PRESIDENT

10 definitions found across Law Mind sources

PRESIDENTAuthored
The Law Mind • 1110 words
Definition
In law, "president" carries several distinct meanings depending on context: 1. Chief executive officer of a nation or republic. In American constitutional law, the President of the United States is the head of the executive branch, vested with executive power under Article II of the Constitution. The term functions as both a title and a legal designation with specific constitutional duties, powers, and limitations. 2. Presiding or managing officer of a corporation, company, board, or similar body. In corporate law, the president is typically the highest-ranking officer of a corporation, responsible for directing operations and representing the entity. The president's authority, duties, and relationship to the board of directors are defined by the corporation's charter, bylaws, and applicable state law. 3. Presiding officer of a legislative, deliberative, or administrative body. In this sense, the president is the person appointed or elected to keep order, manage proceedings, and govern the administrative conduct of a meeting or assembly.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The head of state of a republic; in presidential republics, also the head of government; the primary leader of a corporation (distinct from CEO); a person presiding over a meeting; an obsolete form of "precedent." Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Cited only as an obsolete form of "precedent." This reflects how the word's primary legal and governmental sense had already become so dominant by 1913 that the dictionary entry treated the common-usage definition as settled elsewhere, focusing instead on the archaic variant. The legal significance of "president" lies in the layered authority it carries across different institutional contexts. In ordinary speech, the word typically evokes the national executive. In legal practice and research, the term most frequently appears in corporate and organizational law, where its meaning is more precisely bounded by governing documents and statute than by any general sense of leadership. A researcher encountering "president" in a historical source must determine which institutional context applies before drawing conclusions about authority, liability, or precedent.
Common Confusion
President vs. CEO: In modern corporate practice, the roles of president and chief executive officer are often separated. A person may hold one title but not the other, and their respective powers depend entirely on the corporation's internal governance documents. Historical sources frequently treat "president" as the unambiguous top corporate officer, which can mislead researchers analyzing modern corporate disputes where duties are divided. President vs. Precedent: Burrill's Law Dictionary notes that "president" was an old, corrupted form of "precedent" in both French and English legal usage. Encountering the word in early legal manuscripts or printed reports may require the researcher to determine whether "president" is used as a title or as a corrupted spelling of "precedent." This is not a trivial error risk in pre-18th-century materials.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus will encounter "president" across at least three substantively different legal domains—constitutional law, corporate law, and deliberative body governance—and the term's meaning shifts materially between them. In constitutional and public law sources, "president" triggers a distinct body of doctrine regarding executive power, immunity, appointment authority, and treaty-making. Historical sources in this area frequently cite English analogues (such as the President of Wales, a royal lieutenant in a province, noted in Burrill) that have no direct American equivalent and can mislead comparative analysis. In corporate law sources, the president's authority and personal liability for corporate acts were treated quite differently across historical periods. Early cases, including those cited in Rapalje & Lawrence involving notes endorsed by a corporate president, turned on whether the president had actual or apparent authority to bind the corporation—a question that historical dictionaries address inconsistently and that modern readers should not assume was resolved the same way in all jurisdictions or eras. In deliberative body contexts, "president" is essentially synonymous with "chair" or "presiding officer," and sources using the term this way are not addressing executive or corporate authority at all. Misidentifying the institutional context in a historical source can produce serious analytical error. The Burrill note on the Latin præses and the English usage for the king's lieutenant is relevant primarily for researchers working in English legal history or comparative law. It has no operative significance in modern American doctrine but explains why some older English sources use "president" in ways that do not map onto any contemporary American role.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge on a core definition: a president is one placed in authority over others, whether in a governmental, corporate, or deliberative setting. Black's (1st Ed.) offers the most complete synthesis, capturing all three institutional contexts. Rapalje & Lawrence is the most concise, simply identifying the chief magistrate of the United States and the head of others, with a notable citation cluster on corporate note endorsement—reflecting that corporate authority questions were the primary litigation context in which the term's legal meaning was tested. Bouvier's focuses almost entirely on the corporate officer role, emphasizing that the president directs the manner in which business is transacted and that decisions of the president are appealable to the body over which the president presides. This is a significant governance detail: the historical understanding was that the president operated within, and was accountable to, a governing body—not as a unilateral authority. Burrill stands apart by recovering the archaic and specifically English senses: the Latin præses, the President of Wales as royal lieutenant, and the corrupted form of "precedent." These entries are more useful for legal historians than for practitioners but are indispensable for researchers working with pre-19th-century English sources. The second edition of Black's entry indexed under "president" actually contains the definition of presentment—an apparent editorial misalignment in the source material that researchers should note as a corpus artifact rather than a substantive definition of "president."
Jurisdictional Note
In the United States, the constitutional dimensions of the presidential office are federal and uniform, though significant interpretive disputes remain active. Corporate presidents, by contrast, are creatures of state law: the scope of a corporate president's implied and actual authority varies by state statute and corporate governance documents. Researchers should not assume that a ruling on presidential authority in one state's corporate law applies in another.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Executive Power; Corporate Officers and Authority; Deliberative Assemblies and Parliamentary Procedure.
Related Terms
Chief Executive — Commander in Chief — Chairman — Presiding Officer — Corporate Officer — Director — Chief Executive Officer (CEO) — Vice President — Governor — Precedent (historical) — Executive Branch — Board of Directors — Ultra Vires — Apparent Authority — Actual Authority
PRESIDENTmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
One placed in authority over others; a chief officer; a presiding or managing officer; a governor, ruler, or di- rector. The chairman, moderator, or presiding of- ficer of a legislative or deliberative body, ap- pointed to keep order, manage the proceed- ings, and govern the administrative details of their business. The chief officer of a corporation, company, board, committee, etc., generally having the main direction and administration of their concerns. The chief executive magistrate of a state or nation, particularly under a democratic form of government; or of a province, colony, or dependency. In English law. A title formerly given to the king's lieutenant in a province; as the president of Wales. Cowell. This word is also an old though corrupted form of "precedent," (q. v.,) used both as a French and English word. Le president est rare. Dyer, 136.
PRESIDENTmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
A presentment is an informal statement in writing, by the grand jury, representing to the court that a public offense has been committed which is triable in the county, and that there is reasonable ground for believing that a particular individual named or described therein has committed it. Pen. Code Cal. § 916. And see In re Grosbois, 109 Cal. 445, 42 Pac. 444; Com. v. Green, 126 Pa. 581, 17 Atl. 878, 12 Am. St. Rep. 894; Mack v. People, 82 N. Y. 237; Eason v.' State, 11 Ark. 482; State v. Kiefer, 90 Md. 165, 44 Atl. 1048. In its limited sense, a presentment is a statement by the grand jury of an offense from their own knowledge, without any bill of indictment laid before them, setting forth the name of the party, place of abode, and the offense committed, nformally, upon which the officer of the court afterwards frames an indictment. Collins vy. State, 138 Fla. 651, 663. The difference between a presentment and an inquisition is this: that the former is found by a grand jury authorized to inquire of offenses nh hg ag the rege is = incu ound by a jury specia return () re concep ing oe particular offense. 2 Hawk. LP. c. 25, § 6. The writing which contains the accusation. 80 presented by a grand jury is also called a “presentment.” Presentments are also made in courts-leet and courts-baron, before the stewards. Steph. Comm. 644. In contracts. The production of a Dill of exchange to the drawee for his acceptance, or to the drawer or acceptor for payment; or of a promissory note to the party liable, for payment of the same. One placed in authority over others; a chief officer; a presiding or managing officer; a governor, ruler, or director. The chairman, moderator, or presiding officer of a legislative or deliberative body, appointed to keep order, manage the proceedings, and govern the administrative details of their business. The chief officer of a corporation, company, board, committee, etc., generally having the main direction and administration of their concerns. Roe v. Bank of Versailles, 167 Mo. 406, 67 8. W. 308. The chief executive magistrate of a state or nation. particularly under a democratic form of government; or of a province, colony, or dependency. In English law. A title formerly given to the king’s Heutenant in a province; as the ‘president of Wales. Cowell. This word is also an old though corrupted form of “precedent,” (q. v.,) used both as a French and English word. Le president est rare. Dyer, 136. —President of the council. In English law. a great officer of state; a member of the cabet. business at the council-table, and reports to the sovereign the transactions there. 1 Bl. Comm. President of the United States. The official title of the chief executive officer of the federal. government in the United States.
PRESIDENTmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883
- One placed in authority over others; one at the head of others; a governor; a chairman; the chief magistrate of the United States. PRESIDENT, (of corporation, note indorsed by). 11 Mass. 94, 288, 293; 14 Id. 180.
PRESIDENTn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Precedent. [Obs.] Bacon.
PRESIDENTa.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Occupying the first rank or chief place; having the highest authority; presiding. [R.] His angels president In every province. Milton.
PRESIDENTn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
One who is elected or appointed to preside; a presiding officer, as of a legislative body. Specifically: The chief officer of a corporation, company, institution, society, or the like. The chief executive officer of the government in certain republics; as, the president of the United States. A protector; a guardian; a presiding genius. [Obs.] Just Apollo, president of verse. Waller.
presidentnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
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The head of state of a republic. | In presidential republics, the head of government and head of state. | Primary leader of a corporation. Not to be confused with CEO, which is a related but separate position that is sometimes held by a different person. | A person presiding over a meeting; a chair, presiding officer, presider. | Obsolete form of precedent.
presidentadj
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
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Occupying the first rank or chief place; having the highest authority; presiding.
presidentverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC 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 act as president; to do presidential duties.

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