Definition
A Latin adjective meaning "movable" or "capable of being moved." In legal contexts, *mobilis* describes property that can be physically relocated — as opposed to property that is fixed to land. The term appears most often in Latin maxims, civil law texts, and historical common law treatises as a modifier for property classifications, most directly in the phrase *res mobiles* (movable things).
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Mobilis" is not a standard entry in modern English dictionaries; it survives primarily as a Latin word meaning mobile, movable, or capable of movement, and as a root for English derivatives such as "mobile" and "mobility."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 does not include a standalone entry for *mobilis* as an English word, though "mobile" is defined as "capable of being moved; not fixed in place; movable."
The legal significance lies not in any gap between common and legal meaning — the meanings align closely — but in precision of application. In legal Latin, *mobilis* is a term of classification with jurisprudential consequences: whether property is *mobilis* or *immobilis* determines which body of law governs succession, conflict of laws, and property rights. The ordinary English word "movable" carries no such formal weight.
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Common Confusion
*Mobilis* is sometimes loosely equated with *res mobiles* (movable things), but the terms are not interchangeable. *Mobilis* is an adjective modifying property; *res mobiles* is the noun phrase naming the category of movable things as a class. Researchers should also distinguish *mobilis* from *movens* (that which moves or causes motion), which appears in different doctrinal contexts entirely. See RELATED TERMS.
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Why It Matters in Research
*Mobilis* is not a term of active modern legal usage; it functions almost exclusively as a historical and comparative law marker. Researchers encountering it in primary sources should treat it as a signal that the text is drawing on civil law or Roman law foundations — it appears frequently in treatises on conflict of laws, succession, and property, where the movable/immovable distinction carries jurisdictional and choice-of-law consequences.
The term's practical significance for corpus research lies in three areas:
First, it anchors classification systems. In civil law jurisdictions and in early English equity practice, the distinction between *mobilis* (movable) and *immobilis* (immovable) mapped onto separate legal regimes. A document using *mobilis* is likely operating within that framework, not the common law personal/real property binary.
Second, it cross-references automatically to *res mobiles*. Burrill's treatment is minimal precisely because the substantive doctrine lives under that entry. Any search for *mobilis* in historical sources should be paired with searches for *res mobiles*, *bona mobilia*, and related phrases.
Third, historical conflict-of-laws doctrine used *mobilis/immobilis* as the operative distinction for determining which jurisdiction's law governed property in international or interstate succession. Researchers working in that area — particularly in 18th- and 19th-century treatises — will encounter *mobilis* as a technical term with real doctrinal stakes, not mere ornamentation.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is intentionally lean: it gives the Latin root (*movere*, to move), the English equivalent ("moveable"), and a cross-reference to *res mobiles*. This is characteristic of how Burrill handles Latin adjectives that serve primarily as building blocks for doctrinal noun phrases — the weight of the entry belongs elsewhere in the dictionary. The brevity is not an oversight; it reflects that *mobilis* as a standalone term carries little independent legal content apart from its function as a classifier.
No other shelf sources in the Law Mind corpus provide a separate entry for *mobilis*, which is consistent with the term's status as a Latin modifier rather than an independent legal concept. Researchers should not expect substantive doctrinal treatment under this headword in any dictionary; the doctrine is located under the compound terms.
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Jurisdictional Note
The *mobilis/immobilis* distinction retains doctrinal significance in civil law jurisdictions (Louisiana, Quebec, Scotland, and mixed legal systems) and in private international law. Common law jurisdictions typically use the parallel distinction between personal property and real property, but courts applying conflict-of-laws rules to foreign property questions may revert to the movable/immovable framework. The two classifications are related but not perfectly coextensive.
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