Definition
In legal usage, MODEL carries two distinct meanings depending on context.
1. Physical model (patent law). A miniature physical representation of an invention, made on a reduced scale, submitted to demonstrate how the invention is constructed or operated. Patent law historically required inventors to submit such a model alongside their application; the requirement was eventually eliminated except where the Patent Office specifically demands one. When required, historical rules capped model dimensions at one foot in any direction, with exceptions for working models of complicated machinery.
2. Template or framework law. A draft law, legal code, or set of principles developed by a scholarly body, commission, or uniform-law organization and offered to legislatures for voluntary adoption, in whole or in part. This usage is entirely distinct from the physical object meaning and represents the term's most common modern legal significance. The Model Penal Code (American Law Institute, 1962) is the paradigm example: a comprehensive criminal law framework designed to rationalize and modernize state criminal codes, widely but unevenly adopted across U.S. jurisdictions.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A person who poses for artwork or photography; a representative example; a miniature replica; a design version of a manufactured product.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A miniature representation of a thing with parts in due proportion; something intended to serve as a pattern for imitation.
The common meanings of "model" — miniature replica, ideal example, or design template — overlap enough with both legal meanings to create false familiarity. The physical model in patent law is precisely a miniature replica, so no gap exists there. The gap opens with framework law usage: calling a draft statute a "model" signals its non-binding, advisory character. A researcher encountering "Model Act" or "Model Code" in legal sources should not read it as a synonym for enacted law. Adoption is always voluntary, adoption is always partial, and what one state calls adoption may differ substantially from another state's version.
Common Confusion
Model law versus uniform law. Both are products of organizations such as the American Law Institute (ALI) or the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), but the distinction matters. A uniform law is drafted with the goal of identical enactment across states to achieve interstate consistency — the Uniform Commercial Code is the prime example. A model law is offered as a starting point or framework with the explicit expectation that legislatures will adapt it to local needs. The line between the two is not always clear in practice, and some instruments have been relabeled over time as drafting philosophy shifted.
Model law versus restatement. Restatements (also ALI products) synthesize existing common law rather than propose new legislation. A model code is forward-looking and legislative in character; a restatement is descriptive and doctrinal, directed at courts and practitioners rather than legislatures.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Model Code. A complete proposed code in a specific subject area. The Model Penal Code is the most influential American example.
Model Act. A shorter legislative proposal addressing a discrete topic, offered for piecemeal adoption.
Working model. In patent usage, a functional miniature demonstrating that an invention operates as claimed, as distinguished from a purely representational or display model.
Why It Matters in Research
Physical model research (patent law). Pre-1880 patent materials frequently reference model requirements and model depositories. The U.S. Patent Office maintained a large collection of inventor-submitted models; that collection's dispersal affects archival research. When reading nineteenth-century patent decisions or treatises, references to "model" almost always mean the physical patent submission, not a framework document. Do not conflate the two.
Framework law research (modern usage). This is the term's dominant legal significance today. The researcher's core task is tracking which version of a model law a given state adopted, when it adopted it, and what modifications it made. Model laws are adopted incompletely, amended after adoption, and interpreted by state courts without reference to how other states have interpreted their versions. A "Model Penal Code jurisdiction" may mean a state that adopted the MPC's general part but retained common-law definitions elsewhere, or vice versa.
Child support model research. Law Mind's Family Law Encyclopedia separately covers the Income Shares Model and the Percentage of Income Model — both are "models" in the framework sense, but they are administrative and judicial guidelines rather than legislative codes. The term in this context refers to a computational methodology for calculating support obligations. Researchers working across family law and criminal law should be careful that "model" carries different weights of authority in each context.
Corpus navigation. Historical dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus define "model" almost exclusively in the physical/patent sense. The framework-law usage is a twentieth-century development and will not appear in Bouvier or Anderson in that sense. Relying on historical dictionary entries alone to understand "model" as it appears in modern statutory research materials will produce a fundamental misreading.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (both editions), Anderson, and Bouvier converge tightly on the physical patent model. All four define model as a copy, imitation, or miniature representation of an intended thing, and all connect it to patent law practice. Bouvier's phrasing — "a machine made on a small scale to show the manner in which it is to be worked or employed" — is the most functional of the group, emphasizing operability. Anderson adds the practical rule about the one-foot dimensional limit and the commissioner's discretion to waive or require submission, which is genuinely useful for reading nineteenth-century patent correspondence and decisions.
None of the historical sources addresses "model" in the framework-law sense. This is an expected gap: the ALI was not founded until 1923, the Model Penal Code was not promulgated until 1962, and the ULC's model-law methodology developed through the twentieth century. Researchers should treat the historical dictionary entries as complete for patent-era physical model questions and as entirely silent on modern model-law questions.
Jurisdictional Note
The framework-law meaning has no single governing jurisdiction — adoption of model laws is state-by-state and selective. Federal courts applying state law must determine which version of a model code a given state actually enacted, which can differ materially from the official model text. For patent law's physical model requirement, U.S. federal patent law is the governing authority; state law is not relevant.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Criminal Law — Model Penal Code (Overview and Influence)
The Law Mind Family Law Encyclopedia: Child Support — Income Shares Model; Child Support — Percentage of Income Model