PUBLICATION - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

PUBLICATIONAuthored

The Law Mind • 1467 words

Definition

The act of making something known to the public or bringing it within public reach. Publication is a context-dependent concept that carries distinct technical meanings across several areas of law:

Defamation. The communication of a defamatory statement to at least one person other than the subject. Publication does not require mass dissemination; a statement made to a single third party satisfies the element. This is the most frequently litigated use of the term in modern practice.

Laws and ordinances. The process by which enacted legislation is made accessible to the public — typically through printing and distribution in official form. Publication in this sense is distinct from enactment: a law may be enacted without being published, though publication is generally required before the law operates against individuals.

Wills. The formal declaration by a testator, at the time of signing, that the instrument being executed is their will. Publication in this context signals intent and authenticates the document's purpose, though the requirement has been relaxed or eliminated in many modern will statutes.

Equity practice (historical). The act of making depositions, previously kept private in the examiner's office, available to the parties and open to the hearing of the cause. Publication was said to "pass" when copies were released.

Copyright and intellectual property. The distribution of copies of a work to the public, or the public display or performance of a work. The moment of publication determines certain rights and the running of key statutory periods.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The act of publishing printed or other matter; an issue of printed matter offered for sale or distribution; the communication of information to the general public.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act of publishing or making known; notification to the people at large, either by words, writing, or printing; proclamation; divulgation; promulgation.

The everyday understanding of publication centers on books, newspapers, and mass media — the production and sale of a tangible work. Legal publication is far broader and, in defamation law, far narrower in scope simultaneously: a whispered statement to one person is a "publication" in law; a book printed in ten thousand copies is not a "publication" under will law. Researchers should resist importing the mass-media connotation into legal contexts where it does not belong.

Common Confusion

Publication vs. promulgation. Bouvier explicitly flags this distinction: publication makes the existence of a law known to the public, while promulgation is the official act by which an authority formally announces and puts a law into operation. The two concepts often overlap in practice but are analytically separate. A law may be promulgated by executive proclamation and separately published in an official gazette.

Publication vs. utterance (defamation). In defamation, publication is not the initial speaking or writing of the statement — it is the communication of the statement to a third party. The internal drafting of a defamatory document, never shown to another, is not publication. Researchers working with older cases should watch for courts using "utterance" and "publication" interchangeably in slander contexts, which can obscure whether a third-party communication requirement was actually analyzed.

Core Elements

In defamation (where "publication" carries a formal legal test):
- A defamatory statement must exist
- The statement must be communicated to at least one person other than the plaintiff
- The defendant must have intended the communication or acted negligently in allowing it
- The communication need not be intentional publication in the mass-media sense — a letter opened by a secretary, or a postcard read in transit, has been held sufficient

In wills:
- The testator must have acknowledged or declared the instrument to be their will
- Declaration is typically made in the presence of the attesting witnesses
- Many jurisdictions have folded this requirement into the general execution formalities or abolished it entirely under modern Uniform Probate Code-influenced statutes

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Single publication rule. A doctrine, adopted in most U.S. jurisdictions, under which the entire edition of a defamatory publication — a book, newspaper, broadcast — gives rise to only one cause of action, regardless of how many copies are distributed. The rule prevents multiplication of suits and starts the limitations period running from the date of first publication.

Limited publication. A communication made to a select group for a specific purpose, not intended for general circulation. Historically significant in copyright law to determine whether a work had entered the public domain; less operationally important under the 1976 Copyright Act, which shifted to a distribution-based standard.

Official publication. The formal release of laws, regulations, and government orders through designated official channels, such as the Federal Register for federal agency rules. Distinct from informal government announcements.

Why It Matters in Research

Publication is one of those terms that silently changes meaning depending on the area of law being researched. A researcher moving from defamation to copyright to wills to administrative law will encounter the same word operating under four different analytical frameworks, each with its own doctrinal history and jurisdictional variation.

In defamation research, the publication element is often treated as obvious and disposed of quickly in modern cases — but in older cases, courts spent considerable effort on it, particularly around questions of compelled or involuntary communication (a defendant who dictates a defamatory letter to a stenographer "publishes" it to the stenographer). Historical sources will use "publication" and "uttering" interchangeably in slander cases, which can mislead researchers who expect cleaner terminology.

In copyright research, publication before the 1976 Act carried enormous consequences: unpublished works received common-law copyright protection indefinitely, while published works without proper notice could fall into the public domain immediately. The pre-1976 case law on what constituted "publication" sufficient to trigger this notice requirement is dense and jurisdiction-sensitive. Researchers working with pre-1976 copyright materials must master the limited/general publication distinction to understand why certain works lost protection.

In will research, the publication requirement appears in older statutes and cases as a discrete formality, but modern practitioners often encounter it only when litigating the validity of older wills. Burrill's treatment is useful for the equity practice meaning, which is almost entirely obsolete but appears in chancery-era cases without explanation.

Corpus researchers should note that the administrative law meaning — official publication of regulations as a prerequisite to enforcement — links directly to the broader question of constructive notice. Courts have held that individuals are charged with knowledge of duly published laws regardless of actual awareness; this principle appears frequently in tax, regulatory, and constitutional cases without being labeled a "publication" issue.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries converge on publication as fundamentally an act of making something accessible to general knowledge, but their emphases vary in ways that reflect the doctrinal preoccupations of their eras.

Bouvier is the most analytically careful, flagging the promulgation distinction and cataloging multiple contextual meanings. His treatment of will publication reflects the then-current Statute of Frauds-era formalism, in which the testator's declaration was a distinct and mandatory step. Burrill focuses on the equity practice meaning — the release of depositions — which is the most thoroughly obsolete of the term's meanings and essentially disappeared with chancery procedure.

Anderson covers the range competently, noting slander, libel, chancery depositions, and wills in sequence. His inclusion of "uttering of words in slander" as a form of publication is historically accurate and reflects the usage common in 19th-century courts.

Black's first edition captures the legislative publication meaning most fully, emphasizing that publication of laws is distinct from their enactment — a point of genuine constitutional and practical importance that the briefer entries in other dictionaries understate.

What the historical dictionaries collectively miss is the single publication rule and the copyright publication doctrine, both of which became central to 20th-century practice. Researchers relying solely on historical dictionary sources will find no guidance on these now-dominant uses of the term.

Jurisdictional Note

The single publication rule is widely but not universally adopted; a minority of jurisdictions have recognized a separate cause of action for each communication of a defamatory statement. In copyright, the publication definition differs between the 1909 Act framework (court-developed, notice-dependent) and the 1976 Act framework (statutory definition at 17 U.S.C. § 101). Will publication requirements vary significantly: some states retain a formal acknowledgment requirement, others have abolished it, and the Uniform Probate Code does not require it as a separate formality.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

constitutional_93: Speech in Public Forums, Limited Public Forums, and Nonpublic Forums (The Law Mind Constitutional Law Encyclopedia) — relevant to the government-speech and public access dimensions of publication doctrine.

PUBLICATIONmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

1. The act of publish- ing anything or making it public; offering it to public notice, or rendering it accessible to public scrutiny. 2. As descriptive of the publishing of laws. and ordinances, "publication" means printing or otherwise reproducing copies of them and distributing them in such a manner as to make their contents easily accessible to the public; it forms no part of the enactment of the law. "Promulgation," on the other hand, seems to denote the proclamation or announcement of the edict or statute as a preliminary to its acquiring the force and op- eration of law. But the two terms are often used interchangeably. 3. The formal declaration made by a testa- tor at the time of signing his will that it is his last will and testament. 4 Kent, Comm. 515, and note. 4. In the law of libel, publication denotes the act of making the defamatory matter known publicly, of disseminating it, or com- municating it to one or more persons.

PUBLICATIONmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

pea regees & a place devoted solely to the uses of the public, but a place which is in point of fact public rather than private, a place visited by many persons and usually accessible to the public. See State v. Welch, 88 Ind. 310; Gomprecht vy. State, 36 Tex. Cr. R. 434, 37 S. W. 134; Russell v. er, 40 N. H. 187; Roach v. Eugene, 23 Or. 3/6, 31 Pac. 825; Taylor v. State, 52 Ala. 15.—Public purpose. In the law of taxation, eminent domain, etc., this is a term of classification to distinguish the objects for which, according to settled usage, the government is to provide, from those which, by the like usage, are left to private interest, inclination, or liberality. People v. Salem Tp. Board, ' 20 Mich. 485, 4 Am. Rep. 400. See Black, Const. Law (3d Ed.) p. 454, et seqg.—Public service. <A term applied in modern usage to the objects and enterprises of certain kinds of corporations, which specially serve the needs of the general public or conduce to the comfort and convenience of an entire community, such as railroads, gas, water, and electric light com panies.—Public, true, and noterionus. The old form by which charges in the allegations in the ecclesiastical courts were described at the end of each particular—Publio use, in constitutional provisions restricting the exercise of the right to tdke private property in virtue of eminent domain, means a use concerning the whol¢g community as distinguished from particular individuals. But each and évery member of s0ciety need not be equally interested in such use, or be personally and directly affected by it; i the object is to satisfy a great public want or exigency, that is sufficient. Gilmer v. Lime Point, 18 Cal. 229; Budd v. New York, 143 U. §. 517, 12 Sup. Ct. 468, 36 L. Ed. 247.—Public ways. Highways, (¢. v.)—Public welfare. The prosperity, well-being, or convenience of the public at large, or of a whole community, as distinguished from the advantage of an individual or limited class. See Shaver v. Starrett, 4 Ohio St. 499. As to public “Accounts,” “Act,” “Administrator,” “Agent,” “Attorney,” “Auction,” “Blockade,” “Boundary,” “Bridge,” “Carrier,” “Chapel,” “Charity,” “Company,” “Corporation,” “Debt,” “Document,” ‘‘Domain,” “Easement,” “Enemy,” “Ferry,” “Funds,” “Grant,” “Health,” “Holiday,” “House,” “Indecency,” “Lands,” “Market,” “Minister,” “Money,” “Notice,” “Nuisance,” “Officer,” “Peace,” “Policy,” “Pond,” “Printing,” ‘‘Property,” “Prosecutor,” ‘‘Record,” “Revenue,” “River,” “Road,” “Sale,” “School,” “Seal,” “Stock,” “Store,” “Tax,” “Trial,” “Verdict,” “Vessel,” “War,” “Works,” “Worship,” and “Wrongs,” see those titles. 1. The act of publishing anything or making it public; offering it to public notice, or rendering it accessible to public scrutiny. 2. As descriptive of the publishing of laws and ordinances, “publication” means printing or otherwise reproducing copies of them and distributing them in such a manner as to make their contents easily accessible to the public; it forms no part of the enactmeut of the law. “Promulgation,” on the other hand, seems to denote the proclamation or announcement of the edict or statute as a pre liminary to its acquiring the force and operation of law. But the two terms are often used interchangeably. Chicago v. McCoy, 136 Ill. 344, 26 N. E. 368, 11 L. R. A. 413; Sholes v. State, 2 Pin. (Wis.) 499. 3. The formal declaration made by a testator at the time of signing his will that it is his last will and testament. 515, and note. In re Simpson, 56 How. Prac. (N. Y.) 134; Compton v. Mitton, 12 N. J. Law, 70; Lewis v. Lewis, 13 Barb. (N. Y.) 23. 4. In the law of libel, publication denotes the act of making the defamatory matter known publicly, of disseminating it, or communicating it to one or more persons. Wilcox v. Moon, 63 Vt. 481, 22 Atl. 80; Sproul v. Pillsbury, 72 Me. 20; Gambrill v. Schooley, 93. Md. 48, 48 Atl. 730, 52 L. R. A. 87, 86 Am. St. Rep. 414. 5S. In the practice of the states adopting the reformed procedure, and in some others, publication of a summons is the process of giving it currency as an advertisement in a newspaper, under the conditions prescribed by law, as a means of giving notice of the suit to a defendant upon whom personal service cannot be made. 6. In equity practice. The making public the depositions taken in a suit, which have previously been kept private in the office of the examiner. Publication is said to pass when the depositions are so made public, or openly shown, and copies of them given out, in order to the hearing of the cause. 3 BI. Comm. 450. 7. In copyright law. The act of making public a book, writing, chart, map, ete.; that is, offering or communicating it to the public by the sale or distribution of copies. Keene v. Wheatley, 14 Fed. Cas. 180; Jewelers’ Mercantile Agency v. Jewelers’ Weekly Pub. Co., 155 N. Y. 241, 49 N. FE. 872, 41 L. R. A. 846, 6 Am. St. Rep. 666.

PUBLICATIONmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

1. Making a thing known to the public; proclaiming to general hearing; exposing to general view. As, putting forth a law in some printed form; exhibiting a deposition taken in chancery; inserting a summons or other order in a newspaper as an advertisement; the uttering of words in slander, and the declaring by pictures, signs, etc., in libel; a testator's statement that a designated writing is his will. See those general subjects. It is a rule, without qualification or exception, that when it is sought to conclude a party by constructive "service by publication" there must be a strict compliance with the requirements of the statute: nothing can be taken by intendment; every fact necessary to the exercise of jurisdiction, based on the service, must affirmatively appear in the mode of service. An "award" is published when made and notice given to the parties.2 In "slander," words are published although spoken to one person, who knows them to be false. See SLANDER. But sending a letter containing a "libel" to the person defamed, where no third party hears or reads it, will not support an action for damages. See LIBEL, 5. As to publication by "statutes" and " ordinances," see PRESCRIPTION, 1; PROCLAMATION, 2; PROMULGATE. See also COPYRIGHT. The publication of a "will" is the act of declaring or making known to the witnesses that the testator understands and intends the instrument subscribed by him to be his last will.5 Republication. A re-publishing; in particular, the revival of a will previously revoked or changed by the addition of one or more codicils.

PUBLICATIONn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The act of publishing or making known; notification to the people at large, either by words, writing, or printing; proclamation; divulgation; promulgation; as, the publication of the law at Mount Sinai; the publication of the gospel; the publication of statutes or edicts. The act of offering a book, pamphlet, engraving, etc., to the public by sale or by gratuitous distribution. The publication of these papers was not owing to our folly, but that of others. Swift. That which is published or made known; especially, any book, pamphlet, etc., offered for sale or to public notice; as, a daily or monthly publication. An act done in public. [R. & Obs.] His jealousy . . . attends the business, the recreations, the publications, and retirements of every man. Jer. Taylor. Publication of a libel (Law), such an exhibition of a libel as brings it to the notice of at least one person other than the person libeled.  -- Publication of a will (Law), the delivery of a will, as his own, by a testator to witnesses who attest it.

publicationnoun

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.

The act of publishing printed or other matter. | An issue of printed or other matter, offered for sale or distribution. | The communication of information to the general public etc.

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