PRACTICE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

PRACTICEAuthored

The Law Mind • 1169 words

Definition

PRACTICE carries two distinct legal meanings that researchers must keep carefully separated:

1. Procedural practice. The body of rules, forms, and methods governing how courts conduct their business and how parties prosecute or defend legal proceedings. This is practice as the law of procedure — the form, manner, and order of moving a case through its stages from initiation to final judgment, including pleadings, motions, trial, judgment, appeal, and execution. It is the mechanism through which substantive rights are enforced, as opposed to the substantive law that defines those rights.

2. Professional practice. The regular, continuing exercise of a learned profession — most commonly law or medicine — whether as a sole practitioner or within a firm or institutional setting. "Practice of law" and "practice of medicine" are phrases of this type. This meaning generates a distinct body of regulatory law governing licensing, scope, and unauthorized practice.

The two meanings are not related by coincidence. Both derive from the sense of an ongoing, systematized activity — but one describes what courts do, and the other describes what licensed professionals do.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Repetition of an activity to improve a skill; an organized event for such repetition; the ongoing pursuit of a craft or profession; a place where professional services are provided; a customary action or habit.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Frequently repeated or customary action; habitual performance; a succession of acts of a similar kind; usage; habit; custom — as in the practice of rising early.

The common meaning emphasizes habit, repetition, and skill-building. In legal usage, practice rarely means mere habit or repetition. Procedural practice is a formal body of enforceable rules, not simply customary behavior. Professional practice is a regulated status with licensure consequences, not just a pattern of conduct. A researcher who imports the common meaning into a legal text will misread both.

Common Confusion

Procedural practice vs. substantive law. The classical distinction — practice governs how rights are enforced, substantive law defines the rights themselves — seems clear in theory but blurs in operation. Many procedural rules have substantive effect (statutes of limitations, pleading standards), and courts have historically disagreed on which side of the line particular doctrines fall. Historical sources use "practice" and "procedure" interchangeably, but modern usage tends to favor "procedure" as the broader term and "practice" as referring to the specific rules courts adopt to manage their own business.

Practice vs. custom. In evidence and procedure, "practice" and "habit" or "routine practice" are sometimes treated as synonymous but are technically distinct. Rule 406 of the Federal Rules of Evidence addresses habit and routine practice of organizations as admissible evidence — a usage more aligned with the common meaning than the procedural one.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Practice of law: The regular exercise of legal professional services, subject to state bar licensing and unauthorized practice prohibitions.

Practice of medicine: The regular exercise of medical professional services, regulated under state medical practice acts and scope-of-practice frameworks.

Rules of practice: Court-adopted procedural rules governing the conduct of litigation before a particular tribunal. May be published, statutory, or unwritten.

Adjective law / law of practice: The classical jurisprudential category encompassing all procedural and remedial law as distinguished from substantive law. Rapalje & Lawrence place practice squarely within this category.

Why It Matters in Research

The two meanings appear in entirely different parts of the Law Mind corpus and generate entirely different research paths. A researcher working on unauthorized practice of law questions is in professional regulation territory — licensing statutes, bar rules, administrative enforcement. A researcher working on discovery disputes or pleading standards is in procedural practice territory — court rules, civil procedure treatises, case law on rule interpretation.

Historically, the procedural sense was dominant. Pre-twentieth century legal dictionaries define practice almost exclusively as court procedure, and professional practice as a concept barely appears in their definitions. Researchers reading nineteenth-century materials should default to the procedural meaning unless context clearly indicates otherwise.

Jurisdictional variation matters substantially for professional practice. Scope of practice for both lawyers and medical professionals is state-specific, and interstate compacts have recently complicated the picture for medicine in particular. The phrase "practice of law" does not have a uniform definition across states.

Within procedural practice, the shift from common-law pleading to code pleading to modern federal rules represents a significant historical discontinuity. A source describing "practice" under common-law forms of action is describing a system that no longer exists in most American courts. Researchers using pre-1938 materials (before the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) must account for this.

The unwritten rules of practice — what Anderson's calls rules that "perhaps as frequently are unwritten" — are a real trap in historical research. Local customs and judicial expectations that functioned as binding practice may not appear in any official source.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries are in near-complete agreement on the procedural definition. Black's, Bouvier's, Burrill's, Rapalje & Lawrence, and Anderson's all define practice as the form, manner, and order of conducting proceedings in court — the procedural architecture of litigation. Burrill's traces the term to the Latin practica, praxis, and cursus curiae (course of court), emphasizing that practice describes the court's own established course of proceeding.

Anderson's offers the most useful nuance: practice includes both formal published rules and unwritten customs, and the term operates "in the larger sense" as the entire mode of proceeding by which a legal right is enforced. This broader framing is the most useful for research purposes — it captures not just published rules but the full procedural environment of a court.

None of the historical dictionaries give substantial treatment to professional practice as an independent legal concept. This is not an oversight; the regulatory infrastructure governing licensed professions was far less developed in the nineteenth century. The modern unauthorized practice framework, state medical practice acts, and scope-of-practice disputes are essentially twentieth-century constructs that postdate these sources.

Jurisdictional Note

Professional practice is almost entirely state-regulated. Each state defines the practice of law and medicine independently, sets its own licensing requirements, and enforces its own unauthorized practice prohibitions. Federal courts apply their own admission standards for the practice of law before them. Interstate practice compacts for medicine and nursing have begun to create limited cross-jurisdictional frameworks, but no uniform national standard exists.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

admin_116: Scope of Practice Disputes and Unauthorized Practice (The Law Mind Administrative Law & Government Encyclopedia)
health_2: Medical Licensing — State Medical Practice Acts, Scope of Practice, and Interstate Compacts (The Law Mind Health Law & Bioethics Encyclopedia)
civpro_154: Habit and Routine Practice — Rule 406 (The Law Mind Civil Procedure & Evidence Encyclopedia)

PRACTICEmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

The form or mode of pro- ceeding in courts of justice for the enforce- ment of rights or the redress of wrongs, as distinguished from the substantive law which gives the right or denounces the wrong. The form, manner, or order of instituting and conducting a suit or other judicial pro- ceeding, through its successive stages to its end, in accordance with the rules and prin- ciples laid down by law or by the regulations and precedents of the courts. The term ap- PRÆCIPE QUOD TENEAT, ETC. plies as well to the conduct of criminal ac- tions as to civil suits, to proceedings in eq- uity as well as at law, and to the defense as well as the prosecution of any proceeding. It may include pleading, but is usually employed as excluding both pleading and evidence, and to designate all the incidental acts and steps in the course of bringing matters pleaded to trial and proof, and procuring and enforcing judgment on them.

PRACTICEmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

-The law of practice or procedure is that which regulates the formal steps in an action or other judicial proceeding. It therefore deals with writs of summons, pleadings, affidavits, notices, summonses, motions, petitions, orders, trial, judgment, appeals, costs and exeсиtion. In jurisprudence it forms part of adjective law. See LAW, & 8. PRACTICABLE, (defined). 43 III. 155. (not synonymous with "possible"). 54 Tex. 294. PRACTICAL LOCATION, (identical with "actual location"). 47 Barb. (N. Y.) 287. PRACTICE, (to what relates). 12 How. (N. Y.) Pr. 158. PRACTICE COURT, QUEEN'S

PRACTICEmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

The rules adopted by a court to facilitate the transaction of business before it in a proper and orderly manner.5 Sometimes these rules are printed, and called "rules of practice;" sometimes they are embodied in statutes, but perhaps as frequently they are unwritten. In the larger sense, the mode of proceeding by which a legal right is enforced, as distinguished from the law which gives or declares the right. Sometimes convertible with “procedure." 6 The procedure in a court of justice, through the various stages of any matter, civil or criminal, depending before it. Rules of pleading tell what is the most efficient form to adopt in shaping pleadings. Rules of practice tell in what manner pleadings should be brought under the notice of the court, and what steps should be taken to obtain the benefit of them." Compare PROCEDURE. See ERROR, 1, Communis, etc.; TECHNICALITIES; Usus, Malus, etc. PRÆ. See PRE. PRÆCIPE. L. Command. 1. An original writ in the alternative, commanding the defendant to do the thing required or to show cause why he has not done it. Abridged from præcipe quod reddat, command that he return. The writ issued where something 1 People v. Brown, 2 Utah, 465 (1879). 2 Wooters v. International, &c. R. Co., 54 Tex. 300 (1881). 3 Farmers', &c. Bank v. Smith, 3 S. & R. 69 (1817). • Hubbell v. McCulloch, 47 Barb. 294 (1866). * [Butler v. Young, 1 Flip. 279 (1872), Sherman, J.; Bowlies v. Brier, 87 Ind. 395 (1882). * Payson v. Minors, L. R., 7 Q. B. D. 333 (1881), Lush, Lord Justice. 1 Hunter, Suit in Equity, 2-3. certain was demanded, incumbent upon the defendant to perform.1 2. A paper containing the particulars of a writ, for the instruction of the officer who is to issue it. Spelled also precipe. See PREСЕРТ. PRÆMIUM. L. Profit; consideration; price. "Premium" (q. v.) is the Anglicized word. Præmium pudicitiæ. Price of chastity. Compensation for illicit intercourse. Sometimes termed præmium pudoris, pay for shame, or disgrace. An agreement, or security given, for future illicit intercourse, is incapable of confirmation, or enforcement.2 PRÆMUNIRE. L. A corruption of præ-moneri, to fore-warn. The offense, affecting the king and his government, of maintaining the papal power - of introducing a foreign power into the realm, and creating imperium in imperio, by paying that obedience to papal process which belongs to the king alone.3 Statutes of this name were meant to repress the civil power of the pope. Præmunire (facias), originally the emphatic word in the writ for prosecuting the offense, became the name of the writ and of the offense itself.3 The same penalties were subsequently applied to other offenses. PRÆSUMERE. L. To take in advance of; to take to be true without positive proof, but upon the basis of probability; to presume. Præsumptio. Supposition, assumption, presumption, q. v. Omnia præsumuntur contra spoliatorem. All things are inferred against one who destroys (or withholds) documentary evidence. See further SPOLIATION, 2. Omnia præsumuntur rite et solemnitur esse acta. All things are presumed to have been done in due and solemn form. The principle is, that there is a disposition in the courts to uphold official, judicial, and other acts, rather than to render them inoperative. Where, then, there is general evidence of acts having been legally and regularly done, proof of circumstances, essential to the validity of those acts, and by which 13 Bl. Com. 274. 2 See 1 Story, Eq. §§ 296, 299; Contr. § 670. 3 [4 Bl. Com. 103, 115, 428; Coke, Litt. 129. PRÆSUMERE

PRACTICEn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Frequently repeated or customary action; habitual performance; a succession of acts of a similar kind; usage; habit; custom; as, the practice of rising early; the practice of making regular entries of accounts; the practice of daily exercise. A heart . . . exercised with covetous practices. 2 Pet. ii. 14. Customary or constant use; state of being used. Obsolete words may be revived when they are more sounding or more significant than those in practice. Dryden. Skill or dexterity acquired by use; expertness. [R.] "His nice fence and his active practice." Shak. Actual performance; application of knowledge; -- opposed to theory. There are two functions of the soul, -- contemplation and practice. South. There is a distinction, but no opposition, between theory and practice; each, to a certain extent, supposes the other; theory is dependent on practice; practice must have preceded theory. Sir W. Hamilton. Systematic exercise for instruction or discipline; as, the troops are called out for practice; she neglected practice in music. Application of science to the wants of men; the exercise of any profession; professional business; as, the practice of medicine or law; a large or lucrative practice. Practice is exercise of an art, or the application of a science in life, which application is itself an art. Sir W. Hamilton. Skillful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; art; stratagem; artifice; plot; -- usually in a bad sense. [Obs.] Bacon. He sought to have that by practice which he could not by prayer. Sir P. Sidney. A easy and concise method of applying the rules of arithmetic to questions which occur in trade and business. The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts. Bouvier.

PRACTICEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To do or perform frequently, customarily, or habitually; to make a practice of; as, to practice gaming. "Incline not my heart . . . practice wicked works." Ps. cxli. 4. To exercise, or follow, as a profession, trade, art, etc., as, to practice law or medicine. To exercise one's self in, for instruction or improvement, or to acquire discipline or dexterity; as, to practice gunnery; to practice music. To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do. "Aught but Talbot's shadow whereon to practice your severity." Shak. As this advice ye practice or neglect. Pope. To make use of; to employ. [Obs.] In malice to this good knight's wife, I practiced Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her. Massinger. To teach or accustom by practice; to train. In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practiced to love their neighbor. Landor.

PRACTICEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To perform certain acts frequently or customarily, either for instruction, profit, or amusement; as, to practice with the broadsword or with the rifle; to practice on the piano. practise To learn by practice; to form a habit. They shall practice how to live secure. Milton. Practice first over yourself to reign. Waller. To try artifices or stratagems. He will practice against thee by poison. Shak. To apply theoretical science or knowledge, esp. by way of experiment; to exercise or pursue an employment or profession, esp. that of medicine or of law. [I am] little inclined to practice on others, and as little that others should practice on me. Sir W. Temple.

practicenoun

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.

Repetition of an activity to improve a skill. | An organized event for the purpose of performing such repetition. | The ongoing pursuit of a craft or profession, particularly in medicine or the fine arts. | A place where a professional service is provided, such as a general practice. | The observance of religious duties that a church requires of its members. | A customary action, habit, or behaviour; a manner or routine. | Actual operation or experiment, in contrast to theory. | The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts. | Skilful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; stratagem; artifice. | An easy and concise method of applying the rules of arithmetic to questions which occur in trade and business.

practiceverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Alternative spelling of practise.

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