Ch. 548; Penn. (N. J.) 7. (in a will). 1 Dall. (U. S.) 48; 19 Md. 197; 46 Id. 402; 3 Gray (Mass.) 188;8 C. E. Gr. (N. J.) 541, 545; Penn. (N. J.) 972; 3 Barb. (N. Y.) 243; 1 Edw. (N. Y.) 41, 43;3 Id. 1, 6; 20 Hun (N. Y.) 70; 4 Paige (N. Y.) 345; 13 Wend. (N. Y.) 447; 18 Id. 268; 4 ISSUE OF A DECEASED CHILD, (in a will). 8 Com. Dig. 473. ISSUE OF FACT, (distinguished from "question of fact"). 70 N. C. 35, 167. (in State constitution). 70 N. C. 27. ISSUE OF HIS BODY, (in a devise). Gilb. Ev. 24. ISSUE OF HIS CHILDREN, (in a devise). Com. 457. ISSUE OF MY BODY, (in a will). L. R. 7 Ex. 339. ISSUE OF MY DAUGHTER, (in a will). 4 Jur. 691, 693. ISSUE OF SHARES, (in companies act). 8 Ch. D. 635, 638. So; thus. The initial word of several Latin phrases, such as the following: