Definition
Latin: "it is provided." A formal introductory phrase used in medieval and early modern English statutes to introduce a provision, condition, or exception within a legislative text. The phrase signals that what follows is a substantive rule, limitation, or qualification enacted by the legislature — functioning as the operative verb of enactment for that clause. It appears most commonly in the recitals and operative sections of old English statutes, where individual provisions were introduced by this formula rather than by modern drafting conventions such as numbered sections or clauses.
Common Confusion
PROVISUM EST should not be confused with the broader class of enacting words such as STATUTUM EST ("it is enacted") or ORDINATUM EST ("it is ordained"). Those phrases introduce the statute as a whole or its principal command; PROVISUM EST typically introduces a subordinate provision, saving clause, or qualifying condition within an already-enacted instrument. The distinction matters when interpreting the scope and hierarchy of clauses in old statutes: a provision introduced by PROVISUM EST may have been understood as a qualification upon, rather than an extension of, the principal enactment.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working with pre-modern English statutory materials will encounter PROVISUM EST as a structural marker within original statutory texts and their reprints in sources such as the Statutes of the Realm. Recognizing the phrase allows a researcher to identify the beginning of a distinct provision or exception within a statute that may not have been broken into numbered sections. Because early statutes were drafted as continuous prose, these Latin formulae were the primary navigational signals within the text — the equivalent of modern section breaks.
The phrase has no ongoing doctrinal significance in contemporary law and will not appear in modern statutes or case law except in historical discussion or quotation. Its research value is almost entirely confined to the interpretation and transcription of medieval and early modern English legislation. Researchers using calendars, abstracts, or translations of old statutes should be alert to the fact that translators and editors sometimes render PROVISUM EST simply as "provided that" or "it is further provided," collapsing the Latin into standard modern parliamentary drafting language without flagging the original formula. This can obscure the structural role the phrase played in the original text.
The Statute of Marlborough (1267), cited by Burrill as an early example, is among the oldest English statutes still partly in force and is a useful reference point for understanding how this drafting formula functioned in practice.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides a spare but accurate entry: "Lat. It is provided. Initial words of provisions in old statutes," with a citation to the Statute of Marlborough, chapter 1. The entry correctly identifies the phrase as an introductory formula and correctly locates it in the context of old statutes. No historical dictionary in the Law Mind corpus develops the entry further, which reflects the term's character as a form word rather than a substantive legal concept. There is little to disagree with in Burrill, but also little to work from beyond the core identification of the phrase and its function. Researchers needing more context should turn directly to the statutory sources and to scholarly commentary on medieval English legislative drafting rather than expecting the dictionary literature to carry them further.
Jurisdictional Note
PROVISUM EST is a feature of English statutory drafting tradition and has no independent significance in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions except insofar as early colonial or reception-era statutes drew on English forms. Researchers working with early American legislative materials derived from English models may encounter the phrase, but it carries no distinct legal weight in those contexts beyond its identification as a provision-introducing formula.