MIND

9 definitions found across Law Mind sources

MINDAuthored
The Law Mind • 1260 words
Definition
In law, "mind" carries a narrower and more functional meaning than its philosophical or psychological counterparts. The law is not concerned with consciousness, cognition, or inner experience in any rich sense. Rather, mind in legal usage means the capacity to will, to direct, to permit, or to assent — the minimum faculty required for an actor (human or artificial) to be treated as legally responsible or legally operative. Two distinct legal contexts produce two overlapping but distinct uses: 1. Contractual and corporate mind. A party to a contract must possess sufficient mind to understand and assent to its terms. Significantly, this definition extends to artificial persons: a corporation has a "mind" in the legal sense, and exercises it whenever it assents to contractual obligations through its authorized agents. This usage strips "mind" down to its transactional core — not understanding in any deep sense, but the formal capacity to bind. 2. Testamentary mind (mind and memory). In the law of wills, "mind" combines with "memory" in the phrase "sound and disposing mind and memory," the standard for testamentary capacity. Here, mind denotes the ability to understand the nature of the testamentary act, the extent of the property being disposed of, and the natural objects of one's bounty. This is a somewhat richer conception than the bare contractual minimum, but still a functional, legally bounded one. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To bring to mind; to remember; to pay attention to; to heed; to obey; to look after. Also, the seat of thought, perception, and intention. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The intellectual or rational faculty in man; the understanding; the intellect; the power that conceives, judges, or reasons; also, the entire spiritual nature; the soul." The gap matters. Ordinary usage of "mind" carries freight that the law deliberately discards — consciousness, moral agency, rich interiority. Legal usage reduces mind to its behavioral outputs: willing, directing, permitting, assenting. When Black's says a corporation has a mind, it is not making a philosophical claim. It is making a functional one. Researchers encountering "mind" in historical legal documents should resist the temptation to read psychological or moral depth into the term. ---
Common Confusion
MIND vs. INTENT. Mind is the threshold capacity; intent is the directed exercise of that capacity toward a specific purpose or result. A person can have legal mind (capacity) without having formed a particular intent. Criminal and tort law are primarily concerned with intent; contract and probate law are more directly concerned with whether mind — as capacity — exists at all. Conflating the two produces errors, particularly in historical sources where "mind" was sometimes used loosely to mean purpose or inclination. MIND vs. MENTAL CAPACITY / COMPETENCY. These are related but not identical. Mental capacity is the broader modern framework for assessing whether a person can perform a legal act (make a contract, execute a will, stand trial). "Mind" in older legal usage is the precursor vocabulary — the historical sources use "mind" where modern law tends to say "capacity." Researchers working in historical materials should treat "mind" as the period-appropriate term for what modern doctrine calls capacity. ---
Why It Matters in Research
This entry is short by necessity: "mind" as a free-standing legal term of art is largely a feature of older doctrine. Modern legal writing has replaced it with more precise vocabulary — capacity, competency, intent, mens rea, volition. Researchers working in nineteenth-century American and English materials will encounter "mind" frequently, often in contexts where the precise modern analog requires interpretation. Several traps: First, the corporate mind passage in Black's (citing a New Jersey case) was genuinely important in early corporate contract law, establishing that corporations could assent and be bound. Researchers tracing the doctrine of corporate contractual capacity should treat this as a doctrinal marker, not mere dictionary illustration. Second, "mind and memory" as a phrase of art in probate and wills sources is durable and still appears in some jurisdictions' jury instructions and statutory language for testamentary capacity. It is not archaic in that context. Third, Bouvier's notes that "mind" in popular usage meant rational faculty, inclination, desire, purpose, and intent — a much broader cluster than the strict legal definition. When reading historical case law, context determines which sense of "mind" is operative. A court discussing a testator's "mind" is usually invoking testamentary capacity; a court discussing a party's "mind" in a commercial dispute is usually reaching toward intent or assent. Fourth, in the evidence context, state of mind is a recognized exception to the hearsay rule and a recognized non-hearsay purpose for admitting out-of-court statements. The word "mind" in that evidentiary phrase carries its own doctrinal weight, distinct from the capacity-focused uses above. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (both editions) and Bouvier agree closely on the core definition: the ability to will, direct, permit, or assent. Both anchor the definition to the same New Jersey authority (cited differently across editions — researchers should verify the citation against the original). Bouvier adds the broader popular meanings (rational faculty, inclination, desire, intent, memory) as secondary glosses, appropriately subordinating them to the strict legal sense. Anderson's entry, as reproduced in the source material, appears to address militia rather than mind — a likely cataloging anomaly in the source corpus. Researchers should not treat Anderson's as a primary source for this entry. What the historical dictionaries collectively miss is the evidentiary dimension. None of the entries addresses state of mind as a concept in evidence law — a significant gap given how important that doctrine became in twentieth-century American evidence law. Researchers working on hearsay, mental state evidence, or the state of mind exception should not rely on these dictionary entries as guides to that doctrine. ---
Jurisdictional Note
"Sound and disposing mind and memory" as the testamentary capacity standard remains in use across most American jurisdictions, though the formulation varies. Some states codify it; others apply it as common law. The corporate assent usage is now absorbed into general contract and agency law and does not require separate jurisdictional tracking. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Contracts — Mutual Assent and Meeting of the Minds (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia) Non-Hearsay Purposes — Verbal Acts, Effect on Listener, and Circumstantial Evidence of State of Mind (The Law Mind Civil Procedure & Evidence Encyclopedia) ---
Related Terms
INTENT — the directed exercise of mental capacity toward a specific end MENS REA — the criminal law doctrine requiring a culpable mental state MENTAL CAPACITY — modern term for the threshold legal standard formerly expressed as "mind" COMPETENCY — legal fitness to perform an act or participate in a proceeding TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY — the specific capacity standard for making a valid will MIND AND MEMORY — compound phrase of art in probate law ASSENT — the operative act by which mind is exercised in contract MEETING OF THE MINDS — the mutual assent requirement in contract formation WILL (testamentary) — the document whose validity depends on testamentary mind STATE OF MIND — evidentiary concept; see also hearsay exceptions VOLITION — the volitional act element in some tort and criminal doctrines SANITY / INSANITY — defenses and doctrines turning on the presence or absence of legal mind
MINDmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In its legal sense, "mind" means only the ability to will, to direct, to permit, or to assent. In this sense, a corporation has a mind, and exerts its mind each time that it assents to the terms of a contract. 43 N. J. Law, 492.
MINDmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
In its legal sense, “mind” means only the ability to will, to direct, to permit, or to assent. In this sense, a corporation has a mind, and exerts its mind each time that it assents to the terms of a contract. McDermott v. Evening Journal Ass’n, 43 N. J. Law, 402, 39 Am. Rep. 606. —Mind and memory. A phrase applied to testators, denoting the possession of mental capacity to make a will. In order to make a valid will, the testator must have a sound and disposing mind and memory. In other words, he ought to be capable of making his will, with an understanding of the nature of the business in which he is engaged, a recollection of the property he means to aiepore of, of the persons who are the objects of his bounty, and the manner in which it is to be distributed between them. Harrison v. Rowan, 8 Wash. C. C. 585, Fed. Cas. No. 6,141.
MINDmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
This provision authorizes Congress to delegate to the President the power to call out the militia for the purposes named, and to make his decision conclusive as to the necessity for the call. 1 The militia are "a body of armed citizens trained to military duty, who may be called out in certain cases, but may not be kept on service like standing armies, in times of peace." That is the case as to the active militia of the State. The men comprising it come from the body of the militia, and when not engaged at stated periods in drilling and other exercises, return to their usual vocations, as is usual with militia, and are subject to call when the public exigencies demand it. The word "troops" conveys the idea of an armed body of soldiers whose sole occupation is war or service, answering to the regular army. The organization of the active militia bears no likeness to such a body of men. It is simply a domestic force as distinguished from the regular troops, and is only liable to be called into service when the exigencies of the State make it necessary.2 The act of Congress of May 2, 1792, is the first leg - islation relating to the militia. Under it, and its supplements, the militia can be used to suppress rebellion against the national government. The President, who, as seen, is to judge of the exigency, may address his request either to the governor of the State or to an officer of the militia. In actual service, the militia are subject to the same rules as the regular troops. The President specifies the term of service, which may not exceed nine months. The right voluntary to associate together as a military company or organization, and to drill or to parade with arms, without, and independent of, an act of Congress or a law of the State authorizing the same, is not an attribute of national citizenship. Military organization and military drill and parade under arms are subjects especially under the control of the government of each country. They cannot be claimed as a right independent of law. Under our political system they are subject to the regulation and control of the State and Federal governments, acting in due regard to their respective prerogatives and powers.4 See Мов. the object proposed in the erection.1 See GRANT, 3; TOLL, 2. A statute of a State which authorizes any person to erect and maintain on his land a water mill and milldam upon and across any stream not navigable, paying to the owners of lands flowed damages assessed in a judicial proceeding, does not deprive such owners of their property without due process of law. The right to the use of running water is publici juris, and common to all the proprietors of the bed and banks of a stream. Each has a right to a reasonable use of the water as it flows past his land, not interfering with a like reasonable use by those above or below him. One reasonable use is the use of the power, inherent in the fall of the stream and the force of the current, to drive mills. That power cannot be used without damming up the water, and thereby causing it to flow back. If the water thus dammed up by one riparian proprietor spread over the land of others, they could at common law bring successive actions against him for the injury done them, or even have the dam abated. Before the Mill Acts, therefore, it was often impossible for a riparian proprietor to use the water-power at all, without the consent of those above him. The purpose of these statutes is to enable any riparian proprietor to erect a mill and use the water-power of the stream, provided he does not interfere with an earlier exercise by another of a like right or with any right of the public; and to substitute for the common-law remedies a new form of remedy by which any one whose land is flowed can have assessed, once for all, either in a gross sum or by way of annual damages, adequate compensation for the injury. General mill acts exist in some twenty or more States. See AQUA, Currit, etc.; NUISANCE; WATER. Miller. See MECHANIC. 2. The tenth of a cent. See COIN; M, 2. The rational faculty, or the understanding; the state of the mental faculties; inclination, desire, purpose, intent; also, memory, recollection.3 Disposing mind. Testamentary capac-
MINDn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
The intellectual or rational faculty in man; the understanding; the intellect; the power that conceives, judges, or reasons; also, the entire spiritual nature; the soul; -- often in distinction from the body. By the mind of man we understand that in him which thinks, remembers, reasons, wills. Reid. What we mean by mind is simply that which perceives, thinks, feels, wills, and desires. Sir W. Hamilton. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Rom. xiv. 5. The mind shall banquet, though the body pine. Shak. The state, at any given time, of the faculties of thinking, willing, choosing, and the like; psychical activity or state; as: (a) Opinion; judgment; belief. A fool uttereth all his mind. Prov. xxix. 11. Being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling her mind. Shak. Choice; inclination; liking; intent; will. If it be your minds, then let none go forth. 2 Kings ix. 15. Courage; spirit. Chapman. Memory; remembrance; recollection; as, to have or keep in mind, to call to mind, to put in mind, etc. To have a mind or great mind, to be inclined or strongly inclined in purpose; -- used with an infinitive. "Sir Roger de Coverly... told me that he had a great mind to see the new tragedy with me." Addison. -- To lose one's mind, to become insane, or imbecile. -- To make up one's mind, to come to an opinion or decision; to determine. -- To put in mind, to remind. "Regard us simply as putting you in mind of what you already know to be good policy." Jowett (Thucyd. ).
MINDv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
To fix the mind or thoughts on; to regard with attention; to treat as of consequence; to consider; to heed; to mark; to note. "Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate." Rom. xii. 16. My lord, you nod: you do not mind the play. Shak. To occupy one's self with; to employ one's self about; to attend to; as, to mind one's business. Bidding him be a good child, and mind his book. Addison. To obey; as, to mind parents; the dog minds his master. To have in mind; to purpose. Beaconsfield. I mind to tell him plainly what I think. Shak. To put in mind; to remind. [Archaic] M. Arnold. He minded them of the mutability of all earthly things. Fuller. I do thee wrong to mind thee of it. Shak. Never mind, do not regard it; it is of no consequence; no matter.
MINDv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
To give attention or heed; to obey; as, the dog minds well.
mindverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
To bring or recall to mind; to remember; bear or keep in mind. | To remember. | To remind; put one's mind on. | To turn one's mind to; to observe; to notice. | To regard with attention; to treat as of consequence. | To pay attention or heed to so as to obey; hence to obey; to make sure, to take care (that). | To pay attention to, in the sense of occupying one's mind with, to heed. | To look after, to take care of, especially for a short period of time. | To be careful about. | To purpose, intend, plan. | Take note; used to point out an exception or caveat. | To dislike, to object to; to be bothered by.
mindnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
The capability for rational thought. | The ability to be aware of things. | The ability to remember things. | The ability to focus the thoughts. | Somebody that embodies certain mental qualities. | Judgment, opinion, or view. | Desire, inclination, or intention. | A healthy mental state. | The non-material substance or set of processes in which consciousness, perception, affectivity, judgement, thinking, and will are based. | Continual prayer on a dead person's behalf for a period after their death. | Attention, consideration or thought.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

SubscribeEncyclopediaSign In