Definition
*Pro et durante* is a Latin and Law Latin phrase meaning "for and during." It appears in legal instruments, pleadings, and court orders to designate the duration or temporal scope of an appointment, grant, authority, or obligation — signifying that something holds both in its inception ("for") and throughout its continuance ("during"). The phrase typically modifies a grant of office, custody, or trust, making explicit that the right or duty attaches at the moment of conferral and persists for the entire period specified.
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Common Language
This is pure legal Latin with no meaningful common English counterpart. The individual words ("for" and "during") are ordinary English, but the compound phrase as a legal formula belongs entirely to formal legal drafting. Omitted.
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Why It Matters in Research
*Pro et durante* is a phrase that appears more often in early modern and eighteenth-century English legal practice than in modern American or British drafting, where plain-English equivalents ("for and during the term of," "for and throughout the period of") have largely displaced it. Researchers encountering this phrase in historical sources — particularly in pleadings, writs of appointment, commissions, patents of office, or probate instruments — should understand that it functions as a durational term of art, not merely ornamental Latin.
The principal research trap is treating *pro et durante* as redundant. The "pro" and "durante" components are not synonyms. "Pro" signals that the right or duty attaches from the outset (i.e., the grant or appointment is effective at the moment of conferral), while "durante" emphasizes that it persists throughout the designated period without gap or interruption. Together they close two potential loopholes: a challenge to when the authority begins, and a challenge to whether it continues unbroken.
Burrill cites *2 Salk. 620* in connection with this phrase, referring to Salkeld's Reports, a collection of King's Bench decisions from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Researchers using Law Mind's corpus of historical English reports should check Salkeld when tracing this phrase in the case law context Burrill references.
In appointment and office-holding contexts, the phrase most commonly appears in the construction *pro et durante [bene placito / vita / officio / absentia]* — "for and during [the pleasure / the life / the office / the absence]." Each of these constructions carries distinct legal consequences for the tenure of office or the scope of delegated authority. Identifying which noun follows *pro et durante* is therefore essential to understanding the instrument.
Modern researchers analyzing historical wills, letters patent, judicial commissions, or ecclesiastical appointments in English and colonial American records should flag this phrase as a durational modifier requiring careful attention to what period it governs and whether that period is determinable (e.g., "during pleasure") or fixed (e.g., "during life").
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's *Law Dictionary* defines *pro et durante* briefly as "L. Lat. and during," with a citation to *2 Salk. 620*, and renders the translation simply as "For." The entry is compressed to the point of being more an indexing note than a definition, reflecting Burrill's general treatment of compound Latin phrases as glossary items rather than substantive doctrinal concepts.
The limitation of Burrill's entry is significant: it gives no context for the phrase's function in legal instruments, provides no examples of typical constructions, and offers no guidance on the distinction between the "pro" and "durante" components. Researchers relying solely on Burrill would know the translation but not the operative significance. No other major historical legal dictionaries — including Black's early editions or Bouvier — appear to carry a standalone entry for this phrase, suggesting it was treated as sufficiently transparent Latin by the time American legal lexicography consolidated. This means Burrill remains the primary dictionary source, and its brevity is not a sign that the phrase is unimportant — only that it was considered self-explanatory to a Latin-literate legal audience.
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Jurisdictional Note
The phrase is primarily a feature of English legal practice and appears in colonial American instruments that followed English drafting conventions. It is rarely encountered in modern American legal drafting and has no jurisdiction-specific modern meaning. Researchers working with civil law or non-English-derived legal traditions should not expect to encounter it.
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