NEGATIVE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

NEGATIVEAuthored

The Law Mind • 1111 words

Definition

In law, "negative" functions in several related but distinct ways depending on context.

As an adjective: Denying, refusing, or withholding assent. A negative averment, negative covenant, or negative easement is one that restrains or prohibits rather than commands or grants.

As a noun (pleading): A denial; a proposition by which something is denied. A statement cast in the form of denial rather than assertion. Two negatives do not make a good issue — a pleading that denies a denial does not frame a proper dispute.

As a verb: To nullify, veto, or render ineffective. An executive officer may negative a legislative act; one party's conduct may negative the effect of another's.

Burden of proof application: Where a right depends on the truth of a negative proposition, the question of who must prove that negative is a recurring and sometimes difficult one in litigation.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To refuse; to veto; to contradict; to disprove; to neutralize or make ineffective.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Denying or implying denial; returning the answer "no" to an inquiry or request; refusing assent; opposed to affirmative.

The gap between common and legal usage is subtle but material. In ordinary speech, "negative" most often functions as an adjective describing tone or outcome. In legal contexts, it does additional structural work: it classifies the form and burden of pleadings, defines the nature of property rights and covenants, and designates a mode of proof with distinct procedural consequences. A researcher who reads "negative" as merely colloquial denial will miss its technical force in pleading doctrine and property law.

Common Confusion

Negative pregnant is the most significant trap lurking in this family of terms. A negative pregnant is a denial so framed that it impliedly admits the core allegation it purports to deny — it is "pregnant" with an affirmative. It is not a general negative, and failing to distinguish the two has consequences in pleading. See NEGATIVE PREGNANT below under Related Terms, and consult the Bouvier entries carefully, as this concept is addressed separately and the distinction is not always flagged in older digests.

Separately, researchers should not conflate a negative averment (a factual denial in pleading) with a negative covenant or negative easement (a restriction on conduct or use in property law). These share a root concept — restraint rather than command — but arise in entirely different legal frameworks.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Negative averment: A pleading allegation cast as a denial of a fact, rather than an assertion of one. Carries distinct proof implications.

Negative covenant: A covenant in which a party agrees to refrain from doing something, as opposed to an affirmative covenant requiring action.

Negative easement: An easement that restrains the servient landowner from doing something on their own land that would otherwise be lawful — for example, blocking light or air. Distinguished from affirmative easements, which grant a right to use another's land.

Negative pregnant: A form of pleading denial so narrow or ambiguous that it implies admission of the very matter it was meant to deny.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers face two separate investigative tracks when working with "negative" in historical sources.

First, the pleading track. Pre-code pleading gave "negative" considerable technical weight. The rule that "two negatives do not make a good issue" — cited by both Black's and Burrill's — reflects the strict common law requirement that pleadings produce a clear affirmative-versus-negative dispute. Modern notice pleading has largely dissolved this formal architecture, but reading historical pleading records requires understanding it. A plea, replication, or rejoinder described as "negative" in an older case report may carry implications about procedural sufficiency that have no direct modern analogue.

Second, the property and covenant track. Negative covenants and negative easements appear throughout real property doctrine and are actively litigated today. The affirmative/negative distinction in easements determines enforceability, the scope of servitude, and in some jurisdictions, whether the restriction runs with the land. The Law Mind Encyclopedia entry on easement classification is essential reading here.

The burden of proof question flagged in Bouvier is a live research issue. Where a plaintiff's claim depends on establishing a negative — that something did not happen, did not exist, or was not done — courts have applied varying rules about who bears that burden. Bouvier notes correctly that negative propositions are "usually much more difficult of proof than affirmative," but the rules are not uniform and have evolved. Researchers looking at historical cases must identify which burden-allocation framework was in force in that jurisdiction at that time.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (1st Ed.) and Burrill's are nearly identical on the core pleading definition: a denial, a proposition by which something is denied. Both cite Stephens on Pleading for the "two negatives" rule. This convergence reflects a shared common law baseline.

Bouvier adds meaningful analytical depth in two directions: the burden of proof for negative propositions, and the negative pregnant doctrine. These are treated as distinct problems, which they are, and researchers should not collapse them.

Anderson's entry is fragmentary in the source material available, but confirms the untechnical sense of "negative" as opposed to "affirmative or positive" — useful for understanding how period writers used the term descriptively in contrast pairs.

The Black's (2nd Ed.) passage attributed to this term in the source material is clearly a misfire — it addresses necessity and compulsion, not negativity — and should be disregarded for this entry. This is a routine hazard of working with extracted dictionary segments; the passage belongs to a neighboring entry.

What the historical dictionaries collectively underserve is the property law application. Negative easements and negative covenants are not well-developed in these sources, which lean toward pleading. Researchers working in property must supplement with treatises and the encyclopedia materials.

Jurisdictional Note

The enforceability of negative easements — particularly those not created by express grant — varies by jurisdiction. Some states recognize implied negative easements narrowly or not at all. The affirmative/negative covenant distinction also carries different consequences depending on whether the jurisdiction follows common law servitude rules or has adopted the Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes framework.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Easements — Overview and Classification (Appurtenant vs. In Gross, Affirmative vs. Negative), The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia

NEGATIVEmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

A denial; a proposition by which something is denied; a statement in the form of denial. Two negatives do not make a good issue. Steph. Pl. 386, 387.

NEGATIVEmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

ed by the act of God or a stranger. See Jacob; Mozley & Whitley. A constraint upon the will whereby. a person is urged to do that which his judgment disapproves, and which, it is to be presumed, his will if left to itself) would reject. A man, thereore, is excused for those actions which are done through unavoidable force and compulsion. Wharton. —Necessity, homicide by. A species of justifiable homicide, because it arises from some unavoidable necessity, without any will, intention, or desire, and without any inadvertence or negligence in the party killing, and therefore without any shadow of blame. As, for instance, by virtue of such an office as obliges one, im the execution of public justice, to put ‘a malefactor to death who has forfeited his life to the laws of his country. But the law must require it, otherwise it is not justifiable. 4 Bl. Comm. 178. : A denial; a proposition by. which something 1s denied; a statement in the form of denial. Two negatives do not muke a good issue. Steph. Pl. 386, 387. —Negative averment. As opposed to the traverse or simple denial of an affirmative allegation, a negative averment is an allegation of some substantive fact, e. g., that premises are not in repair, which, although negative in form, is really affirmative in substance, and the party alleging the fact of non-repair must prove it. Brown.—Negative condition. One by which it is stipulated that a given thing shall not happen.—Negative pre ant. In pleading. A negative implying also an affirmative. Cowell. Such a form of negative expression as may imply or carry within it an affirmative. Steph. Pl 318; Fields v. State, 134. Ind. 46, 32 N. E. 780; Stone v. Quaal, 36 Minn. 46, 29 N. W. 326. As if a man be said to have aliened land in fee, and he says he haa not aliened in fee, this is a negative pregnant; for, though it be true that he has not aliened in fee, yet it wey ve that he has made an estate in tail. owell. As to negative “Covenant,” “Easement,” “Servitude,” “Statute,” and “Testimony,” see those titles.

NEGATIVEmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

the agent is called upon to exercise judgment and discretion, to act or not to act.1 A master may sell his vessel, in case of wreck or irreparable disaster - the necessity being extraordinary, paramount, actual and not merely apprehended: a question which the court passes upon." See Hy- Is used in an untechnical sense, in opposition to affirmative or positive; as, negative or a negative - allegation, averment, condition, covenant, easement, evidence, statute, qq. v. Whoever asserts a right dependent for its existence upon a negative must establish the truth of the negative, except where the matter is peculiarly within the knowledge of the adverse party - as, that the latter has no license for selling liquor.2 It is not a maxim of law that a negative is incapable of proof. When the negative ceases to be a simple one,when it is qualified by time, place, or circumstance, much of the objection is removed; and proof of a negative may reasonably be required when the qualifying circumstances are the direct matter in issue, or the affirmative is either probable in itself, or supported by a presumption, or peculiar means of proof are in the hands of the party asserting the negative. When a presumption is in favor of a party who asserts the negative, it affords an additional reason for casting the burden of proof on his adversary; it is when a presumption is in favor of the party who asserts the affirmative that its effect becomes visible, as the opposite side is then bound to prove his negative. One class of exceptions to the rule, that the burden of proof rests on the party holding the affirmative, includes the cases in which the plaintiff grounds his right of action upon a negative allegation which is an essential element in his case. So, where the negative allegation involves a charge of criminal neglect of duty, or fraud, or the wrongful violation of actual lawful possession of property, the party making the allegation must prove it; for in those cases the presumption of law is in favor of the party charged. See AFFIRM, 1. Negative pregnant. The statement of a negative proposition in such a form as may imply or carry with it the admission of an affirmative. A fault, within the rule that a pleading must not be ambiguous in meaning. 1 Fontaine v. Thompson, 80 Va. 229, 232, 234 (1885), cases. 2 Goodwin v. Smith, 72 Ind. 113 (1880); 67 id. 375; 68 id. 254; 78 N. Y. 480; 37 Am. R. 141, cases; Gould, Pl. 98, 344. Best, Ev. (Am. ed., 1883), §§ 270, 273, 276, cases; 1 Greenl. Ev. §§ 78, 80. Approved, Colorado Coal & Iron Co. v. United States, 123 U. S. 317 (1887), Matthews, J. See 1 Whart. Ev. § 356, cases. Steph. Pl. 408-9; Gould, Pl. 298; 16 M. & W. 708; 18 Wall. 307; 107 U. S. 275.

NEGATIVEa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Denying; implying, containing, or asserting denial, negation or refusal; returning the answer no to an inquiry or request; refusing assent; as, a negative answer; a negative opinion; -- opposed to Ant: affirmative. If thou wilt confess, Or else be impudently negative. Shak. Denying me any power of a negative voice. Eikon Basilike. Something between an affirmative bow and a negative shake. Dickens. Not positive; without affirmative statement or demonstration; indirect; consisting in the absence of something; privative; as, a negative argument; a negative morality; negative criticism. There in another way of denying Christ, ... which is negative, when we do not acknowledge and confess him. South. Asserting absence of connection between a subject and a predicate; as, a negative proposition. Of or pertaining to a picture upon glass or other material, in which the lights and shades of the original, and the relations of right and left, are reversed. Metalloidal; nonmetallic; -- contracted with positive or basic; as, the nitro group is negative.

NEGATIVEn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A proposition by which something is denied or forbidden; a conception or term formed by prefixing the negative particle to one which is positive; an opposite or contradictory term or conception. This is a known rule in divinity, that there is no command that runs in negatives but couches under it a positive duty. South. A word used in denial or refusal; as, not, no. The refusal or withholding of assents; veto. If a kind without his kingdom be, in a civil sense, nothing, then ... his negative is as good as nothing. Milton. That side of a question which denies or refuses, or which is taken by an opposing or denying party; the relation or position of denial or opposition; as, the question was decided in the negative. A picture upon glass or other material, in which the light portions of the original are represented in some opaque material (usually reduced silver), and the dark portions by the uncovered and transparent or semitransparent ground of the picture. The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell. Negative pregnant (Law), a negation which implies an affirmation.

NEGATIVEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To prove unreal or intrue; to disprove. The omission or infrequency of such recitals does not negative the existence of miracles. Paley. To reject by vote; to refuse to enact or sanction; as, the Senate negatived the bill. To neutralize the force of; to counteract.

negativeverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC 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 refuse; to veto. | To contradict. | To disprove. | To make ineffective; to neutralize; to negate.

negativeintj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

No; nay.

negativeadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Not positive or neutral; bad; undesirable; unfavourable. | Of a number: less than zero. | Of a number: less than zero. | Less than zero degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit. | Of a test result: not positive, not detected. | Of electrical charge of an electron and related particles | Denying a proposition; negating a concept. | Pessimistic; not tending to see the bright side of things. | Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the relations of left and right, are reversed. | Metalloidal, nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic. | Often preceded by emotion, energy, feeling, or thought: to be avoided, bad, difficult, disagreeable, painful, potentially damaging, unpleasant, unwanted. | Characterized by the presence of features which do not support a hypothesis. | HIV negative. | COVID-19 negative. | No, not any, zero.

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