LINK

Definition

In law, a link is a single connective unit within a continuous and ordered series — a piece that binds together the elements before and after it in a logical or evidentiary chain. The term is almost always used figuratively and in a compound phrase. Three contexts dominate legal usage: 1. Link in the chain of title. A single instrument, conveyance, or recorded document connecting successive owners of property. A gap in this chain — a missing link — means the chain of title cannot be traced without interruption, raising title defects and marketability concerns. 2. Link in the chain of evidence. A single fact, exhibit, or inference that connects other facts in building toward proof of a proposition. The chain-of-evidence metaphor captures the idea that proof is cumulative and sequential: each link must hold for the whole to hold. 3. Link in the record. A connection point within a procedural or documentary record tying one filing, order, or proceeding to another.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Current popular definitions of "link" focus on hyperlinks in digital contexts, chain links in a physical sense, and proper name derivations (Lincoln, a West Virginia community, an English hamlet). The word also carries the meaning of a connecting piece in a physical chain. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 defines "link" primarily as a torch made of tow and pitch — a meaning now entirely obsolete. Neither the torch meaning nor the digital hyperlink meaning has any bearing on legal usage. The legal sense derives from the physical chain metaphor, but it is always figurative: law uses "link" to describe logical and documentary connections, not material ones. Researchers should not import the modern digital sense when reading older legal materials; when courts and commentators write of a "link," they mean a unit of logical or documentary sequence.

Why It Matters in Research

The term "link" is a functional metaphor in legal writing, not a term of art with a standalone doctrinal definition. Its significance emerges from the compound expressions in which it appears, and researchers should index it accordingly. Chain of title research is where this matters most. When historical sources note a "missing link" in title, they signal a defect — an unrecorded deed, an unresolved estate, or a gap in succession — that must be addressed before title can be certified or insured. The legal effect of a missing link varies by jurisdiction and era: some gaps can be cured by adverse possession, quiet title action, or presumptions of grant; others cannot. Do not assume a "missing link" notation in older title abstracts is merely descriptive — it is often a legal conclusion with transactional consequences. In evidence law, the chain-of-evidence (or chain-of-custody) doctrine gives the link metaphor procedural teeth. Each link must be accounted for when establishing the integrity of physical evidence. A broken link in custody — an unexplained period of possession — may support an objection to admissibility. Researchers tracing the evolution of chain-of-custody doctrine will encounter "link" language in both evidence treatises and case law without always finding the term defined, because courts treat it as self-explanatory. Anderson's observation that missing links "may often be supplied by presumption" is a crucial research pointer. The doctrine of presumption of grant, presumption of regularity, and similar evidentiary presumptions were developed in part to cure gaps in documentary chains. When a historical source says a link can be "supplied," it is pointing toward a body of presumption law that is often underindexed.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries are in full agreement on substance: Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's converge on the same formulation — a unit in a connected series that binds together what precedes and follows it. Bouvier adds the phrase "casual or logical sequence," which is useful because it captures that the series need not be strictly causal; inferential or logical connection suffices. Anderson's entry is the most practically useful of the four. It does three things the others do not: it identifies the most common compound phrases where the term actually appears, flags that missing links may be supplied by presumption (pointing the researcher to a related body of doctrine), and directs the reader to the companion entry CHAIN. That cross-reference matters — the legal content lives in the chain concept, and "link" is intelligible only as a component of it. None of the historical dictionaries anticipates the chain-of-custody application that would become central to modern evidence practice. Researchers working on evidence doctrine after the mid-twentieth century will find the historical dictionary definitions incomplete for that context.

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