Definition
The carrying out, execution, or fulfillment of something already authorized or initiated — typically a law, order, authority, warrant, or prior act. In legal usage, pursuance appears most often in the phrase "in pursuance of," meaning in accordance with and in execution of a specified authority. The term functions as a statement of derivation: the act being described flows from, and is authorized by, the instrument or power cited.
Two related but distinct senses operate in legal contexts:
1. Execution of authority. To act in pursuance of a statute, warrant, or court order is to carry out that instrument's directives within its scope. An act done in pursuance of a law is one that the law authorized and that conforms to its terms — not merely one that occurs while the law exists.
2. Continuation of proceedings. Historically, pursuance also described the prosecution or carrying forward of a legal process already begun. Rapalje & Lawrence links it directly to process and prosecution in this sense.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A search or quest for something; the act of carrying out or putting into effect something already begun; the state of being pursuant.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The act of pursuing or prosecuting; a following out or after." Webster's illustrates the phrase "in pursuance of" as meaning "in accordance with; in prosecution or fulfillment of."
The gap between common and legal meaning is narrow but worth flagging. In ordinary English, pursuance can still carry the sense of active pursuit or seeking. In legal instruments, it is almost exclusively backward-looking and derivative — the act follows from a prior authority. A statute or deed using "in pursuance of" is not describing a search; it is affirming conformity with and execution of a named source of power.
Common Confusion
Pursuance and pursuant are often used interchangeably in legal drafting, but they function differently as parts of speech. Pursuant is the adjective ("pursuant to the Act"), while pursuance is the noun form ("in pursuance of the Act"). The meaning is equivalent; the grammatical construction differs. Neither should be confused with pursuit, which in legal contexts typically describes the chase element in law enforcement contexts or, in property law, the doctrine of hot pursuit.
Why It Matters in Research
Pursuance is a drafting term, not a substantive doctrine, which means researchers encounter it as a qualifier rather than a subject. Its importance lies in what it signals about legal authority and scope.
In constitutional and statutory instruments, "in pursuance of" has occasionally carried interpretive weight. Under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, only laws made "in pursuance" of the Constitution are supreme — a phrase that has generated interpretive debate about whether unconstitutional statutes qualify. Researchers working with constitutional history should be alert to this usage and treat it as a term of art, not mere boilerplate.
In historical sources, pursuance appears frequently in warrants, commissions, and administrative orders as a recital establishing the authority under which the officer or agent acts. When reading 17th- and 18th-century English legal documents in the Law Mind corpus, expect pursuance in the execution clause. Rapalje & Lawrence's citation to Coke's Littleton (Co. Litt. 52a) places the operative sense squarely in the common law tradition of warrant execution — an officer must stay within the terms of the authority given.
The phrase "in pursuance of" in a contract or deed signals that what follows is derivative: its validity depends on the continuing force and scope of the referenced instrument. If that instrument is later invalidated, rescinded, or found to have been exceeded, acts taken in its pursuance may be affected. This makes the phrase legally significant in disputes over agency authority, ultra vires acts, and delegated powers.
Researchers should also watch for the older, now largely archaic sense of pursuance as a synonym for prosecution of a legal proceeding. Historical pleading materials may use the term where modern drafters would write "prosecution" or "continuation."
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence define pursuance as "prosecution; process," and define the related verb to pursue as the execution or carrying out of a warrant or authority, citing Coke. This situates the term firmly in the execution-of-process tradition and reflects the legal meaning that has remained most stable over centuries.
Webster's 1913 adds useful texture: the ordinary language sense of "following out or after" aligns with the legal sense without being identical to it. Webster's recognition that "in pursuance of" means "in prosecution or fulfillment of" confirms that the phrase was well-established in both legal and general educated usage by the 19th century.
What historical dictionaries do not address is the constitutional dimension — the debate over whether "in pursuance of" in the Supremacy Clause restricts federal supremacy to constitutionally valid laws only. That interpretive question post-dates the dictionary literature and requires engagement with constitutional commentary rather than legal lexicography.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase "in pursuance of" appears in instruments across common law jurisdictions and carries the same core meaning — execution within the scope of a named authority. The constitutional significance of the phrase in U.S. law (Supremacy Clause, Article VI) is specific to American constitutional doctrine and has no direct counterpart in other common law systems.