Definition
A Latin-derived phrase from old English law meaning "by metes and bounds." It appeared in legal instruments, writs, and pleadings to indicate that land was described or conveyed according to its physical boundaries — the measured lines, corners, and natural or artificial markers that defined the extent of a parcel. The phrase was a formal shorthand signaling that a precise boundary description would follow or had been established by survey or prior conveyance.
Common Confusion
Burrill's Law Dictionary entry for per metas et bundas is presented immediately adjacent to — and partially run together with — an entry for the distinct phrase per considerationem curiae ("by the consideration/judgment of the court"). Researchers working from Burrill should be alert to this typographical compression; the two phrases are entirely unrelated in meaning and function. Additionally, "bunda" (see Burrill's cross-reference to that headword) is the Latin term for a boundary marker or bound, which some sources treat separately. The per metas et bundas phrase is the compound expression; bunda standing alone refers to a single boundary point.
Why It Matters in Research
This phrase is a navigational marker, not a term of substantive legal doctrine. Its primary research value is recognition: encountering it in an old writ, deed, or plea record tells you that a metes-and-bounds description is either embedded in the document or incorporated by reference. Several practical research notes apply.
First, the phrase belongs to the vocabulary of medieval and early modern English real property practice and will appear almost exclusively in sources predating or contemporaneous with the early common law transplant to the American colonies. After the colonial period, American conveyancing practice retained metes-and-bounds description but dropped the Latin formula; you will not find per metas et bundas in American instruments except as antiquarian reference.
Second, because the phrase signals boundary description, it connects directly to disputes over title, ejectment, and the writ of right — areas of the Law Mind corpus where Latin formulary language is dense. Researchers working in early English year books or plea rolls should treat this phrase as confirmation that boundary evidence is at issue, which in turn governs what ancillary records (surveys, perambulations, manorial extents) are relevant.
Third, the compression in Burrill noted under COMMON CONFUSION above is a specific source-reliability trap. Burrill's entry visually merges per metas et bundas with the per considerationem curiae entry, and a researcher relying on Burrill alone might misread the definition or miss the cross-reference to the bunda headword that contains additional substantive discussion of boundary terminology.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core translation: "by metes and bounds." Black's first and second editions are terse and consistent. Burrill adds the cross-reference to bunda, which is the more informative path for researchers wanting depth on the underlying boundary concept. None of the three dictionaries provide procedural context — that is, they do not explain in which specific writs or actions the phrase commonly appeared or what legal consequences followed from its use. This is a genuine gap. The phrase's practical function (signaling a surveyed boundary description in pleadings or instruments) must be inferred from the broader literature on English real property actions and conveyancing rather than from the dictionary entries themselves.
The phrase is Latinate but of hybrid character — meta is classical Latin for a boundary post or turning marker; bunda is a medieval Latin adaptation likely from Germanic vernacular usage for "bound" or boundary. This hybrid character explains why it survived in English legal Latin long after classical Latin phraseology was otherwise being displaced; it mapped directly onto the English conveyancing term "metes and bounds" that practitioners already used in English.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Metes and Bounds; Conveyancing (Historical English Practice)